In progress at UNHQ

Press Conference


Rising sea levels, inundation of salt water and more frequent severe weather events had made life on some low-lying islands “untenable”, an anthropologist specializing in the peoples of the Pacific islands said at Headquarters today.
The role of transparent resource management in conflict prevention, the situations in Mali and Somalia, and a debate on sexual violence in armed conflict would be among the Security Council’s top priorities in June, the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom said at Headquarters today, briefing correspondents in his capacity as the 15-member body’s President for June.
With only three Member States having opposed the Arms Trade Treaty, “we could not have achieved a stronger Treaty while maintaining the overwhelming level of support achieved”, the President of the Final United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty said as the instrument opened for signature today.
Culture, education and health were at the forefront of discussions throughout the twelfth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, a panel of experts said today, stressing that those basic human rights must be woven into the post-2015 development agenda to ensure that indigenous peoples’ voices were respected around the world.
New global partnerships should be a core part of the transformative shifts needed to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030 and build on the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals, members of a high-level panel said today at a Headquarters press conference.