Americas

Ecuador: UN chief expresses deep concern at civil unrest

30 September 2010
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced deep concern at today’s developments in Ecuador, where the President has been hurt during protests and some members of the police and military forces have reportedly been insubordinate.

Haiti: UN continues relief to nearly 15,000 families displaced by storm

29 September 2010
United Nations agencies are providing additional relief to nearly 15,000 families in Port-au-Prince after last week’s deadly rainstorm in the Haitian capital left residents of more than 160 temporary settlements in urgent need of shelter materials.

UN must lead way in forging new global economic system, Latin Americans say

29 September 2010
Two Latin American countries today called for a strengthened and reformed United Nations to take the lead in establishing a new, more democratic and open system in the fields of international finance and economy.

Venezuela wants to suspend Security Council veto rights

29 September 2010
Venezuela today called for wholesale reform of the United Nations – suspending veto rights of the five permanent Security Council members, enlarging the 15-member body, strengthening the General Assembly and opening up the election of Secretary-General.

UN official stresses vital role of sports in achieving key development goals

28 September 2010
Sports federations could play an important part towards achieving the social and economic targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the United Nations Special Adviser on Sport for Development says.

Mexico urges protection of migrants in statement to General Assembly

28 September 2010
Mexico today urged all United Nations Member States to ratify the international convention that calls for the protection of the rights of migrant workers and their families, deploring what it described as a global tendency to criminalize international migration.

Safety of journalists must be ensured, UN official says after Mexican attack

27 September 2010
The head of the United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom today deplore the recent attack that killed one photographer and seriously wounded another in Ciudad Juarez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, stressing that media professionals must be allowed to work in safety.

UN hands out shelter materials to Haitian quake survivors hit by storm

27 September 2010
Residents of more than 160 of the numerous temporary settlements that sprang up in Haiti following January’s catastrophic earthquake have been hit by a deadly rainstorm that lashed the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Friday and are in urgent need of shelter material, the United Nations reported today.

Saint Kitts and Nevis speaks out during UN debate on high costs of violence

27 September 2010
Inter-personal violence accounts for one death every 20 seconds and has ruinous effects on many others’ lives, the Foreign Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis told the United Nations today, calling on the General Assembly to take concerted action to reduce violence, particularly among the world’s youth.
UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

UN-backed plan in Ecuador to leave oil in ground praised as model of partnership

27 September 2010
An Ecuadorian decision to leave vast amounts of oil in the ground to protect the biodiversity of a national park represents a model of the kind of innovative international partnership that benefits everyone, a senior United Nations official said today.