While reaching consensus on the Final United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty was a laudable aim, the main focus of the resumed negotiations should be “getting it right” and ensuring that a strong treaty emerged from the discussions, a civil society representative said at a Headquarters press conference today.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
Amid the prevailing historic change and unprecedented political, economic and social challenges, it was more important than ever to promote cooperative and constructive dialogue among peoples of different faiths, religions and ethnic groups, the United Nations High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations said at Headquarters today.
A common index to determine which cities were the safest and least safe in the short and medium terms would be established within the next month, Joan Clos, Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), said at a Headquarters press conference today.
Unprecedented human development gains across the developing world were radically reshaping the international power balance and making the global North and South increasingly interdependent, according to this year’s Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), presented at a Headquarters news conference and ahead of its official launch in Mexico City on 14 March.
People from around the world had an opportunity to join the global conversation to shape the future development agenda by participating in an innovative initiative known as MY World, Olav Kjørven, Assistant Secretary General and Director of the Bureau for Development Policy at the United Nations Development Programme, said today at a Headquarters press conference.
Warning that the plight of Palestine refugees in Syria was worsening, the United Nations chief relief official for Palestinians today urged Jordan to re-open its border to them.
Teaching young girls and their communities about their individual and collective human rights was the key to ending traditional harmful practices and gender-based violence in marginalized indigenous areas worldwide, representatives of groups supporting those communities said today at a Headquarters news conference.
Stressing that cultural beliefs and practices could never justify violence against women, France’s top official for women’s rights today set forth her Government’s strategies to protect and empower women at home and around the world.
The Security Council would hold 15 open meetings this month — including debates on the situations in Afghanistan, Haiti and Kosovo — the Russian Federation’s top United Nations delegate said today, as he briefed the press at Headquarters on the work programme as his country assumed the Council’s rotating presidency.
Calling for a universal response to the problem of violence against women and girls, Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN-Women said today that Governments were the key to ending the “pandemic” of violence targeting females worldwide.