The opening for signature of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing was an example of what the United Nations was capable of accomplishing when Member States worked together, even when holding different opinions, senior officials from Japan and Colombia said today.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
While presiding over the Security Council in February, Brazil’s emphasis would be on the relationship between security and development, with the aim of evolving a more comprehensive approach to issues of peace and security, the country’s Permanent Representative said at a Headquarters press conference today as she outline the programme of work for the month.
The latest report of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), entitled True Economic Value of Forests, was premised on the notion that a better evaluation of what forests were worth would generate direct benefits for poor forest dwellers, open up new markets and affect global economic growth, correspondents learned today at a Headquarters press conference.
Bolivia would continue its campaign to remove from a United Nations convention a ban on coca leaf chewing and take its case to the Economic and Social Council, if necessary, Pablo Solón, the country’s Permanent Representative said today at a Headquarters press conference. “Coca leaf chewing is a tradition and cultural practice that should be respected,” Mr. Solón said, sporting a green coca leaf on his lapel.
The United Nations peacebuilding architecture was bolstering its ability to help post-conflict nations avoid the all-too-common fate of relapsing into violence after the departure of peacekeeping missions, Peter Wittig (Germany), outgoing Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission, said today.
Reporting on her humanitarian mission to Sri Lanka last week, Catherine Bragg, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that the humanitarian needs in that country were “still significant” and activities should be stepped up to address the most critical.
French judicial authorities had agreed to surrender rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana to face trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, ending years of attempts to apprehend him for alleged participation in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Court’s Chief Prosecutor, said at a Headquarters press conference.
A race was under way between Somali pirates and the rest of the world and, without fast, strong action, “we will reach a point of no return where we will be unable to turn things around”, warned the United Nations top official charged with tackling the legal issues related to Somali piracy.
The success of the new United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) in its quest to advance the status of women and girls worldwide depended largely on the efforts of many different actors, but above all, on the political will and the work of the United Nations, Governments, civil society, and the media, said its Executive Director, Michelle Bachelet.
In the wake of a unanimous Security Council decision this morning to strengthen by 2,000 troops the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Côte d’Ivoire — where a power struggle persisted over the presidential election result — the possibility of genocide and related crimes were of grave concern, said United Nations experts during a press conference at New York Headquarters today.