Latin

The head of the United Nations’ regional commission in Latin America and the Caribbean has met with the Premier of China, and looked forward to greater cooperation and a deeper relationship with the Asian country.

The United Nations today voiced concern over the recent wave of violence in Latin American prisons, citing overcrowding, a lack of access to basic services, judicial delays, and excessive pre-trial detention as some of the causes which have worsened conditions in detention facilities.

Levelling opportunities will be key to development in Latin America, where 15 to 50 per cent of total income inequality is due to factors such as gender, race, place of birth and parents’ education and occupation, according to a new report released by the World Bank.

With millions of Latin American children excluded from health and education services because they lack birth certificates and do not therefore legally exist, the United Nations is participating in the first ever region-wide meeting convened to address the problem under the slogan “Write me down, make me visible.”

Scores of thousands of children and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean die every year because of violence related to a combination of extreme economic and social inequalities, the predominant culture of “machismo” and failure to implement existing legal protection, according to a United Nations-led study.

International efforts to resettle hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people across Latin America took a step forward this month with a landmark meeting held by the Latin American arm of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette today told officials concerned with Latin America that the world body will continue to provide assistance to the countries of the region as they consolidate progress.

With all its challenges, dangers and promise Latin America is a microcosm of the world in which all that the United Nations stands for is put to the test, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told leaders attending the Ibero-American Summit today in Spain, where he made a fervent appeal for true democracy.

A new United Nations initiative in Latin America will calculate women's unpaid and volunteer work with a view to improving their chances for resource allocation, the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) said today.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said today that the region is on track to enjoy four straight years of growth and achieve an increase in gross domestic product (GDP) per person of about 10 per cent for the 2003-2006 period.