Gender violence and gender inequality were the principal drivers behind the spread of AIDS throughout the Pacific region, according to a report launched today at United Nations Headquarters by the independent Commission on AIDS in the Pacific.

The Secretary-General welcomes the new United States plan for Afghanistan announced by President Barack Obama yesterday evening.

The theme of the annual school award presented by the Spanish non-governmental organization Peace and Cooperation will be “Take care of your planet”, that organization’s president Joaquín Antuña announced at Headquarters today, four days before the United Nations Climate Change Conference opens in Copenhagen.

Stevie Wonder, the popular singer and Grammy Award-winning songwriter, promised to use his creative talents in support of the United Nations mission and persons with disabilities during a press conference at Headquarters today.

The Review Conference of the Assembly of the States Parties to the Rome Statute governing the International Criminal Court would take place in Kampala, Uganda, from 31 May to 11 June 2010, Christian Wenaweser, the Assembly’s President, told correspondents today at Headquarters.

The United Nations, the African Union Mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM, the European Union, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, the League of Arab States, Norway and the United States issued a joint statement in Nairobi today. They all condemned in the strongest terms the cowardly suicide bombing carried out which killed Transitional Federal Government officials, students, journalists and other civilians in Mogadishu.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo provided the Security Council with an update on his work dealing with Darfur. He said that all efforts in recent months have encouraged Sudan to respect its responsibilities as a UN Member State and to put an end to crimes and arrest people indicted by the Court. He noted that President Omar al-Bashir, one of the indicted suspects, has been unable to travel to certain States where he may be arrested.

With the United Nations Conference on Climate Change set to begin next Monday in Copenhagen, there were several signs of optimism that the meeting’s outcome would be successful, Janos Pasztor, Director of the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team, said during a Headquarters press conference.

Denial of a crime and its cover-up could constitute crimes in themselves, said Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, alluding to the case he was building against Sudanese officials for atrocities committed in Darfur.

There was a need to tackle the international networks fuelling the crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dinesh Mahtani, Coordinator of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said at Headquarters today.