Having fared relatively well in the current difficult economic climate, cooperatives were positioned to provide the most sustainable, fastest-growing business model in the coming decade, panellists said today at a Headquarters press conference marking the close of the International Year of Cooperatives.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
More and more disasters were on their way, Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, cautioned at a press conference today at Headquarters.
Emphasizing that access to voluntary family planning was a human right, Richard Kollodge, editor of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report, told journalists today that increased financial support and political commitments were crucial in order to reap both the economic benefits and positive multiplier effect on development that resulted from providing such health services.
The head of conference management for General Assembly and Economic and Social Council Affairs briefed journalists today on those bodies’ new work programme decided upon in the wake of last week’s disruptive hurricane that had caused flooding damage to the United Nations New York Headquarters and forced its closure for three days.
Humanitarian aid operations in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, although effective, were insufficient, John Ging, Director of Operations, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters at a press conference at Headquarters today.
Despite the Internet’s importance as a communications vehicle, the platform was a powerful double-edged tool, capable of being used to both spread and combat racism, a human rights expert said today at Headquarters following a presentation to the General Assembly of two related reports.
The Security Council’s work programme for November will be packed not only with discussions of difficult situations around the world, but also with business not completed at the end of last month, the Permanent Representative of India, which holds the body’s presidency for the month, told correspondents at Headquarters this afternoon.
The human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea showed “no sign of improvement” over the past eight months, a United Nations expert said today.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has tapped a team of senior United Nations officials to carry out an impact assessment in the aftermath of the unprecedented hurricane which earlier this week had upended millions of lives and crippled the Organization’s facilities and operations across a nearly thousand mile area that stretched from the north-eastern United States to the Caribbean.
Fewer States around the world now maintained the death penalty in their national laws, and even among those that did so, a smaller number were engaged in active executions, senior human rights officials said at a Headquarters press conference today.