Getting urgently needed search and rescue teams, medical aid and basic sustenance to areas of Haiti devastated by Tuesday’s earthquake was a huge task, but the response of the United Nations and the international community had been focused and swift, John Holmes, Emergency Relief Coordinator, said this afternoon.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
The United Nations today launched its first report on the state of the world’s indigenous people, with the Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, saying it offered a “daring and bold” description of the situation of indigenous persons in health, poverty, education and human rights, and should be fed into the upcoming review of the Millennium Development Goals.
The earthquake in Haiti had so far resulted in 14 fatalities among United Nations personnel and 56 staff members injured, but reports that the Secretary-General’s Special Representative was among the casualties could not be confirmed, the Organization’s peacekeeping chief said at a Headquarters press conference today.
A United Nations human rights expert, at a Headquarters press conference this morning, called for an independent investigation into war crimes and other grave violations of human rights law in Sri Lanka, based on an examination he commissioned to determine the authenticity of a video that apparently depicts the shooting of naked, bound prisoners on the island.
Offering highlights from the United Nations budget at Headquarters today, Angela Kane, Under-Secretary-General for Management, described a changing United Nations landscape marked by the steady growth of special political missions and more than half the Organization’s staff involved in peacekeeping.
It was particularly important this month for the Security Council to strengthen coordination with regional organizations, as it considered the next steps in situations such as Somalia, Ambassador Zhang Yesui of China, whose country holds the body’s presidency for January, told correspondents at Headquarters today.
In 66 meetings of its sixty-fourth session, the United Nations General Assembly adopted 226 resolutions and 57 decisions, Ali Abdussalam Treki (Libya), President of the 192-member body, said during an end-of-year press conference at Headquarters today. Mr. Treki said the Assembly was now close to completing its programme of work for the first quarter, with five out of its six Main Committees having completed their work. The Fifth Committee was expected to conclude tomorrow.
Speaking to reporters at Headquarters today, Indonesia’s newly appointed Foreign Minister, Marty M. Natalegawa, pledged his Government’s commitment to working with other nations over the coming year to hammer out a legally binding deal to curb heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions and help developing countries tackle the effects of climate change.
Robert Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Strategic Planning in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, today urged journalists not to overlook the “immediate operational consequences” of the recently concluded Copenhagen climate talks, in the form of a widely backed political agreement that would allow the treaty process to begin in earnest.
More than 1,300 people from around the world would join 50,000 Palestinians in a march on 31 December to mark the one-year anniversary of Israel’s military incursion into the Gaza Strip, and appeal for the lifting of its blockade, which prevented food, medicine and reconstruction supplies from reaching those in desperate need, the event’s lead organizers said today.