John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said today that he and other humanitarian actors would push negotiators at the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen to guarantee sufficient funding and action plans to help the world’s poorest, most vulnerable people adapt to the changing weather patterns threatening their physical and economic survival.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
The top United Nations peacekeeping officials today reported significant progress in the ongoing discussions among Member States on a study of wide-ranging proposals to bolster the world body’s peacekeeping capacity, in their quarterly press conference during which they also updated reporters on peace operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Southern Lebanon, and in the Western Darfur region of Sudan.
The United Nations must be prepared to make efficiency gains in the next five years to free up funds to better respond to the world’s needs, said Gareth Thomas, Minister of State for International Development of the United Kingdom, addressing journalists on priorities for a more effective international humanitarian response.
Unless it received new funding from donors immediately, United Nations humanitarian operations in Somalia would begin 2010 with “zero” in the bank, a “life-threatening” situation that could trigger a spillover of people into neighbouring states like Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, said Mark Bowden, United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia.
The plight of the world’s poor must be addressed alongside global warming at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said at a Headquarters press conference today.
There was a need to tackle the international networks fuelling the crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dinesh Mahtani, Coordinator of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said at Headquarters today.
With the United Nations Conference on Climate Change set to begin next Monday in Copenhagen, there were several signs of optimism that the meeting’s outcome would be successful, Janos Pasztor, Director of the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team, said during a Headquarters press conference.
Denial of a crime and its cover-up could constitute crimes in themselves, said Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, alluding to the case he was building against Sudanese officials for atrocities committed in Darfur.
Stevie Wonder, the popular singer and Grammy Award-winning songwriter, promised to use his creative talents in support of the United Nations mission and persons with disabilities during a press conference at Headquarters today.
The Review Conference of the Assembly of the States Parties to the Rome Statute governing the International Criminal Court would take place in Kampala, Uganda, from 31 May to 11 June 2010, Christian Wenaweser, the Assembly’s President, told correspondents today at Headquarters.