“UN Women” would give women and girls the strong unified voice they deserve on the world stage, said United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, ahead of an anticipated decision by the General Assembly to bring together four distinct parts of the United Nations system devoted to women’s issues into one composite entity.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
A year after its inception, the United Nations revamped internal justice system had resulted in speedier, more judicious resolution of staff grievances over everything from work contracts to entitlements and promotions, and from discriminatory treatment to dismissals, senior United Nations administration of justice officials said today at a Headquarters press conference to mark the system’s first anniversary.
While the Group of 20 (G-20) had been important in addressing the global financial crisis, after more than a decade in existence, it had not significantly addressed the challenges of poverty eradication, labour equality, and the environment, which remained necessary for sustainable development, Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said at Headquarters today.
The International Olympic Committee’s new Permanent Observer status at the United Nations would enable it to promote sport as a right for all people, rather than a privilege, and help it empower women, Anita L. DeFrantz, Chair of the world sports body, said at a Headquarters press conference today.
The international community was moving towards a “new geographical level of policy planning and political decision-making in the world”, which could lend itself to the creation of a council for sustainable development at the United Nations, Finland’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, Paavo Väyrynen, suggested today at a Headquarters press conference on the margins of the high-level segment of the Economic and Social Council’s session.
Replacing the abundance of sexy, racy images of women and girls in children’s television shows and films with diverse, true-to-life female characters would contribute towards efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals on women’s empowerment and gender equality, Geena Davis, founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, said Monday during a Headquarters press conference.
On many fronts — its peace and security, development and humanitarian agendas included — the United Nations was partnering with the private sector in new and diverse ways to more efficiently tackle some of the world’s most entrenched problems, said Robert Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Strategic Planning.
Emphasizing that gender equality and women’s empowerment lay at the heart of achieving all the other Millennium Development Goals, Hamidon Ali (Malaysia), President of the Economic and Social Council, said today that the Council’s upcoming session would aim to capitalize on those links to improve the socio-economic lot of women everywhere.
As the world continued to reel from the financial crisis, and climate change, poverty and resource constraints tested capabilities, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged more than 1,200 top business executives gathered in New York City for the 2010 Global Compact Leaders Summit to usher in a new era of sustainability in which corporations played a central role.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for an intensified focus on priorities, political will and partnership to achieve the Millennium Development Goals this morning, as he launched a report that showed a mix of progress and obstacles in reaching the anti-poverty targets. “This report shows that economic uncertainty cannot be an excuse to slow down our development efforts. It is a reason to speed them up,” he said, introducing the major findings of the Millennium Development Goals Report 2010.