Press Conference

While the worst cases of religious intolerance in the past year involved killing in the name of a faith, repression of women was still the most common expression of both intolerance and extremism, Asma Jahangir, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief told correspondents at Headquarters this afternoon.

“My mandate covers any killings which are in contravention of international law, whether humanitarian law or human rights,” said Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

Fragile optimism for slow, but steady, progress in Somalia demonstrated that a Security Council strategy for increasing security and stability in the region would continue to unfold over the coming months, B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs told reporters today during a Headquarters press conference.

The main purpose of reviewing every entry on the Consolidated List compiled by the Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee was to improve its credibility, Committee Chairman Thomas Mayr-Harting, Permanent Representative of Austria, said today at a Headquarters press conference.

Speaking at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon, Walter Kälin, the Secretary-General’s representative on the human rights of internally displaced persons, hailed the recently adopted African Union Convention to protect displaced persons on the continent as the first binding treaty addressing the rights of “a huge number of people who need protection”.

“We are now at a […] critical juncture on the way towards achieving a legally binding agreement that would guide global action on climate change,” said Janos Pasztor, Director of the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team, updating correspondents on the climate change negotiations, at Headquarters this afternoon.

The World Survey on the Role of Women in Development points to long-standing inequalities in access to economic and financial resources, which had placed women at a disadvantage in relation to men in economic development, the Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women said at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

States should consider gender-sensitive reparation schemes for victims of terrorism, as women undergo specific forms of abuse by terrorist groups, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, said today at a Headquarters press conference.

For the first time since its inception, the United Nations Day Concert would have a theme -- “A Tribute to Peacekeeping” -- announced Eric Falt Director of the Outreach Division in the Department of Public Information at a press conference today at Headquarters. Honouring the world body’s peacekeeping operations, the concert would be, in his words, “a long overdue tribute on the occasion of the most symbolic day in the United Nations calendar”.

Proposals for addressing the urgent needs of those living in vulnerable housing settlements and who lacked the “means to go green” must be taken more seriously in global climate discussions, the top United Nations rights expert on adequate housing said today at a Headquarters press conference.