United Nations

05 January 2008 -- The husband of slain Pakistani opposition leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has again called for a United Nations investigation into her death.

In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post newspaper Saturday, Asif Ali Zardari said a probe conducted by Pakistan's government will have no credibility. As he put it, "one does not put the fox in charge of the henhouse."

Zardari also urged the United States and Britain to support his call for a U.N. investigation.    » read more »

20 December 2007 -- UNICEF recommends that women breast feed during the first few months of their baby’s life to improve the child’s chances of survival. Health specialists say that’s because of the important ingredients available in the milk, especially in the portion called colostrum. That message and others were emphasized at a forum held at the headquarters of the Development Communications Network in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital recently to mark annual breastfeeding week.    » read more »

18 December 2007 -- The global campaign against the death penalty secured a landmark victory on Tuesday when the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the call for a worldwide moratorium (suspension) on executions.

In a landslide result, 104 UN member states voted in favour of the ground-breaking resolution. 54 countries voted against, while there were 25 abstentions.

Amnesty International welcomes this timely resolution, passed at the UN headquarters in New York City, as a clear recognition of the international trend towards worldwide abolition of the death penalty.    » read more »

19 December 2007 -- Delegates from 111 countries met in New Delhi, India, the first week of December to assess the progress in combating avian flu and the preparations for a human influenza pandemic. Two of the public health officials leading that effort summarized the results of the conference at a news briefing in Washington. .

Since it was first diagnosed in Asia in 1996, the virus that causes avian influenza, or bird flu, has forced the destruction of millions of infected poultry flocks in nearly 60 countries. More than 200 people have died after contracting the so-called H5N1 virus.    » read more »

17 December 2007 -- Discussions over the aims and timing of a new global climate change treaty have wrapped up in Bali after two weeks of often turbulent bargaining. The next step will be two years of negotiations over the new treaty itself, which will become a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Thousands of delegates took part in the United Nations-sponsored conference, to discuss the man-made emissions that most scientists believe are changing the earth's climate.    » read more »

13 December 2007 -- The head of the United Nations Climate Change Conference is warning that a deadlock between the United States and the European Union over greenhouse gas emission targets may derail the conference.

From the start, officials here have emphasized that the aim of the Climate Change Conference is only to get negotiations started on a new global effort against climate change. These negotiations are to lead to a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which will expire in 2012.    » read more »

Secretary-General Urges Breakthrough In Bali

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s address to the High-Level Segment of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, today, 12 December:

Let me thank the Government and people of Indonesia for hosting us, and all of you for being here.    » read more »

Statement by Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy at UCS

BALI, INDONESIA (December 6, 2007) – More than 100 leading climate scientists issued a statement today at the United Nation's climate change summit, urging negotiators to draft a treaty limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industry temperatures (roughly equivalent to a 2 degree Fahrenheit rise above current temperatures). The U.N. is hosting the summit in Bali, where delegates from nearly 190 nations are negotiating a follow-on treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.    » read more »

10 December 2007 -- Delegates to the U.N. climate change conference are locked in debate over whether to set tough new limits on greenhouse-gas emission, with the United States leading the fight against firm limits. On Indonesia's Bali Island delegates are trying to draft a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

The U.N. climate change talks being held in Bali hit a snag after the United States said it will not approve a draft agreement setting firm targets for greenhouse gas emissions.    » read more »

10 December 2007 -- Industrialized nations have been blamed for a large percentage of the emissions said to be causing global warming, but U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says it is time for developing nations to take more responsibility for combating climate change. Mr. Ban spoke in Bangkok on his way to climate change talks in Bali.

Nations such as China and India have resisted wider emissions control out of fear that new regulations will hamper the fast-growing industries that power their breakneck economic growth.    » read more »

10 December 2007 -- The United Nations is launching a $3.8 billion appeal to provide urgent support to 25 million people in humanitarian emergencies in 24 countries. Nine of the 10 countries in the 2008 Humanitarian appeal are in Africa. The tenth is the occupied Palestinian Territory.    » read more »

03 December 2007 -- A U.N. representative says more women in India die during pregnancy or childbirth than in any other country in the world. The U.N. official says India must improve its public health system to cut the rate of maternal mortality.

India accounts for 20 percent of the world's maternal deaths, with a woman dying every five minutes.

The U.N.'s Paul Hunt says the rate of maternal deaths is "shocking" for a middle income country, and many times higher than in other countries.    » read more »

Diverse Voices Speak Out, Ahead of International Climate Change Negotiations

Washington, DC (November 28) – Looking ahead to the U.N. Climate Change Conference that begins next week, a diverse chorus of elected officials and citizens are speaking out to assure the international community that Americans are moving global warming solutions forward, despite the lack of White House leadership.    » read more »

20 November 2007 -- The United Nations has sharply reduced its estimate of the size of the world's AIDS epidemic in a new report published Monday. The revised figures particularly reflect new numbers for the virus in India - but also indicate strides in fighting the epidemic worldwide.

The new study by the United Nations organization UNAIDS cuts the number of infections to about 33 million - down from its estimated 39.5 million in 2006.    » read more »

11/15/2007 -- Today's call for a global moratorium on executions by the UN General Assembly's Third Committee is an "historic resolution and major step towards the abolition of the death penalty worldwide", Amnesty International said.

The landmark decision had cross-regional support and was co-sponsored by 87 states from around the world.

The resolution was adopted by 99 countries in favour, 52 against and 33 abstentions. The General Assembly is expected to endorse the decision in a plenary session in December.    » read more »