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Photos Luiz Rampelotto and JMC

Canyon of Heroes – New York – February 07 2012 – New York Giants players Victor Cruz (in red) and Hakeem Nicks (R) attend the New York Giants Victory Parade following their Super Bowl XLVI win down the Canyon of Heroes on the streets of Manhattan in New York City

PHOTO OF: Super Bowl XLVI players

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Photos by Luiz Rampelotto

United Nations – New York – February 07 2012 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon During a Photo-op with  Joan Clos, Executive Director, UN-HABITAT and his international delegation

PHOTO OF: (FROM LEFT) Joan Clos, UN-HABITAT, Ban Ki-Moon, UNSG,  Ronan Farrow, US State Dept, Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Global Youth Issues and director of the State Department’s Global Youth Issues office and Arvinn Gadgil Jr. – Minister for International Development, Norway

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Photos by Luiz Rampelotto and JMC

Canyon of Heroes – New York – February 07 2012 – Over a Million Fans attend the New York Giants Victory Parade following their Super Bowl XLVI win at the Canyon of Heroes, downtown Manhattan

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Photos by Luiz Rampelotto

United Nations, February 03 2012

President Johnson Toribiong of Palau told journalists in New York today that actions by individual countries are not enough to “stem the rising tides or the flood of global emissions” and an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is an appropriate recourse.

Johnson Toribiong, President of Palau:
“The truth is that nothing we or other specific countries will do will stem the rising tides or the flood of global emissions. We need everyone to buy in or it won’t work. An ICJ advisory opinion will give us the guidance we need on what all states must do.”

The Pacific island nation of Palau announced plans in September to seek an advisory opinion from the Court on whether countries have a legal responsibility to ensure that any activities on their territory that emit greenhouse gases do not harm other states.

Johnson Toribiong, President of Palau:
“Whether it gets to the ICJ or not depends upon the momentum that this initiative will create, but I think in the process, we’d like to raise the consciousness of the world community to the issue of responsibility.”

Palau is one of several Pacific island countries that have repeatedly spoken out at the General Assembly about the impact of climate change, with rising sea levels resulting from the emissions of greenhouse gases threatening to swamp their islands.

Johnson Toribiong, President of Palau:
“Science is clear that the most vulnerable, like the small island states, are least responsible. It makes sense for those most vulnerable to look out for any possible solution, and in this case, having no other means other than to resort to the rule of law, I think it is in accordance to the spirit of the United Nations Charter.”

In recent years, rising tides have damaged coastal roads and affected crops, including taro, Palau’s staple food.

Source: UNIFEED

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Photos by Luiz Rampelotto

United Nations – February 02 2012

The head of the United Nations entity mandated to promote gender equality today said that her priority this year is to enhance the economic empowerment and political participation of women and called for the support of the international community, as well as concerted effort by the entire UN system to ensure success.

Michelle Bachelet, the Executive Director of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), told reporters during a news conference in New York to mark the agency’s first anniversary that it has “come a long way in a short period of time.”

Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director, UN Women:
“We have come a long way in a short period of time, and I am really proud of what we have accomplished until now. If I want to put it in a context, two major events dominated the global debate in 2011. The first was the democracy movement in the Arab states and also the continued financial and economic crises. Women have been involved in and affected by both, and UN Women rendered important support. ”

Outlining the successes of UN Women over the past year, Bachelet said she was focused on building a strong organization with clear goals and strategies and noted that the agency had so far established a presence in 75 countries.

Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director, UN Women:
“Of course we need to continue doing much more in terms of preventing violence against women and rapes, massive rapes. But also one of the ways of preventing is that there’s no impunity. Because the message is clear, because in the past, in many countries, rapes in the middle of a conflict was considered sort of part of the conflict, you know, or as a male issue, a boy’s game or something. So, you know, people that are, even officers, they go to jail because they have done this, you are sending a clear message that it is not acceptable.”

Source: UNifeed

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Photos by Luiz Rampelotto

United Nations – New York – January 31 2012

The United States Secretary of State today urged the United Nations Security Council to back the Arab League’s demand that the Syrian Government “immediately stop all attacks against civilians and guarantee the freedom of peaceful demonstrations.”

While addressing the Council on the situation in Syria, and urging it to back the Arab League’s call for an inclusive Syrian-led political process, Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed the concern of some members that it may be headed toward a situation similar to Libya.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, United States Secretary of State:
“But at the end of the day every member of that Security Council has a choice to make. If you do not choose to try to stand on the side of the Syrian people, then you are standing on the side of the continuing killing and abuses that are carried out every single day.”

The UN has repeatedly urged the Syrian leadership to end the violence, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging President Bashar al-Assad to “stop killing his own people” and embark on a path to greater democracy that heeded the people’s call for representation and respect of human rights.

Source: UNifeed

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Photos by Luiz Rampelotto

Chinatown  – New York – January 29 2012

Thousands of people line the streets of New Yorks Chinatown to see the Chinese New Year parade. The Chinese community of New York is celebrating today the beginning of  the luckiest year on the lunar calendar with a parade through the streets of Chinatown. The parade is marking the Year of the Dragon.

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Javits Center – New York – January 17 2012

Laura Kaeppeler, the 23-year-old former Miss Wisconsin winner and 2012 Miss America visit today the NRF  (National Retail Federation) Big Show at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in NYC where she stop for photos with fans.

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United Nations, January 13 2012

On her first official visit to Africa, UNEP Goodwill Ambassador and iconic face of fashion, Gisele Bündchen , went to the grassroots level in Kenya to experience the reality of energy poverty and to see how Kenyans are transforming their lives by accessing sustainable energy.

Gisele, who has recently been named the ‘world’s greenest celebrity’, told a press conference at the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi that access to adequate fuels for cooking is also a major challenge, with many families still dependent on wood which produces toxic smoke, impacting the health of women and children.

Gisele Bündchen, UNEP Goodwill Ambassador: 
“More than 1.4 million lives are lost each year because of inhalation of smoke from cooking and it is quite shocking and most of them are women and children. This is basically 50 percent more than malaria.”

Around half the world’s population cook on open indoor fires and each year over 2.5 million people die prematurely as a result of breathing in emissions from these cook stoves, primarily from a substance called black carbon, also known as soot. Many more are blighted by ill health, such as chronic bronchitis.

Gisele spoke about the advantages of slow burning cooking stoves.
“The slow burning cooking stove is quite an effective solution for rural areas because it kind of reduces up to 70 percent of the smoke in the houses and also uses 50 percent less firewood for it to work.”

While gains have been made in accessing electricity in the past two decades, huge gaps still remain. One in every five people on the planet do not have access to electricity. In Sub-Saharan Africa some 70 percent of the population have no electricity, while in Kenya only 18 percent of households have power.

Gisele said that this amounted to injustice.
“Just as many women and men and children will be living in energy poverty in twenty years time. That is not development; that is injustice. But there is hope, you know, there is always hope and energy for all is achievable.”

Source: UNifeed

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Photos by Luiz Rampelotto

The biggest newspaper in Bosnia and Herzegovina “Dnevni avaz” (Daily Voice) from Sarajevo with the highest circulation in the region awarded Hollywood super star Angelina Jolie with their traditional “Person of the Year” (for 2011), for her film “In The Land Of Blood and Honey”, that was written and directed by Ms. Jolie.

The film is an intimate drama about Bosnian war (1992 – 1995), about a Bosnian Muslim woman and Bosnian Serb soldier who happened to run the concentration camp, where Bosnian Muslim women are being raped. The Avaz Award (Person of the Year 2011) was given to Angelina Jolie by Avaz’s UN and US correspondent, veteran Bosnian journalist Erol Avdovic in Washington just hours before her film was screened in US Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.

Source: Webpublicapress