International Issues
International Issues Overview
Headlines & Opinion
- U.S. Begins Implementation of Universal Periodic Review Reccomendations
- U.S. Should Heed UN Call for Mediation Strategy in Armed Conflicts
- U.S. Human Rights Commitments to UN Could Help Charities
- EU to Review Counterterrorism Policy
- EU: Time to Examine Counterterrorism Policies
- UK Government Proposes Updates, Reforms to Counterterrorism Policies
- Fragile Relief Efforts in Somalia Threatened by Aid Ban
- To Charities and Grantmakers: Don't Pass Up This Opportunity!
- Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the U.S. Update
- Obama Unveils Policy Directive on Development
- UN and Experts Call for Increased Role of Civil Society in Countering Terror
- Charitable Work Promotes Our National Security
- Aid Expert Recommends Re-thinking Aid Strategies to Reduce Terrorism
- The UK Charity Commission: Focus on Problem Solving, Program Beneficiaries
- US, EU Grantmaker Groups Publish Accountability Principles for International Philanthropy
- Clinton's Speech Stresses "A New Generation" for State and Civil Society Relations
- Sri Lankan Government Denies Entry to Aid Groups, Raising Humanitarian Law Questions
- Future Unclear for Pakistani Charity's Services after UN Listing as Terror Supporter
Interpal
- Charity Interpal Cleared in UK, Banned in U.S.
- U.S. Terror Listing Hurts Banking Services for British NGOs
- U.S. Designation Causes British Bank Discontinuing Services to UK Approved Charity
- UK Charity Commission: Interpal Not Supporting Terror Groups
Reports
- CRS Report Sheds Light on Aid to Pakistan
- Study Examines Zakat Organizations in Gaza (1973-2011)
- Report: More Aid Reduces Terrorism Threat in African Horn
- Report: Improving Civil Society-Military Dialogue in Afghanistan To Counter Terror
- Report: International Grantmaking Expected to Increase Despite Economic Woes
- GAO: Public Diplomacy Creates Opportunity for Nonprofits to Show Benefits of International Programs
- Report: US and EU Must Rethink Counterterrorism Measures that Violate Our Shared Values
- Study: The West Bank Zakat Committees (1977-2009) in the Local Context
- Study: Public Opinion Could Predict Terrorism
- International Commission of Jurists Report Calls for Change in Counterterrorism Laws
Humanitarian Space: A Review of Trends and Issues
The Overseas Development Institute’s Humanitarian Policy Group released a report on April 30, 2012 that challenges widespread assumptions within civil society that humanitarian space is shrinking. After reviewing the history of humanitarian action and governments’ role in humanitarian crises from the Cold War to the present, Humanitarian Space: a review of trends and issues dives into the “reality and complexity of the humanitarian endeavor” and concludes that political and military sectors have “ultimate responsibility for ensuring respect for humanitarian principles,” and that the humanitarian organizations’ role is to push them to fulfill their obligations. To succeed, the report says humanitarian organizations must think strategically and “capitalize on existing political processes…”
CRS Report Sheds Light on Aid to Pakistan
The massive surge of American government aid to Pakistan since 9/11 has become a contentious issue in Washington. Some view the billions of dollars in aid as the price for protecting U.S. national security interests, while others argue that it is too high of a cost during times of budgetary belt-tightening. An April 2012 Congressional Research Services (CRS) report, Pakistan: U.S. Foreign Assistance, does not settle the debate, but does provide history, financial figures and context to one of America’s most controversial and complicated relationships.
Governments Not the Only Major Players in Global Assistance
Private philanthropy and remittances to the developing world now dwarf official government aid to many developing countries, according to the 2012 Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances. Robust financial flows of all types are “rewriting the rules of the game about how to achieve sustainable reductions in poverty.” In 2010, the nearly $39 billion in private philanthropy from charities, foundations, corporations, and universities given to developing countries “exceeded U.S. official government aid by almost $9 billion.”
Governments Not the Only Major Players in Global Assistance
Private philanthropy and remittances to the developing world now dwarf official government aid to many developing countries, according to the 2012 Index of Global Philanthropy and Remittances. In 2010, the nearly $39 billion in private philanthropy from charities, foundations, corporations, and universities given to developing countries “exceeded U.S. official government aid by almost $9 billion.”
U.S. Begins Process for Implementing Universal Periodic Review Recommendations
The Department of State (State) announced on March 16, 2012 the first steps the United States will take toward implementing the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) recommendations. State announced the creation of 10 working groups to oversee the implementation, with each group focusing on a different theme from the recommendations, including “Civil Rights and Racial and Ethnic Discrimination” and “National Security.” The U.S.
The UN and its Impact on Humanitarian Space
Managing all of the UN operations in a country is not an easy task. In some countries, agents of the UN may be negotiating with a group to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid, while UN officials in another location are planning military strikes against the same group. Reconciling the range of activities and respecting the principles of humanitarian groups working alongside the UN in many places is at the heart of UN Integration and Humanitarian Space, a December 2011 report produced jointly by the Overseas Development Institute and the Stimson Center.
Study: The West Bank Zakat Committees (1977-2009) in the Local Context
Emanuel Schaeublin, along with the Center on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding in Switzerland, has published a study about the role of zakat committees in the West Bank and Gaza, and the effects of politics on them. Zakat committees, Schaeublin explains, had been (before 1970) informal groups that operated charitable projects out of mosques in the West Bank. In the 1970s the Jordanian government established more formal committees.The Working Paper draws on interviews with local actors and published research to argue for a more nuanced interpretation of the role of zakat committees within Palestinian society.
U.S. Should Heed UN Call for Mediation Strategy in Armed Conflicts
The day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rejected the idea of peace talks with listed terrorist group al-Shabaab in her Feb.
U.S. Human Rights Commitments to UN Could Help Charities
The United States took the final step in the United Nations Human Rights Counicl's (HRC) review of the U.S. human rights record in Geneva, Switzerland on March 18, 2011, making commitments that could positively impact the operations of charities and grantmakers that encounter barriers to aid that national security laws create. The extent of such potential changes will depend on effective follow-up communications between the U.S. government and the U.S. nonprofit sector.
