Asia-Pacific countries, some of them threatened with extinction from rising sea levels, took to the podium of the United Nations General Assembly today to call for an urgent global approach to mitigate climate change, voicing concern at the lack of progress so far. “Climate change is no longer an environmental or political issue,” Continue reading
Monthly Archives: September 2013
Latest IPCC report ‘Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis’
A major international assessment of climate change adopted here by 110 governments provides conclusive new scientific evidence that human activities are causing unprecedented changes in the Earth’s climate. Produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme in 1988, the report confirms that it is extremely likely (95-100% probability) that most of the warming since 1950 has been due to human influence. Continue reading
Security Council unanimously adopts resolution 2118 on chemical weapons in Syria
Deeply outraged by the use of chemical weapons on 21 August in a Damascus suburb, as concluded by a United Nations investigation team, the Security Council this evening endorsed the expeditious destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons programme, with inspections to begin by 1 October, and agreed that in the event of non-compliance, it would impose “Chapter VII” measures. Continue reading
Small island States call to take action on climate change
For the second day in a row, leaders of the world’s small island States took the podium at the United Nations General Assembly to call for urgent international action to mitigate the effects of climate change, which threatens some of them with extinction because of rising seas. Continue reading
Joint Press Release on ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting with the Secretary-General and GA President
The ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting with the United Nations Secretary-General and the President of the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, or the ASEAN-UN Ministerial Meeting (AUMM), was held on 26 September 2013 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Continue reading
Number of Syrian refugees tops 2 million
The number of Syrians forced to seek shelter abroad since civil war began in March 2011 passed the 2 million mark on Tuesday with no sign of the outflow ending soon. “The war is now well into its third year and Syria is hemorrhaging women, children and men who cross borders often with little more than the clothes on their backs,” the UN refugee agency said in a statement Continue reading
Wildlife trafficking is organized crime on a ‘massive scale’, warns UNODC head
Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Yury Fedotov called on states to strengthen global efforts to combat poaching and illicit wildlife trafficking. Speaking on the margins of the UN General Assembly at an event organized by the President of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, Mr. Fedotov Continue reading
UN human rights chief briefs meeting on LGBT rights
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay today took part in a groundbreaking ministerial meeting on violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. The meeting marked the first time the topic had been the topic a Ministerial level at the United Nations. Continue reading
Role of tourism in poverty reduction and gender equality
![A view of Sveti-Stefin, near Budva on the Adriatic Coast. The old houses have been modernized and converted into a hotel-village in which accommodations are now available for tourists. [July 1969] 01 July 1969 South Adriatic Region, Yugoslavia Photo # 78883](http://downloads.unmultimedia.org/photo/medium/788/78883.jpg "A view of Sveti-Stefin, near Budva on the Adriatic Coast. The old houses have been modernized and converted into a hotel-village in which accommodations are now available for tourists. [July 1969] 01 July 1969 South Adriatic Region, Yugoslavia Photo # 78883")
Over the past decades, tourism has become a major source of growth and employment around the world and a key driver of poverty reduction. These trends are expected to accelerate during the next decade. According to the latest ILO data, published in a working paper titled International Perspectives on Women and Work in Hotels, Catering and Tourism, the HCT sector accounts for more than 260 million jobs worldwide. Continue reading
UNDP takes the Social Good Summit around the world
As the three-day Social Good Summit came to a close, UNDP’s global network of country offices held an unprecedented number of meetups around the world. From Bangladesh to Ukraine, Japan to Nicaragua, Kazakhstan to Colombia, people met up in more than 60 countries to discuss how new technology, innovation and social media can address the Continue reading