Three Presentation Sisters have just departed for one month’s experience in the new mission in Palestine. Shobha d’Sami, Anna Manyonga and Silvia Francis are now in Tel Aviv. They will stay initially with the Comboni sisters and hope to link with and stay with some Palestinian families also. Marianne Kurian, the fourth Presentation Sister who [...]

The United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution 64/136, declared 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives, in recognition of the contribution of cooperatives to socio-economic development, especially with regard to poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration. The objectives of the year are to: expand public awareness of the role of cooperatives, particularly in relation [...]

New York, 21 April—Representatives from governments and civil society will start a new round of negotiations that will shape the outcome of  Rio+20, a major global conference that will have a significant impact on how the world will address key challenges affecting economic growth, social well-being and environmental protection in the years ahead.   The [...]

Every Human Has Rights and CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is proud to present its inaugural report on the state of civil society. The report, State of Civil Society 2011, was published on 10 April 2012 and is available at http://StateOfCivilSociety.org. The report is currently available in English language PDF format, and will shortly [...]

ECOSOC will hold an Annual Ministerial Review this year in New York. The theme for the Annual Ministerial Review segment this year will focus on Promoting productive capacity, employment and decent work to eradicate poverty in the context of inclusive, sustainable and equitable economic growth at all levels for achieving the MDGs. The High Level [...]

The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, will be attending the Rio+20 Conference alongside more than 100 presidents and prime ministers, thousands of parliamentarians, mayors, UN Officials, non-governmental organization leaders, academics and other representatives. The world conference is expected to be the largest event in the history of the United Nations. The High Commissioner [...]

In his keynote address, Professor Erik Brynjolfsson, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, shared some startling information about the race against the machines, nexus between technology, employment and wages. According to him the tremendous growth in technology within the last decade has resulted in stagnation of job creation. Skill development, organizations and Institutions [...]

New York, 2 April – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today highlighted the need for an economic model that incorporates social and environmental progress in efforts to achieve sustainable development. “Gross National Product has long been the yardstick by which economies and politicians have been measured. Yet it fails to take into account the social [...]

The SECRETARY-GENERAL of the UNITED NATIONS —– Message on World Health Day 7 April 2012 Each year on 7 April, we observe World Health Day to mark the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization in 1948. This year’s theme, “Good health adds life to years”, conveys an important message: promoting good health [...]

The SECRETARY-GENERAL of the UNITED NATIONS —– Message on the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action 4 April 2012 United Nations mine action programmes make an invaluable contribution to post-conflict recovery, humanitarian relief efforts, peace operations and development initiatives. They prevent landmines and other explosive ordnance from causing further indiscriminate harm [...]