There is significant potential to be leveraged in the accelerated and sustainable industrial development of Africa, and many possibilities existed for tapping the continent’s vast potential, said speakers today during a Headquarters press conference on the occasion of the Africa Industrialization Day 2010, commemorated tomorrow, 20 November.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
In an effort to bolster “intellectual social responsibility” for such global goals as promoting human rights, protecting the environment and ending wars, the United Nations had partnered with institutions of higher learning around the world in a new initiative called Academic Impact, Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, said today at a Headquarters press conference.
The United Nations today appointed Disney actress and youth activist Monique Coleman the Organization’s first-ever “Youth Champion” for the International Year of Youth, which began on 12 August.
Humanitarian supplies are being prepositioned at key locations in Sudan ahead of an expected referendum in the event of a possible mass movement of southern Sudanese from the north to the south, Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said today.
Experts agreed that the number of cholera cases in Haiti would continue to rise, Nigel Fisher, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General ad interim, said today at a Headquarters press conference.
More naval ships and aircraft were needed to confront Somali-based pirates who were expanding their area of operations into the Indian Ocean and, possibly, working in collaboration with terrorist groups, the Chairman of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia said today at a Headquarters press conference.
Nobel Peace Prize winner from 2003 Shirin Ebadi said today that the international community should impose political sanctions and “make the world smaller” for violators of human rights, at a Headquarters press conference on the situation of human rights in Iran.
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, said today there was “a rapid increase” in child recruitment and gender-based violence in Somalia. Speaking on her recent trip to Somalia and Kenya at a Headquarters press conference, she highlighted developments in Somalia from meetings held with high-level State and United Nations officials, the African Union Mission in Somalia, non-governmental organizations and women and children.
Raising the $100 billion needed annually to help developing countries adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change would require a mix of new public sources, a scaling-up of existing public sources and more private flows, the Co-Chairs of an expert group charged with analysing options to meet that goal said today as they formally presented their findings to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Hollywood celebrities Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher joined with senior officials of the United Nations anti-crime agency this afternoon to appeal for support to a new fund to aid victims of human trafficking.