Proposals for addressing the urgent needs of those living in vulnerable housing settlements and who lacked the “means to go green” must be taken more seriously in global climate discussions, the top United Nations rights expert on adequate housing said today at a Headquarters press conference.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
For the first time since its inception, the United Nations Day Concert would have a theme -- “A Tribute to Peacekeeping” -- announced Eric Falt Director of the Outreach Division in the Department of Public Information at a press conference today at Headquarters. Honouring the world body’s peacekeeping operations, the concert would be, in his words, “a long overdue tribute on the occasion of the most symbolic day in the United Nations calendar”.
“There isn’t an internationally recognized right that some company somewhere hasn’t violated,” John Ruggie, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, said today during a Headquarters press conference.
The international community must use a range of approaches to ameliorate the dismal human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Vitit Muntarbhorn, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in that country, told correspondents at Headquarters this afternoon.
The human rights situation in Myanmar remained alarming, with a pattern of widespread and systematic violations that prevailing impunity allowed to continue, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar said today.
During a Headquarters press conference this afternoon, Angela Kane, Under-Secretary-General for Management, and United Nations Controller, Jun Yamazaki, presented a mixed picture as they outlined the Organization’s financial health, its proposed budget, and recent reform and management initiatives.
It was crucial to listen to victims when addressing the scourge of human trafficking, Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, told correspondents this afternoon, as she announced a Headquarters event that will provide a platform to four survivors of the scourge tomorrow.
Speaking to reporters at Headquarters today, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food warned that increasing dependency on commercial seed varieties monopolized by a few very powerful multi-national companies could severely impact small farmers in developing countries.
The recognition that there was a clear link between crime and conflict, and the fact that serious and organized crime was prevalent in many conflict areas was the basis for a new agreement between the United Nations and the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) to strengthen police units in peacekeeping missions around the world, a senior United Nations security official said today.
The time had come to adopt a United Nations convention on rights of detainees, Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, told correspondents at Headquarters today. “In so many countries”, he said, “States are not living up to their obligations to respect the basic dignity of human beings in detention.”