Full Coverage: United Nations

06/28/2006 The South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC) will organize Consultation Conference on Education and Small Arms tomorrow, Thursday, June 29, at the Metropol Hotel in Belgrade, from 09:00 – 16:00 hours.

06/26/2006 With the world’s urban population set to exceed rural dwellers for the
first time next year, slum dwellers are as badly if not worse off than
their rural cousins in terms of health, literacy and prosperity,
contradicting general assumptions, according to a landmark study issued by the United Nations.

06/23/2006 A Press Release issued by the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Miloon Kothari, from the World Urban Forum (19-23 June 2006) in Vancouver says that forced evictions by governments in the name of development are causing homelessness, displacement and human tragedy worldwide.

06/23/2006 International organisations expect India to play a lead role in the global control of small arms because the country has been a major victim of the illegal trade in foreign-made sophisticated arms. They want that India should be able to push for a consensus at a UN conference on small arms that begins on June 26.

06/23/2006 Senior United Nations officials and diplomats today hailed the efforts of civil society groups to combat poverty in the world’s least developed countries (LDCs) and stressed that governments must hear the strong call of these organizations for action to help the world’s poorest people.

06/23/2006 Some 400 scientists and policy-makers from the world’s arid regions urged that leaders to put sharper focus on efforts to combat desertification, which threatens a third of the earth’s land surface.

06/22/2006 Natasa Kandic, Executive Director of the Humanitarian Law Centre from Belgrade, was invited to address the inaugural session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), to be held today in Geneva, Switzerland.

06/22/2006 The chairman of an upcoming United Nations-organized conference looking into ways of curbing the illegal trade in small arms said that stepped-up action is needed to tackle the global scourge and follow-up on a Programme of Action endorsed by all Member States in 2001.

06/21/2006 Nataša Kandić, izvršna direktorka Fonda za humanitarno pravo, pozvana je da govori na inauguracionoj sednici Saveta za ljudska prava Ujedinjenih nacija (UNHRC), koja će se održati 22. juna u Ženevi.

06/21/2006 Proclaiming a message of “zero tolerance” for child sex tourism in Sri Lanka, the United Nations is supporting a two-year action plan launched by the country’s tourist board to stop such exploitation, targeting visitors, children and adolescents, hoteliers, journalists, families and community leaders

06/20/2006 Sono 8,4 milioni i rifugiati nel mondo: un numero fra i più bassi degli ultimi 30 anni (nel 2004 erano stati 9,5 milioni) ma sono in forte aumento gli sfollati, le persone costrette ad abbandonare le loro case, che hanno raggiunto i 21 milioni. Sono i dati diffusi dall'Alto Commissariato delle Nazioni Unite (Unhcr/Acnur) in occasione della "Giornata mondiale del rifugiato" che si celebra oggi 20 giugno. Per l'occasione l'Unhcr ha promosso un appello - condiviso da gran parte delle maggiori associazioni impegnate nel settore (tra cui Arci, Caritas, Cir, Amnesty International, Medici senza frontiere) - in cui si chiede al governo e al parlamento per dotare l'Italia di una legge organica sull'asilo. L'Italia, infatti, benché paese firmatario della Convenzione di Ginevra del 1951 sui rifugiati, continua ad essere l'unico paese dell'Ue sprovvisto di una legge organica sull'asilo. Anche il Ministro dell'Interno Giuliano Amato ha ribadito la necessità di una legge sul diritto d'asilo e il ministro della Solidarietà Sociale Paolo Ferrero ne ha sottolineata l'urgenza ricordando come la promozione di una legge in tal senso sia nel programma dell'Unione.

06/20/2006 Shashi Tharoor, India's candidate for the post of Secretary-General of the United Nations, speaks about his chances and plans to The Hindu. Tharoor reveals that India has been considering his candidature for some time and he being an insider enjoys a distinct advantage.

06/20/2006 India's formal announcement of its candidate for the next U.N. secretary-general has threatened to trigger a nomination from neighbouring Pakistan -- possibly turning the race into an all-too-familiar Indo-Pakistan political battle in the world body.

06/16/2006 The campaign, entitled Disaster Risk Reduction Begins at School, which is co-sponsored by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), aims to promote disaster reduction education in school curricula along with improving school safety by encouraging the application of construction standards that can withstand any kind of natural hazard.

06/16/2006 Eight thousand families in northern Pakistan left destitute by last October’s devastating earthquake that killed around 80,000 will receive financial and technical support to rebuild their houses and buy livestock through a new project supported by a $26.4 million loan from the UnitedNations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

06/15/2006 A working meeting Violence Against Women in Post-Conflict Situations: Case Study Bosnia and Herzegovina, held on Tuesday, June 13, in Sarajevo, gathered representatives of Government ministries, Courts, Prosecution offices, women NGOs and international organizations, the Police and Gender Centres in B&H, with the goal to create reccommendations for B&H presentation in Brussels on the issue of violence against women.

06/15/2006 India is to field its candidate for the job of secretary-general of the UN. The choice has fallen on Shashi Tharoor, a UN civil servant for 28 years, Tharoor is currently nder-secretary-general for communications and public information at the world body’s headquarters.

06/14/2006 Fouad Riaz Bajwa, the Head of the FOSS Foundation of Pakistan, sent and open letter to all concerned global FOSS Bodies, ICT stakeholders & UN-GAID, protesting the selection of members of UN-GAID Council and Committees. During the process, the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Movement was completely ignored.

06/14/2006 Those who really care about reform should come together and form a new coalition — one that bridges the artificial, destructive divide between North and South.

06/13/2006 In September 2000, world leaders gathered at the United Nations for the Millennium Assembly promised to halve extreme hunger and poverty, halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and provide universal primary education, all by 2015.