As the United Nations launched the International Year of Cooperatives (2012) today, panellists at a Headquarters press conference laid out the benefits that financial institutions and other businesses using the cooperative business model could bring to a troubled global economy.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
Cultures around the world - while vibrant and diverse - were in fact the legacy of a common humanity, said officials of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Permanent Mission of Mongolia to the United Nations at a headquarters press conference today.
Cutting social protection programmes as part of fiscal austerity measures could weaken recovery from the global economic crisis, as they were integral to stabilizing labour markets, maintaining human rights and stimulating aggregate demand, Michelle Bachelet, Chairperson of the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group and Executive Director of UN Women said today at a Headquarters press briefing.
Five days before the world’s population would top the 7-billion mark, The State of the World Population 2011 was launched today at United Nations Headquarters, with two of its authors calling for planning and investment in development strategies that were sustainable and which would provide opportunities for all in a world that was rapidly becoming more complex, mobile and urban.
The United Nations top humanitarian official this afternoon urged the international community to bolster relief aid to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, where an estimated 6 million people now relied on food donations for survival.
As the role of secondary education in reducing poverty, spurring economic growth, increasing wages and fostering healthy behaviour gained traction, secondary-school enrolment was rising from Algeria to Zambia, according to a publication released at Headquarters today by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
An overhaul of inequitable agricultural business models was needed to reduce global poverty and ensure long-term sustainability for farmers and farm systems, said an independent United Nations food expert at a New York Headquarters press conference today.
While pro-democracy gains and demands for freedom and justice were sweeping the Middle East, threats and attacks against human rights defenders in that region and elsewhere around the world continued at a disturbing rate, according to a report released at Headquarters today by a leading global coalition of rights activists.
While it was crucial that States comply with their human rights obligations while fighting terrorism, the suffering of its victims and the prevention of terrorist acts must also receive attention from a human rights perspective, a United Nations expert told the correspondents at Headquarters this morning.
In a press conference at Headquarters this morning, the newly elected Maronite Patriarch, His Beatitude Bechara Peter Rai, offered a message of “communion and love” and heralded the 2,000 years of contribution by the Christian community in the Middle East.