Offering highlights from the United Nations budget at Headquarters today, Angela Kane, Under-Secretary-General for Management, described a changing United Nations landscape marked by the steady growth of special political missions and more than half the Organization’s staff involved in peacekeeping.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
It was particularly important this month for the Security Council to strengthen coordination with regional organizations, as it considered the next steps in situations such as Somalia, Ambassador Zhang Yesui of China, whose country holds the body’s presidency for January, told correspondents at Headquarters today.
In 66 meetings of its sixty-fourth session, the United Nations General Assembly adopted 226 resolutions and 57 decisions, Ali Abdussalam Treki (Libya), President of the 192-member body, said during an end-of-year press conference at Headquarters today. Mr. Treki said the Assembly was now close to completing its programme of work for the first quarter, with five out of its six Main Committees having completed their work. The Fifth Committee was expected to conclude tomorrow.
Speaking to reporters at Headquarters today, Indonesia’s newly appointed Foreign Minister, Marty M. Natalegawa, pledged his Government’s commitment to working with other nations over the coming year to hammer out a legally binding deal to curb heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions and help developing countries tackle the effects of climate change.
Robert Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Strategic Planning in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, today urged journalists not to overlook the “immediate operational consequences” of the recently concluded Copenhagen climate talks, in the form of a widely backed political agreement that would allow the treaty process to begin in earnest.
More than 1,300 people from around the world would join 50,000 Palestinians in a march on 31 December to mark the one-year anniversary of Israel’s military incursion into the Gaza Strip, and appeal for the lifting of its blockade, which prevented food, medicine and reconstruction supplies from reaching those in desperate need, the event’s lead organizers said today.
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Following is a transcript of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s press conference held in New York today, 14 December 2009:
The Security Council should immediately suspend United Nations support to military operations in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo until clear conditions were in place to ensure respect for international humanitarian law and the removal of commanders known to have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch said at Headquarters today.
John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said today that he and other humanitarian actors would push negotiators at the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen to guarantee sufficient funding and action plans to help the world’s poorest, most vulnerable people adapt to the changing weather patterns threatening their physical and economic survival.
The United Nations must be prepared to make efficiency gains in the next five years to free up funds to better respond to the world’s needs, said Gareth Thomas, Minister of State for International Development of the United Kingdom, addressing journalists on priorities for a more effective international humanitarian response.