“UNWTO welcomes the adoption of this resolution on the importance of ecotourism,” said the Secretary-General of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Taleb Rifai, in a news release.

“The remarkable support that the resolution has received, from all regions and across the development spectrum, is a clear testimony that sustainable tourism has a vital role to play in a fairer and sustainable future for all,” he added.

The resolution, adopted on 21 December and entitled ‘Promotion of ecotourism for poverty eradication and environment protection,’ calls on UN Member States to adopt policies that promote ecotourism, highlighting its “positive impact on income generation, job creation and education, and thus on the fight against poverty and hunger.”

It further recognizes that “ecotourism creates significant opportunities for the conservation, protection and sustainable use of biodiversity and of natural areas by encouraging local and indigenous communities in host countries and tourists alike to preserve and respect the natural and cultural heritage.”

According to UNWTO, the resolution – facilitated by Morocco and sponsored by a record 105 delegations – draws on the recommendations contained in one of its reports, put together on the basis of responses from 48 Member States, “which, in a notable departure from its normal practice, was welcomed by the UN General Assembly.”

In line with the UNWTO report’s recommendations, the resolution underscores the need for national tourism plans to account for market demand and local competitive advantages.

It also encourages Member States to promote investment in ecotourism, in accordance with their national legislation, including creating small and medium-sized enterprises, promoting cooperatives and facilitating access to finance through inclusive financial services such as microcredit initiatives for the poor, local and indigenous communities, in areas of ecotourism potential and rural areas.

UNWTO added that the resolution builds on a 2010 resolution on the same subject, and reflects developments since then – namely, the inclusion of tourism in the outcome document of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), held in Brazil in mid-2012, and the results of the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity.

Rio+20 saw world leaders acknowledge the importance of an inclusive, transparent, strengthened and effective multilateral system to better address the urgent global challenges of sustainable development.

Held in the Indian city of Hyderabad, the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity unveiled a strategy to combat unprecedented levels of biodiversity loss and called for “significant” increases in biodiversity investments in 100 countries – while at the same time aiming to foster economic growth and create jobs in addition to protecting endangered species and habitats.

“The resolution keeps ecotourism clearly on the agenda of the United Nations as it requires UNWTO to submit a follow up report to the sixty-ninth session of the UN General Assembly in 2014,” UNWTO added.

Last year, the UNWTO said that despite global economic uncertainty, international tourism continued to grow in 2012, with the estimated number of tourists travelling that year reaching a record one billion.

Tourism accounted for nine per cent of global gross domestic product when totalling its direct, indirect and induced impact, according to the agency, which also noted that one in every 12 jobs and up to eight per cent of the total exports of the world’s UN-designated Least Developed Countries (LDCs) depend on tourism.

The U.N. Human Rights Council recently passed a resolution on “traditional values of humankind, and in spite of the egalitarian title its implications are sinister. It acts in defiance of the founding principles of universality and indivisibility held in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and it is a threat to the rights of women, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

There have been more than one Russian-sponsored traditional values resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council. The second, in 2011, resulted in a draft study which was highly critical of “traditional values” as a framework, and criticised the concept as “subjective and unclear.” The third, adopted on September 27, confirmed traditional values as a legitimate framework for human rights.

The supporting idea which seems to have corroborated the resolution is that homosexuality is a moral issue and not a rights issue at all. What followed is the proliferation of laws in Eastern Europe and Central Asia which effectively curtain freedom of speech by clamping down on “homosexual propaganda” under the pretext of “protecting children.”

Laws are under discussion in Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania, and Hungary. In March, St. Petersburg became one of the nine regions in Russia to adopt a law – restricted by the Supreme Court in October – , which explicitly merged homosexuality with paedophilia and outlaws. An act that created a distorted perception about social equality of traditional and non-traditional family relationships. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov justified the law by arguing that the human rights of LGBT people were nothing but an outside “appendage to the universal values.”

We can see what “traditional values” might be pointing at, but no one who has grown up in a precarious relationship to family or tradition will take references to the values they stand for as invariably good. Life within a family can bring productive socialization, but it can also bring violence and oppression. Tradition can give a sense of connectedness with the past, to something enduring, but it can also justify discrimination and abuse. Tradition has been used to justify forced marriage, virginity testing, honour crimes, family violence and marital rape. It is also used to justify the imprisonment of gay men and rape of lesbians.

The “traditional values resolution” seems a push-back against the incremental claims of women and LGBT people; and it is the latest in a series of resolutions that edge the Human Rights Council closer to a relativist position on human rights. Unfortunately, when it comes to human rights relativism can not be accepted.

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member body called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to provide, at once, military and security planners to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU) and other partners to help frame a response to a request by Mali’s transitional authorities for such a force, and to report back within 45 days.

Upon receipt of the report, and acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Council said it was ready “to respond to the request of the Transitional authorities of Mali regarding an international military force assisting the Malian Armed Forces in recovering the occupied regions in the north of Mali.”

Chapter VII of the Charter allows the Council to use force in the face of a threat to peace or aggression, taking “such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security,” including blockades and other operations by the forces of Member States.

In August, the Council urged ECOWAS, in cooperation with the transitional authorities, the AU Commission and regional countries, to prepare detailed proposals for a stabilization force to restore the territorial integrity of the country.

Fighting between Malian Government forces and Tuareg rebels broke out in the country’s north in January. The instability and insecurity resulting from the renewed clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, drought and political instability in the wake of a military coup d’état in March, have driven 500,000 Malians from their homes, 270,000 of them to neighbouring countries.

In addition, Islamist militants currently control the country’s north and have imposed strict Sharia law, including amputation of limbs as punishment.

The Council called on Malian rebel groups to cut off all ties to terrorist organizations, notably Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and affiliated groups, and expressed its readiness to adopt targeted sanctions against those groups which do not do so.

It also urged the Transitional authorities, rebels and other legitimate representatives of the local population in the northern Mali to engage, as soon as possible, in credible negotiations to seek a sustainable political solution in conformity with the country’s unity, and demanded that all groups in the north cease all human rights violations such as attacks against civilians, sexual violence, recruitments of child soldiers and forced displacements.

Today’s Council resolution reiterated “grave concern” at the continuing deterioration of the security and humanitarian situation in the north of Mali, the increasing entrenchment of terrorist elements including AQIM, affiliated groups and other extremist groups, and its consequences for the countries of the Sahel and beyond.

In addition, it strongly condemned the abuses of human rights committed “by armed rebels, terrorist and other extremist groups, including violence against its civilians, notably women and children, killings, hostage-taking, pillaging, theft, destruction of cultural and religious sites and recruitment of child soldiers,” and stressed that some of these acts might amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

MEPs welcome the exchange of letters between the two parties initiated on 17 April 2012 and the joint statement by Israel and the Palestinian Authority of 12 May 2012, in which they state their commitment to achieving peace. However, MEPs also voice grave concerns about developments in Area C of the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.

The resolution was passed with 291 votes in favour; 274 against and 39 abstentions.

The resolution calls on Israel to meet its obligations under international humanitarian law by securing an immediate end to house demolitions, evictions and forced displacement of Palestinians, facilitating their free movement, ensuring fair distribution of water to meet their needs and improving their access to social services, in particular education and public health, in Area C and in East Jerusalem. The Palestinian authorities are also encouraged to do more to improve living conditions in the two areas.

MEPs urge that EU-Israeli bilateral agreements be properly enforced, so as to ensure that goods from Israel’s illegal West Bank settlements are not exported to the EU under the preferential terms of the EU-Israel Association agreement. They also call on the European External Action Service and the European Commission to investigate allegations of damage done to EU-funded structures in the occupied territories and report back to Parliament.

Parliament reiterates that only a peaceful and non-violent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be sustainable and that it should not affect the dignity of either side. The EU will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem, unless they are agreed by the parties themselves, MEPs underline.

They also urge the EU and its member states to play a more active political role in achieving a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians and voice support for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton’s efforts to create credible prospects for re-launching the peace process.