United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the search for peace through a political process in Afghanistan must be led by the people of that country themselves, and pledged United Nations' continued support for the efforts to restore security.

"We all recognize that there can be no purely military solution. This process must be Afghan-led, and it must respect the constitution and the rights of all Afghans," Mr. Ban told the Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Afghanistan in Lisbon on November 20.

The Secretary-General stressed that civil, political and human rights of the people of Afghanistan cannot be traded for stability or "saved for later." "They are crucial for stability and an inherent part of an inclusive approach to peace," he added.

He said the search for a political solution has entered its initial stage, he said, noting that process will be long and uncertain, with progress and setbacks.
 

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Looking ahead to the United Nations climate change conference beginning in Cancún next week, a senior official with the world body said that talks could yield real results but was cautious to keep expectations realistic.

Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning Robert Orr told journalists at UN headquarters in New York on November 22 that he did not expect the conference of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to deliver a "final answer" on solving climate change but remained positive about the possibilities.

"Significant progress is possible in Cancún," he said. "That is not to say that we expect all issues to be resolved."

"We need a package of decisions and outcomes. One or two [agreements] won't an outcome create."

Mr. Orr noted that Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will attend the high-level segment of the talks, where he will urge countries to work towards a balanced set of agreements that move the climate change agenda forward across the board.

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The corporate sector must engage more closely in the fight against the global pandemic of violence against women and girls, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on November 23, stressing the important role of business leaders in eliminating the scourge.

Mr. Ban's comments came during an address at UN headquarters in New York to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which is observed annually on November 25.

The Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet, said women and girls are at risk of violence throughout their lives and that violence is usually perpetrated against them by those closest to them.

"The campaign places the issue at the top of the UN agenda," she said. "The challenge before us is to close the gap between commitments and bring it into action."

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Global efforts to halt and even reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS are showing welcome results, with the number of people newly infected declining and AIDS-related deaths falling, according to the latest report from the United Nations agency leading the fight against the disease.

The Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic 2010, produced by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), contains basic HIV data from 182 countries and includes country-by-country scorecards. It shows that an estimated 2.6 million people became newly infected with HIV, nearly 20 percent fewer than the 3.1 million people infected in 1999. In 2009, 1.8 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses, nearly one-fifth lower than the 2.1 million people who died in 2004.

UNAIDS said that together, this is contributing to the stabilization of the total number of people living with HIV in the world, although much more still needed to be done, especially in light of reduced funding for the global response to AIDS.

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