In progress at UNHQ

Nuclear Weapons Remain ‘Apocalyptic Threat’, World Cannot Afford to Place Disarmament, Non-Proliferation on Backburner, Says Secretary-General in New York Remarks

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Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the third session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2010 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, in New York, 4 May:

As Countries Reel from Multiple Crises, Sustainable Agriculture, Rural Development Central to Achieving Poverty Reduction, Sustainable Development Commission Told

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With countries around the world reeling from economic turmoil, food insecurity, and the threat of climate change, the Netherlands’ Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality today told delegations “this is the time to act” to make sustainable agriculture and rural development central to achieving lasting development and poverty reduction, as the Commission on Sustainable Development opened its seventeenth session.

Concluding Eighth Session, UN Forum on Forests Calls for Urgent Coordinated Action to Combat Biodiversity Loss, Other Looming Environmental Threats

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All 192 Member States of the United Nations agreed on the need for intensified global action to protect the world’s forests from a series of environmental threats, including climate change, loss of biodiversity and desertification, as the United Nations Forum on Forests concluded its biennial meeting this weekend on the brink of the upcoming climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.

Secretary-General Welcomes Cartagena Meeting’s Focus on How Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Can Fit into Peacebuilding, in Message to Congress

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Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to the International Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Congress, delivered by Dmitry Titov, Assistant Secretary-General for Rule of Law and Security Institutions, in Cartagena, 4 May: