The past six months had seen an active, responsive General Assembly that had been relevant in addressing many of the key global issues of concern to all, its President, Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser (Qatar), said at Headquarters today, pledging a redoubling of efforts to achieve success on all remaining matters on the organ’s agenda in the remaining six months of its current session.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
Declaring that “failure is not an option,” Omar Jamal, Chargé d’affaires of the Permanent Mission of Somalia to the United Nations, today reaffirmed the commitment of Somali transitional authorities to the full implementation by 20 August of a time-bound road map that would set the country on the path towards political stability.
Introducing the Security Council programme of work for the April presidency of the United States today, the country’s Permanent Representative said control of nuclear weapons and illicit cross-border traffic would be highlighted alongside the conflicts in Syria, Mali and elsewhere. “The greatest danger that we and all States around the world face is a nuclear weapon or nuclear material falling into the hands of terrorists,” said Susan Rice.
The head of the United Nations Postal Administration today kicked off the Organization’s celebration of World Autism Awareness Day with the announcement of the launch on 2 April of a series of postage stamps featuring the work of eight artists with autism.
Experts of the Human Rights Committee stressed the critical importance of reporting on compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, noting that some 20 per cent of States parties had still not done so, as the body marked the conclusion of its 104th Session at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.
Bhutan is at the forefront of a growing movement that intends radically to change global economics, politics and business practices by emphasizing happiness and well-being rather than growth, the tiny Himalayan kingdom’s Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley said at Headquarters today as he announced the first-ever conference on the topic.
Warning that long-agreed principles concerning human rights, development, and water and sanitation were in serious danger of being rolled back by short-sighted diplomats negotiating the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, a coalition of civil society groups today demanded that “real political impetus” be injected into the process, which would be crucial for improving the lives of millions of poor people worldwide.
A total of 12 million hectares of land with the potential to produce 20 billion tons of grain was lost to degradation and drought every year, a reality that hampered the ability of States to tackle food, water and energy security, as well as climate change, Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification said at Headquarters today.
By year’s end, some 2,000 child soldiers in South Sudan were expected to trade in their guns for schoolbooks, thanks to an agreement reached earlier this month between the United Nations and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army of South Sudan (SPLA), Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, said this afternoon during a Headquarters news conference.
Senior United Nations and African Union officials today announced plans to launch within the next 24 hours a regional strategy targeting notorious warlord Joseph Kony and his dwindling, but still vicious, band of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) fighters, suspected of committing mass atrocities in Uganda during the 1990s, now preying on civilians across a broad swath of Central Africa.