In progress at UNHQ

Press Conference


Pakistan’s Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon appeared with Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon to appeal for world solidarity in response to floods that had devastated millions of Pakistani lives.
Highlights of Turkey’s September presidency of the Security Council included a summit on the maintenance of peace and security, which expected to hear from Heads of State and Government, and a high-level review of cooperation in counter-terrorism, the country’s Ambassador told journalists this afternoon.
Responding to criticism of Equatorial Guinea’s recent execution of four men accused of an armed attack on the country’s presidential palace last year, the country’s Ambassador said this afternoon that the procedure was constitutional and necessary in the face of repeated violent threats against the State that began when domestic oil started flowing.
In the wake of the latest incidents of mass sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, perpetrators must be held to account and the response of the United Nations must be improved, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict said this afternoon.
As the number of people significantly affected by the catastrophic floods in Pakistan climbed to an estimated 17.2 million, the United Nations was scaling up relief operations, John Holmes, outgoing Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said today during a Headquarters news conference.
Amid international outrage over the rape and assault of at least 154 Congolese civilians during an attack by two armed groups in North Kivu Province in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Roger Meece, the Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo said the United Nations was reviewing how it conducted patrols in the area and how to improve communication with local communities.
With Russian forests aflame and Pakistan ravaged by floods, it was increasingly urgent to reach an adequate agreement at the next conference of parties to the climate change treaty, Bolivia’s representative to the United Nations said this morning.