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.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
Rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence were on the rise in the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to an increase in fighting and militia uprisings, said the Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, during a Headquarters press conference today.
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.
A number of Central Asian nations face human rights challenges, including restrictions on the rights of expression and free assembly, and a lack of space for a strong and vibrant civil society, the senior United Nations human rights official said at a Headquarters press conference today.
United Nations peacekeepers must be constantly equipped with more and better tools and skills so they could fully meet their mandates in increasingly risky environments, Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said at Headquarters today.
The landmark World Conference on Indigenous Peoples -- to be held in 2014 -- should bring critical indigenous voices to discussions leading up to the post-2015 development agenda, indigenous leaders and other experts said at a Headquarters press conference today.
Representing only 3 per cent of United Nations budget, the world body’s human rights treaty bodies still lack the necessary resources to overcome backlogs and delays, several of their chairs said at a Headquarters press conference today.
A positive trend was emerging towards consolidated legal frameworks for the rights of Africa’s 50 million indigenous people, said experts at a Headquarters press conference today, as they convened on the margins of the twelfth session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.