The European Union would pledge some $1.6 billion for Haiti’s reconstruction at today’s “International Donors’ Conference towards a New Future for Haiti” at United Nations Headquarters, top officials of the Union told correspondents today.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
With senior political figures gathered at United Nations Headquarters in New York today for an international conference on rebuilding earthquake-shattered Haiti, the Japanese Government announced that it would provide an additional $30 million to the effort and dispatch a team of disaster-prevention experts to the country, according to Kazuo Kodama, Press Secretary in Japan’s Foreign Ministry.
A new report on the impact of supermarket policies in Europe appeared to reveal that better communication was needed between large chains and their consumers before everyday people could begin leading truly sustainable lifestyles, experts in consumption patterns suggested at Headquarters today.
Approximately 7.8 million inhabitants of Niger, accounting for half of the country’s population, were in a very vulnerable situation, Khardiata Lo N’Diaye, newly appointed Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Niger, said at a Headquarters press conference today.
Ahead of Wednesday’s international donors’ conference at United Nations Headquarters, two senior officials closely linked with leading international recovery efforts for the country said today that they counted on the generosity of donors to mark a turning point in the Haitian people’s dream that one day their homeland would no longer need international assistance.
The United Nations was on track to support the June presidential elections to be held in Guinea, but the proof of that support lay in what was done to help overcome the country’s humanitarian, reconstruction and development needs after the polls, Anthony Ohemeng-Boamah, United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the West African nation, said today.
Presenting highlights from their recent evaluations of the human rights records of Mexico, Argentina, Uzbekistan and New Zealand, members of the Human Rights Committee today called it a matter of “serious concern” that Belarus had apparently executed two men, despite a request from the expert body that their death sentences be postponed pending its review of their cases.
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Alain Le Roy, and Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Susana Malcorra, briefed correspondents at Headquarters today on the United Nations effort in Haiti, ongoing reports of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers, and the recent support expressed by Member States for their new strategy aimed at keeping pace with the evolutionary changes shaping most all aspects of their mandate.
Over half of the world’s 6.9 billion people now live in urban areas, with burgeoning small cities absorbing much of the growth of the next years, particularly in Asia and Africa, a United Nations demographic official said this morning.
Correspondents were briefed today at a Headquarters press conference on a series of week-long events at the United Nations -- including an exhibit launch, a documentary screening and a student video conference -- in commemoration of the third annual International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.