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.
In progress at UNHQ
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.
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.
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.
Inspired by the annual World Day of Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development — on 21 May — a Madrid-based non-governmental organization announced today that its international school award competition for 2013 would aim to teach children about the importance of artistic expression in building a harmonious world.
After a four-day trip to Mali, a top United Nations humanitarian official told reporters today at Headquarters that, although he had been there to coordinate the humanitarian response, “development is the solution” for the people of that West African country and humanitarian assistance only helped build the foundation for that solution.
Quinoa was “food for life” and its 7,000-year history was proof people never had to go hungry, Bolivia’s President, Evo Morales Ayma, told correspondents today at a Headquarters press conference as part of the launch of the International Year of Quinoa.
The Security Council should consider climate change as a threat to international peace and security, particularly for such low-lying nations as the Marshall Islands whose “very existence” was at risk, a Government minister from that country said at a Headquarters press conference today.