To help curb the growing number of people that call a slum their home, Governments must develop comprehensive urban policies that moved beyond the “megalopolis” to envelop villages, university towns and mid-size cities, the newly named Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN‑Habitat) told reporters at a Headquarters press conference today.

The Secretary-General welcomes the consensus reached among Guinean stakeholders that paves the way for the holding of the run-off presidential election on 7 November 2010. He urges all actors in the electoral process to ensure that the date is respected and that the necessary conditions are put in place for the smooth conduct of the poll.

Racism — a problem everywhere in the world — was growing due to xenophobic teachings and violence, and it was the duty of States to enforce internationally recognized standards to prevent discrimination, Githu Muigai, the United Nations top expert on contemporary forms of racism and xenophobia told correspondents today at a Headquarters press conference.

Speaking at the launch of the 2010 Human Development Report today, the Secretary-General said that the first such report 20 years ago stunned the international community with the simple premise that people are the true measure of a nation’s wealth — a radical concept then that overturned conventional thinking.

There had been tremendous advances all over the world since 1970, as indicated by the Human Development Index, with poor countries advancing the fastest, Jeni Klugman, lead author of the 2010 Human Development Report, said today at Headquarters, during a press conference to launch the document, entitled “The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development”.

Hollywood celebrities Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher joined with senior officials of the United Nations anti-crime agency this afternoon to appeal for support to a new fund to aid victims of human trafficking.

Raising the $100 billion needed annually to help developing countries adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change would require a mix of new public sources, a scaling-up of existing public sources and more private flows, the Co-Chairs of an expert group charged with analysing options to meet that goal said today as they formally presented their findings to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The Secretary-General today received the final report of the High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing. He said the options identified in the report are both financially feasible and politically viable, and the Advisory Group has given us a path — it is now up to Governments to consider the options and to act.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, said today there was “a rapid increase” in child recruitment and gender-based violence in Somalia. Speaking on her recent trip to Somalia and Kenya at a Headquarters press conference, she highlighted developments in Somalia from meetings held with high-level State and United Nations officials, the African Union Mission in Somalia, non-governmental organizations and women and children.

Nobel Peace Prize winner from 2003 Shirin Ebadi said today that the international community should impose political sanctions and “make the world smaller” for violators of human rights, at a Headquarters press conference on the situation of human rights in Iran.