The inadequate and often appalling housing conditions faced by millions of international migrant workers around the world were largely due to discriminatory practices that could only be remedied through a human rights-based approach, the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing said today at a Headquarters press conference.

The Secretary-General spoke to the Security Council today and discussed his recent report updating the work of the United Nations to support the African Union in peacekeeping. The Secretary-General said that African Union peacekeeping operations should receive the same support as all United Nations peacekeepers, including reimbursement.

The six young winners of the second annual “Citizen Ambassadors to the United Nations” video contest told reporters at Headquarters today of their desire to make the world a better place by raising awareness of the Millennium Development Goals.

Prevailing economic and political pressures in Haiti and Iraq were compounding the already enormous difficulties faced by internally displaced persons and more must be done by those Governments — and the United Nations — to ensure their most basic protection needs were being met, Walter Kälin, Representative of the Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, said today at a Headquarters press briefing.

The Head of the United Nations mission in Côte d’Ivoire — known as UNOCI — told reporters gathered at Headquarters today that the presidential elections would be held as scheduled on 31 October in the West African country. Addressing correspondents via a video link, Choi Young-jin, who is also the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Côte d’Ivoire, said solutions had been found to meet the logistical and political challenges surrounding the elections.

Alain Le Roy, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, briefed the Security Council this morning on the work of the two UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan. He told Council members that, three months before the referenda, Sudan is entering a crucial period, and he expressed his grave concern about the human rights situation of South Sudanese living in the North.

A major food crisis was averted in Niger, thanks to good donor support, massive humanitarian intervention, good collaboration between the Government and humanitarian partners, and better than expected rains in the country, the top United Nations humanitarian affairs official said today.

The United Nations should consider developing a convention on the rights of detainees, Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, told correspondents today at a Headquarters press conference.

The counter-terrorism regime created by the Security Council was “outside the scope of its powers”, and while international terrorism remained a very serious threat and constituted an atrocious crime, it did not justify an exercise by the Security Council of supranational quasi-judicial sanctioning powers over individuals, said a United Nations human rights expert at a Headquarters press conference today

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has just arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. At the start of his Asia trip earlier today, he met with Prime Minister Abhisit of Thailand in Bangkok. The Prime Minister briefed him on the national reconciliation efforts in Thailand. The Secretary-General said many of the issues that led to the recent violence and loss of life could best be resolved through committed and genuine national dialogue, and he encouraged the Prime Minister to continue with these efforts.