Young artists from the former Soviet States — Georgia among them — would commemorate the sixty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War with a concert at United Nations Headquarters showcasing the importance of tolerance and preservation of cultural ties, reporters were told today at a Headquarters press conference sponsored by the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation.
In progress at UNHQ
Press Conference
Convinced that recent Government-led climate negotiations had ignored the perspective of the people most affected by global warming, Bolivian President Evo Morales told reporters today that the United Nations should adopt the outcomes of a “people’s summit” he had convened last month in the Andean city of Cochabamba as a more inclusive, people-centred framework for future talks to ensure equitable decision-making and respect for the rights of the planet.
Enormous inequalities of consumption and a wasteful materials cycle were among the greatest challenges in achieving sustainable development, the Chairman of the Commission on Sustainable Development said this morning.
The comparatively quick and strong recovery of the Asia-Pacific region from the world economic crisis had provided an opportunity to foster a more equitable, greener, more interconnected and more stable economy in the region, a United Nations development official said today.
The President of the United Nations Security Council for May, Lebanon’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Nawaf Salam, today outlined a programme of work for the month, which will include debates, consultations and briefings on a broad spectrum of issues, and will also include at least one Council mission.
While indigenous people continued to suffer in the face of massive development projects that stripped their lands of precious traditional resources and displaced their communities en masse, “we are at the dawn of a new sunrise”, Carlos Mamani, Chairperson the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, said today at a Headquarters press conference.
The key goal of the upcoming Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was “to complete negotiations on defining individual responsibility for the crime of aggression”, William Pace, Convenor of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, said today at a Headquarters press conference ahead of the Review slated for 31 May to 11 June in Kampala, Uganda.
Briefing correspondents today on the upcoming 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the President-elect of the Conference said that, while he was aware of the “landmines” that would make his task during the Conference much more challenging, he and his Government had invested much time, effort, energy and resources in order to contribute to the “global undertaking for a peaceful world”.
A global effort to scale up investment in clean, efficient energy and bring affordable energy services to the 1.6 billion people worldwide currently lacking them would go a long way towards stopping climate change and achieving the Millennium Development Goals, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.
Very good progress had been made so far in the United Nations-mediated negotiations on the long-running Cyprus dispute, including a broad measure of agreement on the three “chapters” of governance and power-sharing, the economy, and European Union matters, Alexander Downer, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus, said at a Headquarters press conference today.