After two-and-a-half years, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala had achieved some successes in the fight, its Commissioner, Carlos Castresana Fernández, told correspondents today at Headquarters.

The Secretary-General has transmitted to the General Assembly his nominations for the posts of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). In both cases, he has re-nominated the incumbents for further terms -- António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres of Portugal as UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and Achim Steiner of Germany as Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, effective 15 June.

In recent days, the Spokesperson has received several questions about the process by which the Afghanistan Board of Inquiry did its work. In response, he said, there is a standard operating procedure for such boards, and that procedure was followed with this Board.

The Board of Inquiry report on the 28 October 2009 attack on the United Nations guest house in Kabul has been finalized. The relevant findings of the report are being presented to the Afghan authorities, both in New York and in Afghanistan, and other relevant stakeholders will likewise be informed.

The Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Operations in Gaza today described the humanitarian plight of the people there as bewilderingly difficult and a struggle to survive on a daily basis, as the third year of the blockade approached and 18 months after the last round of conflict that had wreaked tremendous devastation.

The Secretary-General, in a report on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1559 (2004), says that the formal parliamentary endorsement of the Government of National Unity in Lebanon last December, six months after the parliamentary elections, is an important achievement. However, he adds, the presence of Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias continues to pose a threat to the stability of the country and the region.

A new study by the World Bank had confirmed that indigenous people, making up 5 per cent of the world’s population, were still among the poorest of the poor, although findings indicated that indigenous peoples in Asia were closing the gap faster than indigenous peoples in other parts of the world.

The Secretary-General has received the final report of the Board of Inquiry into the 28 October 2009 terrorist attack on the Bakhtar guest house in Kabul. It highlights a number of shortcomings in the United Nations security measures as well as with respect to coordination between the United Nations and both its international partners and the host Government authorities.

Tomorrow at 10 a.m., the Secretary-General will hold a press conference to present the report of his Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change. It calls for a transition to a new energy pathway that will provide universal access to modern energy sources while addressing the challenges of climate change, sustainable development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Indigenous students taken years ago from their families and forced into residential schools by the Canadian Government as a way to assimilate into mainstream culture were now ‑‑ decadeslater ‑‑ receiving compensation for their trauma as part of a broad desire to leave a discriminatory past behind and build a stronger future, Murray Sinclair, Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, said today at a Headquarters press briefing.