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.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
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.
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.
Only a negotiated solution would end the suffering in Syria as the nature of human rights violations there changed from the use of excessive force during demonstrations to wholesale attacks on neighbourhoods, members of the Commission of Inquiry on the situation told correspondents at Headquarters this morning.
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.
An integrated approach to water management was crucial in putting the world on the path to a sustainable future, experts said today at a Headquarters press conference to mark the occasion of World Water Day.
With its “blue helmets” being called on to carry out increasingly challenging and complex peacekeeping missions, the United Nations was taking steps to bolster their ability to train national police officers, re-build security infrastructure and tackle organized crime in conflict-torn regions worldwide, the head of the Organization’s Police Division said this afternoon.
An immediate ceasefire was critical to solving the crisis in Syria, the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) stressed at a Headquarters press conference today.