United Nations General Assembly Research Articles

Taksonomijos reglamento įtaka aplinkosauginiams mokesčiams Lietuvoje

From being an object of scientific discussions climate change has found its way to our everyday lives. It has become an inevitable driver for political decisions. On December 11, 2019 the European Union presented its Green Deal, an action plan to attain sustainable development goals as adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 25, 2015, and in the Paris climate agreement. The EU seeks to become climate-neutral by 2050. A core element of the Green Deal is a system for sustainable finance for climate-friendly economic activities. A common vocabulary is needed in order to eveluate the scope of such economic activities, to balance the input of private and public bodies, and to ensure a fair competition for the investments. Such a vocabulary, also known as Taxonomy, is presented by the Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council. It introduces labels and criteria that allow to identify and compare economic activities in the light of sustainability. Eventhough the Taxonomy regulation is a legal act of direct application, it manages to introduce norms into the laws passed by the Lithuanian Parliament. The duty to disclose information on the environmental sustainability of economic activities and investment products comes into force in 2023. Seeking to transform the markets, tax cuts are introduced for economic activities that are in line with the environmental goals. This article unfolds the concept of Taxonomy as well as its impact on investment and tax legislation in Lithuania.

Integrated health reporting within the UN architecture: learning from maternal, newborn and child health

Despite a proliferation of the United Nations General Assembly high-level meetings on a range of health issues and developmental challenges, global funding continues to flow disproportionately to HIV and maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH). Using the experience of MNCH, this short article argues that successful human rights framing and the development of robust and regular reporting mechanisms in the international development architecture has contributed to these areas receiving attention. Taking non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as an example of a relatively neglected health area, we propose mechanisms that would improve integrated reporting of health issues in a way that aligns with the move toward cross-cutting themes and matching political and financial commitments with impact. As new frameworks are being developed to support multi-agency approaches to achieving SDG 3—including reporting and accountability—there are opportunities to ensure MNCH and NCDs jointly seek data collection measures that can support specific targets and indicators that link NCDs with early childhood development.

Belt and road initiative membership and voting patterns in the United Nations General Assembly

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is not only an unprecedented cross-continental infrastructure investment program, it is also a key pillar of China’s foreign policy. The Chinese government seeks to tie BRI member states closer to its political system and to enhance its soft power across the globe. Whether this has been successful has been analyzed for individual countries but, as of yet, there is a paucity of cross-national evidence on the geopolitical impact of the BRI. We collected a novel global dataset on bilateral cooperation agreements with China in the context of the BRI for all states across the globe. We rely on voting similarities in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to analyze whether the decision to join the BRI is linked to geopolitical alignment with China. We apply generalized synthetic control models and community detection algorithms to estimate the impact of BRI membership on voting similarity to China. Our findings show that the signature of BRI membership agreements had no discernible short-term impact on voting similarity to China in most regions of the world. The exception is Europe, where BRI membership induced a backlash against China. Our findings suggest that European states counter-balance to the US and signal their independence from China after signing a BRI agreement.

Foreign aid and bilateral relations: The Israel−East Africa case

AbstractInternational relations literature generally tells us that donor countries see foreign aid as a key instrument of foreign policy to promote political interests. According to research, donor countries usually hope to get favorable voting at the United Nations (UN) arena in return, meaning that the motivation for foreign aid is not so altruistic. This article examines these claims and discusses the link between foreign aid, bilateral relations, and voting patterns in the UN General Assembly while focusing on Israeli foreign aid to five East African countries, using data on Israel's foreign aid and data on voting patterns from 2012 to 2021. The results testify that Israel foreign aid has helped to promote ties with Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania, but has not helped to promote voting patterns in favor of Israel. The results reveal a duality according to which the bilateral relations between Israel and East African countries have improved, but there has been no improvement in their voting patterns in a way that raises questions about the success level of using foreign aid as a tool to promote a favorable UN voting.

A Corpus-based, Critical Discourse Analysis of Imran Khan’s Address in United Nations General Assembly’s 74th Session

A Corpus-based, Critical Discourse Analysis of Imran Khan’s Address in United Nations General Assembly’s 74th Session

Конфликт между Палестиной и Израилем: динамика международно-правовой квалификации

International law has played an ambiguous role in resolving the conflict between Palestine and Israel: on the one hand, the UN General Assembly and Security Council assessed Israel’s activities in the occupied Palestinian territories by applying its rules; on the other hand, it de facto authorised the formation of the state of Israel and the occupation of Palestine in violation of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination. This article is a continuation of other articles published in 2018 in the Russian Law Journal. After summarising the main stages of the conflict’s development and highlighting its elements, the author identifies the features of international law which influence the qualification of the conflict, describes the main instruments used for the qualification, identifies the peculiarities of the legal rhetoric of the both parties, and focuses on the three most important problems of the qualification. He then assesses the prospect of the judicialisation of the conflict (its referral to international courts) and the application of the law of international responsibility to it. In the author’s view, the real regulators of the conflict are military power and political calculations; this conflict therefore reveals two important features of contemporary nternational law: first, it reveals the inherent inefficiency of the secondary rules of international law and its institutional mechanisms, unable to ensure the high values proclaimed by the primary norms; second, it confirms K. Marx’s famous thesis – “Between Equal Rights the Force Decides”. Indeed, the principle of formal equality, which is the very essence of the international order, does not exclude but presupposes recourse to force to resolve conflicts in which each party is able to formulate arguments based on international law.

Compliance of migration sentiments of the South Ossetia population of rural areas with the UN sustainable development goals: analysis of social factors

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) UN General Assembly as “a blueprint for achieving a better and more sustainable future for all” are a common policy framework for developed, developing and poor countries. Despite active policies to implement the SDGs, achieving sustainable rural development still remains a pressing issue: for example, in many regions of the world there is an outflow of labor resources, which is a serious limitation for agricultural development. Purpose of the study: assessing the degree of influence of social factors on the migration of the rural population of South Ossetia in the period 1980-2023. The work used methods of statistical analysis and sociological research. Information base: official statistical data of Georgia and the Republic of South Ossetia, as well as data from three sociological surveys of 1980, 2010 and 2020. Main results: agriculture continues to be the most unattractive and low-paid area of employment in South Ossetia; the dominant factors of population migration from rural areas over the 40-year period of development of the region were unemployment, low incomes, underdeveloped social infrastructure. Conclusions: entering the trajectory of sustainable development of the region involves the comprehensive strategic development of the real sector of the republic’s economy, primarily agriculture, which has the highest potential for employment and financial and investment return. The strategy for sustainable development of rural areas should be based on using market opportunities and realizing the strengths of rural areas, as well as managing the risks of further migration and removing restrictions in the social sphere.

Self-Framing and Other-(Re)framing in Institutional Political Discourse: The Case of Donald Trump’s Final Speech Before the UN

The goal of this study is to provide a sociocognitive critical discourse analysis of Donald Trump’s 75th UNGA (The UN General Assembly) speech 2020 to demonstrate how Trump (re)framed America and other political actors. The study’s methodology has been divided into three stages: (a) identifying the speech’s macrostructures (major themes) embodying the speech’s global meanings, (b) analyzing the speech’s explicit and implicit local meanings, and (c) laying out Trump’s subjective context model. Findings revealed that (1) the semantic (cognitive) structure and textual arrangement of Trump’s speech are meant to draw attention to two ideologically opposed discourse worlds with skewed, hegemonic intergroup and outgroup representations; (2) a polarized context model, based on the WE/THEY schema, has motivated and controlled Trump’s speech for the purposes of persuading the audience, stigmatizing other social actors, and managing opinion formation; and (3) Trump’s context model has been shown to control the production of specific microstructures that correspond with a variety of discursive strategies.

How can Chinese A-shared listed bank’s ESG activities affect their risk-taking?

The sustainable development of society has gradually been the world’s attention at all levels. At the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, the Chinese government said it would aim to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. All levels of government in China are also responding to the call, and how to promote green and sustainable development has become China’s top priority to achieve high-quality double reduction goals. As a banking-led prosperous economy, how to implement the Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) concept in the banking industry has become the most important to achieve the double reduction goal of quality and quantity in China. In recent years, the CBRC and the People’s Bank of China (PBC) have issued much guidance on transforming the banking industry through ESG. Considering that the number of A-share listed bank companies in China, especially the number of local banks (urban commercial banks and rural commercial banks), has increased in recent years, it is also considered that the existing research focuses on the relationship between ESG management and bank performance, and there is little analysis on bank risk. Based on the annual data of China’s A-share listed banks from 2018 to 2022, this paper uses regression analysis to explore the relationship between the implementation of ESG and bank risk-taking.

American Exceptionalism at the UN General Assembly: Unilaterally Rejected Resolutions – Projected Policy Directions

American Exceptionalism at the UN General Assembly: Unilaterally Rejected Resolutions – Projected Policy Directions

Carbon emission scenarios of China's construction industry using a system dynamics methodology – Based on life cycle thinking

China is currently one of the world's major energy consumers and CO2 emitters. To save energy, and reduce consumption and carbon emissions, China proposed (at the 2020 United Nations General Assembly and Climate Summit) the introduction of stronger policies and measures for CO2 emissions to peak in 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The construction industry is a major contributor to China's carbon emissions, thus research on energy saving and carbon reduction in this industry is essential. The construction industry is characterized by complex upstream and downstream industrial chains, with different energy consumption at each stage, and a long overall life cycle. We used life-cycle thinking (LCT) to analyze the carbon emissions of the whole life cycle of the construction industry and built a model by using a system dynamics method, which analyzes the carbon emission process of the construction industry at different stages. Combined with the planning and policies implemented by the construction-related departments, we identified the main indicators of policy regulation and control. We used sensitivity analysis to examine the impacts of factors of regulation and control. We also adjusted key indicators and set up different scenarios to simulate the carbon emissions based on the effort to achieve “peak carbon.” The results show that the carbon emissions of the construction industry will be reduced by 2060, achieving the goals of “peak carbon” and “carbon neutrality.” Although the construction and operation stages individually can achieve peak carbon by 2030, the whole process of the construction industry will reach peak carbon by 2045, 2038, or 2036, depending on specific aspects of the scenario considered. However, the indicators, such as the green building ratio can realize carbon emission reduction at building operation stage for 4%∼6%, but cause greater carbon emission for 5%∼7% at construction material production and transportation stage—a phenomenon called “policy island.” Therefore, the coupling of policies should be a key concern in policy formulation and implementation.

Sustainable CSR Approach in Mitigating Industrial Disaster/Accidents in India

Abstract: The Economic and Social Council of the UN in its 45th session raised a concern about the environment and moved a resolution on this subject to intensify the urgent action at the national as well as international levels. Stock Holm Conference on Human & Environment again emphasized the issue of the environment and the suffering of poor people. It recommended the participating countries to make necessary arrangements in their countries to sustain the environment and development. The significance of environment and development made the UN General Assembly 1983 to establish the World Commission on Environment and Development. It submitted its report in 1987. Where the word sustainable development is coined and defined. Principle 1 of the Rio de Janeiro Declaration of 1992 used the word sustainable development. In order to meet the international obligations to achieve the sustainable development goal, respective countries adopted sustainable practices and policies. Business operation is very often associated with hazardous operations. This leads to industrial accidents and caused personal injury and property damages. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one such policy that is introduced in the 21st-century Business ethic and practice. In India, CSR is comprehensively dealt with in the Company Act, 2013. In this present research paper, the authors have studied the sustainable CSR approach to mitigate the industrial disaster for effective implementation of the Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991.

Discourse analysis of male and female representatives of selected countries at the United Nations general debates

Abstract The aim of this paper was to evaluate gender differences in the language used in United Nations (UN) General Assembly debates by one male and one female representative each from India, China, the USA, and Indonesia. The critical discourse analysis (CDA) framework of van Dijk (2015) was used along with the 25 discursive devices in this framework. The data on frequencies of variables were analysed statistically. No significant differences were observed between positive comments about oneself, negative comments about others, length of speech (in words), and the various devices by the gender of the speaker at the 0.05 level of significance. However, gender differences in terms of higher levels for males than for females were observed for populism (t(6) = 2.354, p = .057), norm expression (t(6) = 2.171, p = 0.073), and positive comments about oneself (t(6) = 2.224, p = .068). The correlation coefficients were significant between genders for positive-self, norm expression, and national self-glorification only. These results could be attributed to the small size of four male and four female speeches, leading to high values of standard error, which reflects the significance of differences. Also, there could be overlapping and mixing of gender characteristics in connection with different contexts and occasions due to emergent identities. These political identities were created in particular situations or contexts, and it was not clear how much they could be a result of female or male politicians’ styles. This explanation by Sivrić and Jurčić (2014) seems to be valid for this research as well. Small samples could be a limitation of this study. However, many other works used even smaller samples. The generalisability of these findings needs to be tested using other similar studies.

ANALYSIS OF EMPLOYMENT IN THE EDUCATION SYSTEM OF THE KYRGYZ REPUBLIC IN 2003-2022

At the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2023 President of the Kyrgyz Republic S.N. Zhaparov declared Kyrgyzstan’s readiness to undertake concrete commitments to accelerate the achievement of SDGs by 2030 and its desire to become one of the top 30 countries by 2030. According to the UN Report on Sustainable Development in 2023, the Kyrgyz Republic took 45th place out of 166 countries studied. At the summit, the "Education" SDG-4 was identified as Kyrgyzstan’s main commitment to achieve the SDG by 2030, which in turn should have a multiplier effect on the achievement of other SDGs. The article studies the dynamics of the indicators of the employed population in the main work by types of economic activity and territory in the education sector, covering all seven regions of the republic and the city of Bishkek from 2003 to 2022

Mighty Millets for Food, Nutrition and Health Security

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets to promote the nutritional benefits and climate resilience of millets, an ancient food for over half a million people in Asia and Africa. Millets are produced in over 130 countries and are cultivated in rainfed regions, providing income and livelihood security to farmers. They are also known as ‘Smart Food’ due to their high protein, antioxidants, and micronutrient content, making them popular among celiac disease sufferers and those on gluten-free diets. However, global millet cultivation has declined significantly in the last five decades, with a 22.5 lakh ha area per decade decline. India is the largest producer of millets, with 37.5% of the total global output. The decline may be attributed to limitations in crop improvement efforts, shift towards high-value cash crops, inadequate policies, and low farm profitability. The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation organized an International conference on Mighty Millets for food, nutrition, and health security in August 2023. The paper emphasizes the need to achieve Food, Nutrition, and Health security through millets, adding gaps and priorities in research, innovation, development, extension, and policy domain to sustain efforts. Addressing these gaps and priorities is timely and imperative to sustain the efforts and ensure the sustainability of millets as a sustainable food source for millions of people worldwide.

Basic Conditions for Application of Necessity as a Circumstance that Precludes Bringing to International Legal Responsibility

The article examines a situation of necessity as a circumstance that precludes bringing to international legal responsibility. The relevance of the article is due, on the one hand, to the growing crises in modern international relations, and on the other hand, the lack of comprehensive studies of necessity in the Ukrainian science of international law. The purpose of the article is to determine the specifics of the international legal grounds for states and international intergovernmental organizations to apply to the state of necessity, as circumstance that precludes bringing to international legal responsibility. The article uses general philosophical, general scientific, special scientific and legal methods of research, in particular: dialectical, formal-logical, analysis and synthesis, comparative-legal, and logical-legal. The article analyzes Art. 25 of the draft articles on the responsibility of states for internationally wrongful acts prepared by the UN International Law Commission and submitted to the UN General Assembly in 2001 (UNGA resolution 56/83 (A/RES/56/83) of December 12, 2001). The relevant practice of a number of international courts and arbitrations was analyzed, in particular: the International Court of Justice, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. The main conditions for the lawful use of necessity are identified, and a forecast of the areas of its further application is given.

Climate Change, Peace, and Language Usage in the United Nations Reports within the ASEAN Style of Multilateralism

This paper focuses on Indonesia's efforts to tackle peace-related climate change, which shows the ASEAN style of multilateralism. The multilateralism style of this Southeast Asian Regional Organization (ASEAN) highlights passivity and ineffective collaboration in the area. By studying the United Nations General Assembly plenary sessions between 2016 and 2021 and the formal documents from both the ASEAN and the Indonesian government, the paper shows that commitment to the discussion at the global and international levels is not moved beyond the meetings or implemented at the local (country) level. With such normative terminologies used in the documents and the employment of its language usage, Southeast Asian multilateralism shows the practice of upholding principles/norms in discussing climate change, but not as an outcome or action. As climate crisis action is immediately needed, one possible way can be to start by using strong words to tackle climate crises in global commitments and start to act.

Revisiting the Content of United Nations General Assembly Resolutions in Shaping and Expanding the International Legal Content of Humanitarian Assistance

Revisiting the Content of United Nations General Assembly Resolutions in Shaping and Expanding the International Legal Content of Humanitarian Assistance

Speaking Volumes: Introducing the UNGA Speech Corpus

Abstract Many theoretical conclusions core to the study of international politics rely on having access to, and understanding, the rhetoric of international actors. One important development in advancing the empirical study of international relations (IR) theory, therefore, is the availability of machine-analyzable speech data. A collection of fine-grained textual representations of states’ speeches in the context of an important international organization, such as the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), is needed to understand the ideas, preferences, and values that states put forth in their statements. An especially promising use for such a corpus of texts would be to measure states’ preferences based on their statements. In an effort to add to the burgeoning field of text-as-data in IR, I present the UNGA Speech Corpus, a collection of over 34,000 speeches delivered by states in the UNGA from 1993 to 2018. I use it to improve on recent work that links text to preferences in IR by combining a structural topic model with locally trained word embeddings to estimate the policy positions of states on specific topics. I then show how these “topic scores” can help scholars to improve their analyses of exigent international issues, such as global climate change governance.

A NEW EURASIAN BLOC? CHARACTERIZING THE ACTIVITY OF FORMER SOVIET AND TURKIC COUNTRIES AT THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Soviet countries were the most cohesive bloc in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) during the bipolar era, after which the East-West cleavage was replaced by a North-South division. Hence, the Soviet space fell out of the attention of UN research in the post-Cold War era. However, this North-South polarization arises mainly from voting analyses that ignore other interstate activities at the UN. An analysis of sponsorship patterns of draft resolutions from the last decade, in contrast, reveals alternative groups, including a cluster with former Soviet, Eastern European, and Turkish-speaking countries, suggesting some unity among Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In light of such evidence, this exploratory paper uses data on UNGA sponsorship between 2009 and 2019 to descriptively characterize this newfound coalition of Eurasian countries, probing what their pattern of UNGA activity is and what topics bind them together as a group.