In progress at UNHQ

Press Conference


With World Health Organization statistics showing that more than one in three women would encounter physical or sexual violence during their lives, the international community must make the fight against sexual violence a priority, France’s Minister for Women’s Rights and Government Spokesperson said at Headquarters today.
Bolder action was needed on the part of the international community — and the Security Council in particular — to end political and ethnic violence that had been on the rise in Sudan since the South declared independence nearly two years ago, said representatives of several non-governmental organizations as they introduced their reports on the matter at a Headquarters press conference today.
Despite the progress made in 2012, new and ongoing conflicts posed grave dangers to children, said the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict at the launch of the Secretary-General’s annual report on the matter during a briefing at Headquarters today.
The world had become less peaceful in the past year, with Afghanistan at the bottom of the ranking and Syria being the “biggest ever faller”, experts said at a Headquarters press conference today upon the release of this year’s Global Peace Index.
The nine men still wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda should not believe they have escaped justice, despite the conclusion of the court’s active phase, two high-ranking lawyers said at a Headquarters press conference today.
Pointing out that more than 11.4 million people were facing a daily food and nutrition crisis throughout West Africa’s Sahel region, the newly appointed United Nations Regional Coordinator for that area said that his priority was to close the financial gap that has left nearly two thirds of this year’s $1.7 billion Sahel appeal unfunded.