News 2008

After 60 years the Universal Declaration for Human Rights has not lost its relevance. Serious human rights abuses are reported from all over the world.

The Norwegian Mission to the UN congratulates Mr. Martti Ahtisaari with the Nobel Prize.

– Norway remains a strong supporter of UNRWA, and will maintain its voluntary contribution of NOK 150 million to the general budget for 2009, said Counsellor Jonas Jølle in a statment to the Ad Hoc Committee of the General Assembly for the Announcement of Voluntary Contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

Norway and the EU are joining forces to boost investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency measures in developing countries.

The Norwegian government has decided to offer a field hospital to the UN mission in Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR), MINURCAT II, for up to one year from spring 2009, the Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas GAhr Støre informed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a meeting today. 

A large majority of states from all regions adopted a second United Nations resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.  105 countries, six more than last year, voted for the resolution when the Third Committee voted Thursday.

On the High-level Conference on the Central Emergency Response Fund Norway annunced that it will contribution will be NOK 300 million - approximately 42 million US dollars - in 2009.

Norway, in a statement on the Oceans and the Law of the sea, said that “In a world that struggles with food production, it is completely unacceptable that large amounts of fish go to waste, because they are simply discarded – thrown over board.”

125 states are taking part in the signing ceremony in Oslo City Hall today. Four of them, including Norway, have already ratified the Convention.

– Measures to empower women is the straightest, surest path to more peaceful, prosperous world, said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Norwegian event on Financing for Development and the Economics of Gender.