The 2010 world census was crucial in helping countries emerging from conflict better plan national development strategies and institute democratic reform, United Nations experts on census gathering said this afternoon at a Headquarters news conference.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
The International Narcotics Control Board was concerned that the “creeping normalization” of so-called medicinal marijuana might spur addictive or hard-core use of the drug, a Board member said today while presenting its annual report at a Headquarters press conference.
The United Nations response to the earthquake in Haiti had been extraordinary, given the unique situation in which both the country’s and the Organization’s capabilities had been devastated, a top official of the world body said at Headquarters today. “This is the most challenging disaster response that the United Nations has ever faced in its history,” Anthony Banbury, Acting Principal Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for MINUSTAH, said this afternoon.
Data collected by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) over six years revealed that, while still significant, the digital divide was shrinking slightly ‑‑ accompanied by falling Internet and telecommunications costs between 2008 to 2009 worldwide ‑‑ but the relatively high cost of Internet broadband services still deserved concern from policymakers.
A duchess, an Oscar winner, a diplomat and the head of a corporate foundation joined two United Nations officials at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon to urge philanthropists to focus on women’s empowerment as an effective way to boost socio-economic conditions around the world.
The resignation of Yvo de Boer as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change would not substantially disturb ongoing negotiations leading up to the climate change conference in Mexico later this year, Janos Pasztor, Director of the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team, told correspondents this morning.
Cooperation among military partners in Haiti was good following last month’s devastating earthquake, Major General Floriano Peixoto Vieira Neto, Force Commander of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), told correspondents at Headquarters today.
Chad wished to work out a compromise between a total withdrawal of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad and merely extending its mandate as it stood, the country’s Permanent Representative said at Headquarters this morning.
In spite of the hard task it faced, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala was delivering “very obvious” results and breaking taboos, President Álvaro Colom Caballeros said at a Headquarters press conference today.
With the number of journalists killed worldwide surging to 70 last year, Robert Mahoney, Deputy Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists called for stronger action by the United Nations, as he announced the release of his group’s annual report this morning.