Press Conference

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the country told correspondents at Headquarters today that most humanitarian targets had been achieved while reconstruction should be accelerated, though that would necessarily be a long-term process.

Major issues on the Security Council’s agenda in January would include Côte d’Ivoire, Sudan, Nepal, Haiti and the Middle East, Ivan Barbalić (Bosnia and Herzegovina), President of the 15-member body for the month, said at a Headquarters press conference today.

During its participation in the Security Council over the last two years, Mexico had focused on strengthening the role of conflict prevention and resolution; the promotion and protection of human rights and international humanitarian law; and enhancing transparency of the Council, the country’s Permanent Representative, Claude Heller, said today at Headquarters.

Ruhakana Rugunda, Permanent Representative of Uganda to the United Nations, called today for a greater focus by the Security Council on preventive diplomacy and peacebuilding as he surveyed a range of situations in Africa.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Field Support Susana Malcorra today outlined key developments and challenges facing the Department of Field Support — including the implementation of a standardized global field support strategy and continued work on electoral processes in several nations.

In the two weeks since Somalia’s new Transitional Government began taking shape, a new constitution was being written, discussions were under way on preserving fledgling institutions and unprecedented steps had been taken by top brass to examine military logistics and visit the front lines in a push to capture and hold new territories, a top Somali official said at a Headquarters press conference.

Following is a transcript of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s press conference held in New York today, 17 December:

During its two years on the Security Council, Austria had chaired three key subsidiary bodies, established an unprecedented ombudsman office for those wishing to be taken off the Consolidated List of individuals and entities associated with Al-Qaida and the Taliban, and perhaps most importantly, overseen the Council’s adoption of resolution 1894 (2009) on the protection of civilians in armed conflict.

Amid increased drug use and savvier efforts by narco-traffickers who continued to evade detection in West Africa, a multi-agency regional programme, launched today, aimed to stemming new drug and crime trends in a comprehensive, integrated manner, Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told journalists today at a Headquarters press conference.

In a world where demographics, economic needs and the effects of climate change were set to spur rising numbers of migrants, Governments and intergovernmental organizations needed to invest adequate financial and human resources to ensure that societies — and migrants themselves — reaped migration’s full potential, Michele Klein-Solomon, Observer for the International Organization for Migration to the United Nations, said today.