Iceland has for the first time been elected to the Human Rights Council, filling the seat vacated by the United States, which withdrew from the body last month, citing bias.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today commended Iceland for its contributions to the international community in such critical areas as international criminal justice, gender equality and regulation of the use of the world’s oceans.
As the world’s top performer on gender equality, Iceland needs to sustain its achievements and bridge remaining gaps on employment and gender based violence, a group of independent United Nations experts today urged as the country’s newly formed Government took office.
Members of a United Nations network of volcanic ash advisory centres around the world are monitoring a volcano in Iceland that has erupted and spewed ash high into the air, disrupting airline travel over parts of Europe.
The recent eruption of a volcano in Iceland, which grounded flights in Europe for nearly one week, has exposed the world’s vulnerability to such disruptive events and underscored the need for global plans to minimize fallouts in the future, a top United Nations official said today.
