Press Conference

The security situation in North and South Kivu remained generally volatile and with several armed groups operating in the region, continued fighting had resulted in significant displacement of civilians, both within Congo and across the border into Rwanda and Uganda, Roger Meece, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo said.

At a Headquarters press conference today Members of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, both past and present, called on indigenous peoples everywhere to persevere, remain optimistic and remember that, while they have made much progress in the five years since the Indigenous Rights Declaration had been adopted, a lot of work still lay ahead.

Probably the most urgent activity for the Libyan authorities right now was for them to decide who among the “thousands” of prisoners filling up the country’s prisons as a result of allegations of crimes committed during the reign of former leader Muammar al-Qadhafi should be investigated or released, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, International Criminal Court Prosecutor told reporters today in New York.

While the United Nations and its partners would continue to provide immediate humanitarian relief to Afghanistan, aid alone was not enough to deal with the conflict-torn nation’s myriad challenges, the United Nations humanitarian chief said today during a Headquarters news conference.

Ahead of the General Assembly’s consideration tomorrow of the issue of enhancing the accountability, transparency and effectiveness of the Security Council, the World Federalist Movement and the Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP) today announced what it believed to be a major proposal recommending that the permanent members of the Security Council consider refraining from using a veto to block Council action aimed at preventing or ending genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Announcing two new arrest warrants for serious crimes committed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said this afternoon that action on the warrants was critical to help end massacres of civilians in the eastern Kivu provinces of the vast country.

A new milestone for the rights of indigenous peoples — their first ever World Conference, slated for 2014 — was on the horizon, said leaders and activists at a Headquarters press conference today, noting that the meeting would offer a unique opportunity to create a framework for addressing the most pressing challenges facing indigenous peoples today.

The world would commence a new era on 21 December 2012, according to the Mayan calendar, which coincided with an important date in the United Nations calendar, when preparations would begin for the 2014 World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, top Guatemalan officials said today.

To address the problem of violence against indigenous women and girls, Governments and United Nations agencies should compile disaggregated data on the scourge, which was institutional and structural in nature, but which also occurred at home and in the communities, correspondents heard at a Headquarters press conference.

The Asia-Pacific region will continue to be the fastest growing region in the world this year despite a drop in the growth rate from 7 per cent in 2011 to 6.5 per cent this year, correspondents heard at a Headquarters press conference to launch the 2012 Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific produced by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for that region (ESCAP).