Néstor Osorio, Permanent Representative of Colombia, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council, said today that the 15-nation body would tackle a “loaded” agenda this month, while also keeping a wary eye on the ripple effects of the popular protests sweeping North African and the Middle East.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
Recent talks had brought Georgia and the Russian Federation no closer to ending their longstanding political stalemate, said a top Georgian official, speaking at a Headquarters press conference today. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Grigol Vashadze, said that “no substantial breakthroughs” had been made at the just-concluded fifteenth round of the negotiations, first launched in Geneva following a military conflict in 2008.
Strongly condemning the recent burning of a copy of the Koran by the pastors of a Baptist Church in Gainesville, Florida, as an “outrageous and irresponsible act”, representatives of the Organization of the Islamic Conference Ambassadorial Group in New York today said the event spotlighted the need to bolster the United Nations and Muslim-led effort to promote worldwide interfaith and intercultural harmony.
Despite a delay resulting from extra security measures, the construction overhaul of the United Nations compound — known as the Capital Master Plan — remained on schedule and was making headway towards closing its budget gaps, said the project’s chief officer today. “We’ve gotten through most of the surprises,” said Michael Adlerstein, Executive Director of the Capital Master Plan, speaking at a Headquarters press conference.
Globally, the rate of HIV infection is declining and access to treatment is expanding, but with 7,000 people newly infected every day and funding going down, the fight against the scourge must be reinvigorated, says a new report of the Secretary-General launched this afternoon at Headquarters.
Music, books, fashion, videos, cultural products and other parts of the “creative economy” hold enormous potential for developing countries seeking to diversify their economies, if adequately nurtured, states a United Nations report launched today at a Headquarters press conference.
With no real movement towards forming a Government in Lebanon following the collapse nearly three months ago of Saad Hariri’s administration, United Nations envoy Michael Williams today called for an end to the political polarization in the Middle Eastern country so that both the security and development priorities of the people could be met.
While economic growth had increased in the 49 least developed countries over the last decade, it had not produced sufficient social or economic returns, owing to persistent structural challenges in the nature of growth, employment and decent work, said the Executive Director of the Employment Sector at the International Labour Organization (ILO) today at a Headquarters press briefing.
While Sierra Leone was emerging as a remarkable success story for post-conflict reconstruction, it still required sustained support in order to complete that process, especially in enhancing the role of civil society, women in particular, the head of the Peacebuilding Commission’s configuration for the West African country said today at Headquarters.
The transatlantic slave trade was a tragedy of immense proportions that had inflicted untold suffering on millions of people for more than four centuries, a crime against humanity that deserved solemn — and prominent — recognition at United Nations Headquarters, “lest we forget”, said Raymond Wolfe, Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United Nations, at a press conference today in New York.