Describing a “rather grim” world economic situation, senior officials of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs warned today that the global economy was at real risk of a “double‑dip” recession due to a trend towards more fiscal austerity, among other things.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
States parties to the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, had reached an informal agreement on the election of the tribunal’s next Prosecutor, the outgoing and incoming Presidents of the Assembly of States Parties reported at a Headquarters press conference today.
The upcoming meeting of the States parties to the International Criminal Court (ICC) — to be held at the United Nations from 12 to 21 December — would be pivotal in determining whether gaps between the aspirations of the Rome Statute, which established the Court, and its actual delivery of justice could be closed, representatives of an international non-governmental organization advocating for a fair, effective and independent Court said in a Headquarters press conference today.
Countering what he described as the “dominant narrative of failure” in Haiti, Nigel Fisher, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for that country, said that painting a falsely negative picture could drive interest, attention and support away from the recovering country at a critical “turning point”. Speaking at a headquarters press conference today, Mr. Fisher said it was “a myth” that no reconstruction had taken place in Haiti.
Children must be separated from adult combatants as soon as possible to facilitate their transition back to civilian life and prevent further abuse, the Special Representative of the Secretary‑General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, urged today during a Headquarters press conference on her recent missions to the Central African Republic and Somalia.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria had concluded that Syria’s army and security forces committed crimes against humanity in their repression of a largely civilian population in the context of peaceful protests, members of the United Nations-backed panel said today.
Evidence confirmed that the window of climate safety was closing and ambitious actions must be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before 2015, Dessima Williams, Permanent Representative of Grenada and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), said at a Headquarters press conference today.
Kyrgyzstan’s outgoing President this afternoon touted the Central Asian country’s orderly presidential elections last month as the start of an era marked by peaceful, transparent transitions of power, stability and growth.
This year had been a “game changer” as the world reached a critical turning point in the response to the global HIV epidemic, averting thousands of deaths, preventing thousands more infections and breaking long-standing political barriers, Bertil Lindblad, Director, New York Office of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said at a Headquarters press conference today.
The wave of democratic reforms sweeping the Middle East was a positive development, but the United States was not embracing those changes in a constructive way, a leading Iranian academic and politician said during a Headquarters news conference today.