A panel of officials from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) today hailed the success of the recently-concluded fifth session of the World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where nearly 14,000 participants had gathered to weigh the effects of urbanization and consider actions to curb social inequalities, and boost access to shelter, infrastructure, income and basic services for the world’s city-dwellers.
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.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a Headquarters press conference today at the conclusion of the one-day International Donors’ Conference for Haiti aimed at securing financial resources for the earthquake-stricken country’s recovery that the friends of Haiti had acted far beyond expectations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.