Hollywood celebrities Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher joined with senior officials of the United Nations anti-crime agency this afternoon to appeal for support to a new fund to aid victims of human trafficking.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
To help curb the growing number of people that call a slum their home, Governments must develop comprehensive urban policies that moved beyond the “megalopolis” to envelop villages, university towns and mid-size cities, the newly named Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN‑Habitat) told reporters at a Headquarters press conference today.
The centrepiece in the Security Council’s programme of work this month would be a ministerial meeting on the situation in the Sudan on 16 November, the current Council President, Mark Lyall Grant, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, told correspondents today at Headquarters. “It is critical that the Council retains a very close focus on Sudan in these critical months,” he said.
After nearly 20 years of negotiations, 193 Governments from around the world adopted an “historic” protocol to fairly share the planet’s genetic resources, and a 10-year plan to protect its rapidly disappearing biodiversity — developments that set a positive tone for upcoming negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, to reach a new global climate accord, Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat, told journalists at a Headquarters press conference today.
Racism — a problem everywhere in the world — was growing due to xenophobic teachings and violence, and it was the duty of States to enforce internationally recognized standards to prevent discrimination, Githu Muigai, the United Nations top expert on contemporary forms of racism and xenophobia told correspondents today at a Headquarters press conference.
Speaking at a Headquarters press conference today, the United Nations Special Rapporteur, promoting the right to physical and mental health, said that the so called “campaign for a drug free world” could actually result in violations of the right to health, as people who used drugs might not come forward to get the care they needed for fear of being arrested, or could be denied health care if they sought help.
The United Nations should consider developing a convention on the rights of detainees, Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, told correspondents today at a Headquarters press conference.
The counter-terrorism regime created by the Security Council was “outside the scope of its powers”, and while international terrorism remained a very serious threat and constituted an atrocious crime, it did not justify an exercise by the Security Council of supranational quasi-judicial sanctioning powers over individuals, said a United Nations human rights expert at a Headquarters press conference today
A major food crisis was averted in Niger, thanks to good donor support, massive humanitarian intervention, good collaboration between the Government and humanitarian partners, and better than expected rains in the country, the top United Nations humanitarian affairs official said today.
The Head of the United Nations mission in Côte d’Ivoire — known as UNOCI — told reporters gathered at Headquarters today that the presidential elections would be held as scheduled on 31 October in the West African country. Addressing correspondents via a video link, Choi Young-jin, who is also the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Côte d’Ivoire, said solutions had been found to meet the logistical and political challenges surrounding the elections.