The financial commitments made by Governments, corporations and foundations to development, and the media coverage on such issues during last week’s Millennium Development Goals Summit had surpassed United Nations expectations, Robert C. Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning, said this afternoon during a Headquarters press conference.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
The head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) called this afternoon on the international community to counter hatred, intolerance and discrimination against Muslims everywhere, saying that the acts of few extremist fanatics were being used to associate Islam with terrorism.
In a bid to avoid the extraction of oil from one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet — Yasuní National Park in Ecuador — and preserve the area’s unique ecology for all humanity, the Ecuadorean Government wanted to raise at least $100 million of a proposed multi-billion dollar trust fund by the end of 2011, Ecuador’s Vice-President, Lenín Moreno Garcés, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today.
President Dimitris Christofias of Cyprus declared today that he was “absolutely ready” for a fair and viable solution to the “Cyprus problem” as soon as possible.
At a Headquarters press conference today, Bolivian President Evo Morales Ayma touted his country’s newly minted ability to flourish without foreign intervention and highlighted the economic progress his country has made since regaining control of its natural energy resources from foreign interests nearly five years ago.
Ministers of small island developing States addressed their nations’ most pressing vulnerabilities today, at a headquarters press conference held to coincide with the General Assembly high-level review of the Mauritius Strategy agreed upon five years ago to help chart a path to sustainable development.
At a Headquarters press conference today, Amre Moussa, Secretary-General of the Arab League stressed that a viable and serious process of negotiations for a peace settlement could not continue if Israeli settlement building in the Occupied Territories did not cease.
The Millennium Development Goals on health would be reached by 2015 if the international community sustained and expanded its level of dedicated resources and effort, said the head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at a Headquarters press conference today.
The newly appointed Executive Director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, told correspondents today that Governments are converging on the need to mandate a full set of ways and means to “launch a new wave of global climate action” ahead of a major conference to be held in Cancun, Mexico, in November.
The conservation and sustainable use of biological resources was not only crucial in ensuring that local and indigenous communities continued to reap their benefits, but also in creating opportunities for sustainable development and poverty eradication, Izabella Teixeira, Minister for Environment of Brazil, said at a Headquarters press conference today.