India on Tuesday evacuated the first batch of 278 Indians from Sudan on board naval ship INS Sumedha and rushed in essential relief supplies for its remaining stranded citizens as ceasefire appeared to be holding in the strife-torn African country.
A former government official in Pakistan, Tariq Banuri is the director of the Asian Centre of the Stockholm Environment Institute and has previously worked with the UN.
He said despite efforts by the UN, the threat of terrorism is only growing and expanding, particularly in Asia and Africa.
Voicing alarm over the high level of violence and bombings in Syria, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has said that "established terrorist groups" are suspected in many deadly attacks in the country, where the overall situation remains "extremely serious". Ban briefed the 15-nation UN Security Council about the over year-long crisis in Syria in his periodic report as mandated by a UNSC resolution.
During her week-long stay, Swaraj, leading a high-powered Indian delegation, is expected to hold about 20 bilateral and trilateral meetings with leaders attending the session.
Organisers claimed that nearly 15,000 people participated in the march in the city which is hosting the crucial UN Climate Change Summit.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council have strongly condemned the attack on a UN base in South Sudan that killed 22 people, including two Indian peacekeepers, and asked the government there to swiftly investigate the "criminal act".
"We are facing a global health crisis unlike any in the 75-year history of the United Nations -- one that is killing people, spreading human suffering, and upending people's lives. But this is much more than a health crisis. It is a human crisis," Guterres said.
The role of the Pakistani-origin spokesperson of United Nations secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has come under scanner with the denial of the UN chief's controversial remarks on Kashmir by his office.
Ambassador Asoke Kumar Mukerji has taken charge as India's new Permanent Representative to the United Nations and presented his credentials to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who lauded India's role as a "long trusted partner" of the multilateral system.
The two captains have been selected to become spokesmen for 'Sport for Development and Peace' at the United Nations.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon met with Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Myanmar's National League for Democracy, for the first time at her lakeside residence in Yangon on Tuesday, the last day of Ban's three-day official visit to the country. Ban hailed Suu Kyi's efforts to advance democracy in Myanmar, congratulating her for being elected as a parliamentarian and admiring her decision to prepare for the parliament debut.
Concluding his whirlwind tour of Silicon Valley, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday left for New York where he will have a packed schedule that includes talks with US President Barack Obama.
Greenwashing is making misleading or false environment-friendly claims about a product. Consumers in India currently do not have any way of telling whether a claim is authentic or greenwashing. And one never hears of action against any company for making false claims of being environment-friendly.
Mukhtar Mai, who was gang-raped on the orders of a tribal council, told UN officials her motto was 'End oppression with education.'
Interestingly, India had objected to the establishment of a UNHCHR when it was proposed by the US at the Vienna Conference on Human Rights in July 1993 and the whole proposal was remitted to the General Assembly in New York because India and others said that the whole issue should be examined in detail, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, who had led the Indian delegation for negotiating the terms of the HCHR.
Pakistan has been using various UN fora to raise the issue of Jammu and Kashmir ever since India passed the law in Parliament to strip the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir of its special status under the constitution and turn the state into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh last year in August.
There had been a paradigm shift in international perception about India's economic policies and technological prowess, a United Nations official said on Wednesday.
'If India does venture across the LoC, it will evoke a strong response.'
UN must become better at solving problems: US
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon On Tuesday asked India to take a leadership role in reaching a "meaningful" climate change pact in Paris later this year.
India has voiced deep concern over the deteriorating security situation and large-scale loss of civilian life in the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, urging the parties to work towards creating conditions necessary for peace and restarting direct negotiations through de-escalation and ending violence.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has urged India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and resolve issues peacefully after a Pakistani soldier who intruded into the Indian territory was killed by the Indian Army along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
India proposes to organise a briefing of the Security Council on December 15 on 'Global counter-terrorism approach - principles and the way forward" under the 'Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts'.
Multilateral platforms are being misused to justify and protect perpetrators of terrorism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said
Underlining that the UN will lead the climate change negotiations, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has rejected the possibility of a "double track" approach being adopted on Climate Change where simultaneous talks between the big economies run in parallel with the United Nations negotiations.
As India executed 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called on nations who still use the death penalty to abolish the practice.
Israelis and Palestinians bury their dead.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has been made part of high-level UN panel on global sustainability set up by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
In a sharp criticism of the US$ 4.2 billion United Nations budget presented by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for 2008-09, India has slammed its emphasis only on peace, security and human rights rather than on resolving the basic causes of conflicts including lack of development and socio-economic inequities. Describing it as "technically inadequate and politically flawed," India's Ambassador to the UN Nirupam Sen bluntly told Ban that it needs to be fundamentally revised.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday said the UN would play a role in resolving the situation in Kashmir when India and Pakistan wanted the world body to step in.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has rejected the UN deadline of January 31 for submission of emission targets and climate actions under the Copenhagen Accord.
Foreign Direct Investment flows to India in 2021 were 26 per cent lower, mainly because large M&A deals recorded in 2020 were not repeated, the UN trade body has said.
"I think it's absolutely essential for the two countries to be able to come together and seriously discuss their problems, and I think it's essential that human rights are fully respected in all territories that you mentioned," Guterres said during his press briefing on Thursday.
Abstaining in the UN General Assembly on a vote to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council, India on Thursday asserted that if it has 'chosen' any side, it is the side of 'peace and it is for an immediate end to violence.'
Asserting that the Kashmir issue does not fall under the purview of the United Nations, Congress MP and ex-UN official Shashi Tharoor has said there are specific instances when the world body can be involved ina country's internal matters but Kashmir is not among them.
Ambassador Asoke Kumar Mukerji, the new permanent representative of India to the United Nations, on Tuesday presented his credentials to Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
