Ahead of tonight’s Gala Dinner to honour recipients of its 2011 Awards at New York Headquarters, the Spanish non-governmental organization Women Together said today that this year’s event was intended to highlight the work of exceptional individuals in different fields, countries and situations.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
With malnutrition rates in Somalia approaching emergency proportions, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the East African country today sounded the alarm about the effects of the deadly confluence of events driven by prolonged drought and skyrocketing global food and commodity prices.
While renewable energy sources could help mitigate climate change, it was up to Governments to take the necessary action to make that possibility a reality, the head of the recognized scientific and technical authority on the phenomenon said at a Headquarters press conference today.
Bolivia planned to “denounce” the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 before 1 July, in order to enter a reservation to the provision on coca leaf chewing, a practice that under the Convention had to be phased out in 25 years — now elapsed — and then rejoin the treaty on the same day, with that reservation, the country’s Ambassador said today at a Headquarters press conference.
In the wake of sweeping changes across the region, Tunisia today became the first North African State to accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, said that country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ghazi Jomaa, at a Headquarters press conference today.
While global markets for cocaine, heroin and cannabis had declined or remained stable over the last year, the production and abuse of prescription opioid and new synthetic drugs had risen, according to a new report launched today by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Following his participation in a special event on the occasion of the inaugural celebration of International Widows’ Day at United Nations Headquarters in New York today, Raj Loomba, Founder and Chairman Trustee of the Loomba Foundation, thanked United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the international community at large for officially recognizing the day that his foundation had initiated in 2005.
The United Nations envoy on children and armed conflict today commended the Government of Chad for recently signing an agreement with the world body on ending the use of child soldiers in the central African country’s security forces.
The world’s oceans were at high risk of entering a phase of “globally significant” extinction of marine species, an international panel of marine experts warned at Headquarters today.
With an estimated 8 million premature deaths from non-communicable diseases occurring in developing countries each year, the upcoming high-level General Assembly meeting on the topic would bring an urgently needed focus to the problem, a panel of speakers participating in a preliminary media event on the issue said at Headquarters today.