“Women tend to be overrepresented in the humanities and social sciences, and underrepresented in science and technology,” said an official from the world body’s International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Bureau for Workers’ Activities, Claude Akpokavie. “Measures need to be put in place to redress this imbalance.”

According to ILO, the gap between men and women in the scientific and technological fields is linked to pervasive gender roles and attitudes in different societies – visible in both developed and developing countries – which encourage girls to pursue ‘softer’ subjects.

Over the past few months, recent stories have emerged revealing stark gender discrepancies in a number of countries around the world, which are hindering women’s participation in science and technology both at school and at work, the agency noted.

In the United States, for example, a Yale University study found that women science graduates are discriminated against when applying for research posts. In Iran, the Government recently announced that women will be excluded from a wide range of university studies, including nuclear physics and electrical engineering. In China, several universities require women to obtain higher entry grades than men for science courses.

“Girls are far less likely than boys to study engineering or computer or physical sciences,” said the Director of ILO’s Bureau for Gender Equality, Jane Hodges. “Stereotypes of girls represent them as less interested or capable in certain subjects – such as mathematics and science. This inevitably reduces their access to jobs with better pay or labour markets that may offer better opportunities.”

However, when encouraged, girls do excel in scientific subjects, she added.

With an estimated 500 million people entering the global workforce over the next decade, Ms. Hodges stressed that it is crucial that women in science and technology jobs are not left working at the lowest levels.

“Even though women hold more than 60 per cent of information and communication technology-related jobs in OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, only 10 to 20 per cent are computer programmers, engineers, systems analysts or designers,” she said. “Education and skills training – and a change in attitudes – are vital to ensure women are not left behind.”

“Let us be under no illusion. This is a crisis. A threat to us all. Our economies. Our security. And the well-being of our children and those who will come after,” Ban said at the start of the high-level segment of the 18th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

“The danger signs are all around,” he added, pointing to the unprecedented melting of icecaps, rising sea levels, and land degradation and drought in various parts of the world.

“No one is immune to climate change – rich or poor,” he stated. “It is an existential challenge for the whole human race – our way of life, our plans for the future. We must take ownership. We, collectively, are the problem. Then we should have the solutions.”

The two-week conference brings together the 195 Parties to the UNFCCC, the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Under the Protocol, 37 States – consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy – have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments.

Delegates at the two-week conference – that ends this Friday – will, among other goals, try to extend the Kyoto Protocol, whose first commitment period expires at the end of 2012.

“I urge all Parties to work with a spirit of compromise – to take the long view and avoid getting bogged down in minutiae,” Ban told participants. “Let us ensure that we stay on track for an effective, fair, ambitious and universal climate agreement by 2015.”

The Secretary-General said he hoped for five key “deliverables” by Governments in Doha this week, beginning with the adoption of a ratifiable second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.

“The Kyoto Protocol remains the closest we have to a global, binding climate agreement. It must continue. It is a foundation to build on. It has important institutions, including accounting and legal systems, and the framework that markets sorely need. Its continuation on 1 January 2013 would show that governments remain committed to a more robust climate regime.”

He also expected progress on long-term climate finance, and ensuring that the institutions set up in Cancun and Durban to support mitigation and adaptation by developing countries – including the Green Climate Fund and the Climate Technology Centre and Network – are fully equipped and effective.

In addition, he expected governments to demonstrate, with no ambiguity, that negotiations on a global and legally binding instrument remain on track, and to show how they intend to act on the gap between mitigation pledges and what is required to achieve the two degrees target.

Recent UN-led reports have pointed to the urgency of keeping global average temperatures from rising beyond an internationally agreed level of two degrees Celsius, beyond which climate change would have serious impacts.

“The gap can be bridged. But time is not on our side,” Ban warned.

The President of the General Assembly, Vuk Jeremic, told the meeting that addressing the problem of climate change must become a core national interest of every UN Member State.

“The window of opportunity to prevent the effects of climate change from spiralling out of our control is closing,” he said. “When future generations look upon the choices we made, let them not be forced to exclaim that we failed to act in time. Let them not have to suffer the consequences of the inability to answer the clarion call to act with conscientious foresight.”

Speaking to reporters in Doha today, Ban emphasized that “we are in a race against time,” adding that every delay will require greater future effort or will mean greater future harm.

“If we act together with clear purpose, we can meet this challenge. But we need to be united – governments from all regions, business and civil society. We have a clear choice: stand together, or fall together.”

“Movement is still restricted in parts of Rakhine state, preventing some villagers from going to work, accessing markets, food supplies, health services and education,” a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Adrian Edwards, told reporters in Geneva. “Out of desperation, people are leaving villages to seek food and medical assistance at the IDP camps.”

In June, violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in the state of Rakhine, located in western Myanmar, led to the country’s Government declaring a state of emergency there.

The figure of 75,000 people in need of humanitarian aid, provided by local authorities, is an increase on initial Government estimates of some 50,000 people displaced shortly after the unrest broke out in early June, according to UNHCR. It added that a resurgence of violence in early August resulted in more than 4,000 people having their homes burned down, affecting thousands more.

The refugee agency, along with its humanitarian partners, has been advocating for greater humanitarian access and support for the most affected villages, including the towns of Sittwe, Kyauk Taw and Maungdaw.

“We hope that by delivering aid in places of origin, humanitarian agencies can help to prevent further displacement and make interventions that can facilitate the eventual return of IDPs,” Edwards said.

UNHCR is distributing relief supplies for some 54,000 people in IDP sites. The supplies include plastic sheets, sleeping mats, blankets, mosquito nets and kitchen sets.

The agency is also supporting the construction of emergency temporary shelters that can house about 10,500 people, and continues to support delivery of basic assistance such as food, water and sanitation to Government-run IDP camps until the situation stabilizes sufficiently for them to return home.

Edwards added that despite the rising numbers of IDPs, some people whose houses were not damaged have returned to the town of Sittwe. He added that a “fragile calm” has returned, but the situation remains tense.

“The truth is that the Security Council has become an obstacle to international efforts to address and solve situations such as in Syria,” Iceland’s Foreign Minister, Össur Skarphéðinsson, said in his speech to the 67th Assembly’s General Debate, at UN Headquarters in New York.

More than 18,000 have been killed and hundreds of thousands more driven from their homes in fighting between the Government and opponents in the Middle Eastern country.

“The Syrian problem is also a wake-up call for the UN with regard to the Security Council. Syria has demonstrated how arcane the Council is, and how out-of-tune it is with the needs of the modern world,” he added of the 15-member body, in which a veto from one of its five permanent members can trump a decision by all 14 others.

Resolutions to address the Syrian situation have twice been vetoed in the past year, most recently in July.

“Thousands of innocent people, not least innocent children, are losing their lives due to an oppressive regime,” Mr. Skarphéðinsson told the gathered delegates, on the fifth day of the General Debate. “The international community must unite to end the violence and we must make a better effort to seek a political and peaceful solution for the sake of the Syrian people.

“We must also ensure that those, on both sides, who commit atrocities, will at the end of the day face their responsibility in an international court of law.”

The Foreign Minister also strongly criticized Israel for its blockade of Gaza and the violation of the human rights of the Palestinians in the West Bank. He also appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to bomb Iran over that country’s nuclear programme and to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad not to build a nuclear bomb.

The call for strengthening the UN to endow it with the capability to forestall crises such as the one now engulfing Syria was echoed by Foreign Minister Nebojša Kaluderovic of Montenegro.

“The scale and consequences of violence in Syria serve as a stern reminder of the importance of preventive measures in preserving international peace and security, which requires enhancement of the UN preventive capacities and the role of dialogue and mediation in peaceful conflict resolution,” he said to the Assembly.

“Montenegro strongly advocates an approach that strives towards an early prevention and elimination of threats before they evolve into sources of conflict,” he added, pledging to increase his country’s participation in peacekeeping operations in accordance with its capacities.

Calling the Syrian crisis an “existential challenge” to the UN, in her remarks to the Assembly, Liechtenstein’s Foreign Minister Aurelia Frick called on the Council’s five permanent members – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States – to give up their right of veto in matters of atrocities.

“We ask them to acknowledge that the Council must at all times act in accordance with the purposes and principle of the United Nations,” Ms. Frick said. “And we therefore request that they pledge not to use the veto to block Council action aimed at preventing or ending genocide, crime against humanity and war crimes.”

In his address to the General Debate on Friday, Andorra’s Foreign Minister, Gilbert Saboya Sunyé, said that for all its shortcomings, the world was still a much better place thanks to the United Nations.

“Although the way the United Nations system works is indeed far from optimal, we should not forget however that what today is reality seemed an unattainable dream a century ago,” he said. “We should move on from talk of dreams and progress to talk of ambition. We should move on from dreaming about change to having the ambition to change.”

The European Ministers are among of scores of world leaders and other high-level officials presenting their views and comments on issues of individual, national and international relevance at the Assembly’s General Debate, which ends on 1 October.

“I want to highlight the noble efforts of the Iraqi Government and the people of Iraq to support Syrian refugees,” said the Hollywood actress, who is also a special envoy for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

“At this juncture, it is critical that Iraq receives urgent international support and continues to welcome refugees across its borders,” she added.

More than 260,000 Syrian refugees have been registered in neighbouring countries since the conflict began in March 2011, according to UNHCR. Earlier this week, Ms. Jolie visited Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey with High Commissioner António Guterres, with both of them pledging continued support and emphasizing the life-saving importance of maintaining open borders and hosting Syrians in need.

More than 18,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began last year. Amidst reports of an escalation in violence in recent weeks in many towns and villages, as well as the country’s two biggest cities, Damascus and Aleppo, UN agencies now estimate that some 2.5 million Syrians are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Jolie spent Sunday meeting with Syrian refugees in the Domiz camp in northern Iraq. She also met officials of the Kurdistan Regional Government, including the prime minister, the interior minister and the governor of Dohuk. Many of the officials she met were former refugees.

While in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on Saturday, the special envoy met with senior government officials and spent time with Iraqis, until recently refugees in Syria, who have returned to Iraq after fleeing violence in their places of former refuge.

“I am saddened that the people of Kutum have again had to endure pain and suffering,” UNAMID’s Acting Joint Special Representative, Aichatou Mindaoudou, said in a news release. “UNAMID calls for a cessation in hostilities and for all parties to engage in peaceful dialogue.”

According to the news release, UNAMID peacekeepers at a team site near the town of Kutum, located some 100 kilometres northwest of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, reported that the security situation began deteriorating on Tuesday, 4 September, with a rash of shootings, including an assassination attempt on a local official.

The incidents reportedly resulted in several dead and wounded, and UNAMID evacuated wounded civilians to El-Fasher by helicopter for emergency medical treatment. On 5 September, armed men allegedly fired at local civilians, resulting in additional casualties.

The latest violence comes as the locality recovers from a series of attacks, and subsequent destruction and looting, which took place last month.

That violence began on August 1, with the shooting of a district commissioner and his driver during a car-jacking by three unidentified armed men. The vehicle was recovered later that same day, in the vicinity of the Kassab camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs), located near Kutum.

Later that day, armed men surrounded Kassab, looted its market and burnt down the police post located within. Three civilians and one police officer were reported killed, in addition to six people injured.

In the following days, similar events took place – such as fighting between armed elements and Government forces, looting and the displacement of civilians – leading to a deterioration of the security and humanitarian situation at the Kassab and Fataborno IDP camps, as well as around Kutum. The incidents forced more than 25,000 IDPs from Kassab camp to flee and seek refuge in Kutum.

In response, UNAMID began providing a round-the-clock presence with continuous patrols, monitoring movements in and around the camp and facilitating humanitarian assistance.

At the end of August, UN humanitarian agencies and non-governmental partner organizations reported that they were able to resume their activities at Kassab IDP camp, with about 80 percent of its residents having returned following the violence in August.

“Ironically, only in developed economies are youth unemployment rates expected to fall in the coming years, but this follows the largest increase in youth unemployment among all regions since the start of the crisis,” said Ekkehard Ernst, the lead author of the UN International Labour Organization (ILO)’s paper, entitled Global Employment Outlook: Bleak Labour Market Prospects for Youth.

The paper forecasts the youth unemployment rate in developed economies dropping gradually, from 17.5 per cent this year to 15.6 per cent in 2017 – far higher than the rate of 12.5 per cent registered in 2007, before the crisis struck.

Much of the projected decline in the jobless rate is not due to improvements in the labour market, but rather to large numbers of young people dropping out of the labour force altogether due to discouragement, ILO noted in a news release, adding that these discouraged youth are not counted among the unemployed.

According to ILO, young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults, and over 75 million youth worldwide are looking for work. The labour agency has previously warned of a “scarred” generation of young workers facing a dangerous mix of high unemployment, increased inactivity and precarious work in developed countries, as well as persistently high working poverty in the developing world.

The ILO paper notes that the global youth unemployment rate will reach 12.9 per cent by 2017 – up 0.2 percentage points from forecasts for 2012. Youth unemployment is projected to be highest in North Africa and the Middle East, with a 25 per cent rate forecast over the next years.

The labour agency notes that even in countries with early signs of a jobs recovery and where new vacancies are opening up, many unemployed youth still find it difficult to land a job. For example, a construction worker whose job was lost during the housing bust might not have the skills needed in sectors that are hiring.

“This leads to discouragement and rising NEET rates (“neither in employment, education or training”) among young people,” said Mr. Ernst, who also heads ILO’s Employment Trends Unit. “Schemes using employment guarantees and an emphasis on training could help get jobseekers off the street and into useful activities, providing a safeguard against further economic stress.”

According to the paper, such youth guarantees can come at very limited cost, less than half a per cent of gross domestic product among European countries.

“In times of constrained public finances, this may seem like a large additional burden, but it will be less than the additional costs that come from young unemployed people permanently losing touch with the labour market,” the paper states.

At its annual conference in June this year, ILO adopted a resolution calling for immediate, targeted and renewed action to tackle the youth employment crisis. The resolution provides a portfolio of tried and tested measures in five areas: macro-economic policies, employability, labour market policies, youth entrepreneurship and rights. It underscores the need for balance, coherence and complementarity across policy measures.

“Clashes between rival neighbourhoods in Tripoli continue, and this has affected the pace of registration from our newly established centre in the city,” a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Adrian Edwards, told a media briefing in Geneva.

“The registration centre was open until yesterday with reduced staff as about half of them live in areas affected by shooting. Today, however, we’ve had to close the centre temporarily for security reasons,” Edwards said, adding that UNHCR would continue its operations despite the security challenges.

Syria has been wracked by violence, with an estimated 17,000 people, mostly civilians, killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 17 months ago. According to media reports, fighting between supporters and opponents of the Syrian Government in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, has killed more than 12 people this week, and there has been an increase in tensions in other parts of the country, such as the northern city of Tripoli.

The registration of refugees has also been affected in the Bekaa valley, located along the border with Syria in eastern Lebanon, in the wake of recent kidnappings of Syrians in the area. “As a protection measure for the refugees, we are avoiding large gatherings of Syrians at registration and distribution points in some areas though assistance continues in a modified way,” Edwards said.

Some 51,000 Syrians have registered or applied to register with UNHCR in Lebanon. One of the refugee agency’s key concerns is to identify and rehabilitate alternative shelters for the growing number of people staying in schools, which are due to resume classes next month.

Edwards said the refugee agency has identified abandoned schools and hopes to relocate some 500 people in the Bekaa valley in the coming fortnight. “Across Lebanon, UNHCR has been continuing its back-to-school drive and yesterday met with school directors in Halba Public School in the north to identify places for refugee children,” he said.

Overall, the total number of Syrian refugees registered or awaiting registration with UNHCR currently stands at 202,512.

UNHCR is also continuing its operations in Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Syria, the spokesperson added. In Turkey, the country hosting the largest number of Syrian refugees, seven new camps are being built, which will bring the total number of camps to 16, with a capacity to hold 130,000 people.

Meanwhile, the influx of refugees continues in Jordan and Iraq, where UNHCR is working on improving conditions in camps to give people access to basic services such as electricity.

In addition, the spokesperson said, the agency continues its work in Syria itself, despite an escalation in military activity in the capital, Damascus, which has restricted staff movements and the ability of refugees to access the UNHCR office.

“Our hotlines continue to operate giving counselling to refugees who enquire about relocation, food distribution, financial assistance, residency issues, registration and resettlement,” Mr. Edwards said. “Relief items like hygiene kits and mattresses are being distributed to displaced people via our partners.”

Tomás Ojea Quintana, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, noted a number of positive developments during his 30 July to 4 August visit, including the increasing engagement of civil society, political parties and other stakeholders in the reform process, greater openness in discussing human rights issues, and efforts towards building a society based on the rule of law.

At the same time, he highlighted a number of key human rights concerns, including the situation in Rakhine state and the related detention of UN staff members, the continued detention of prisoners of conscience, and the situation in Kachin state.

Clashes between Buddhist and Muslim communities in Rakhine state reportedly killed at least 78 people and displaced thousands in June.

“The human rights situation in Rakhine state is serious,” said Ojea Quintana, who witnessed the suffering of people who have lost their homes and livelihoods as a result of the violence.

In a statement issued yesterday, the expert called for a credible, independent investigation into allegations of serious human rights violations committed by State actors in Rakhine, including the excessive use of force by security and police personnel, arbitrary arrest and detention, killings, the denial of due process guarantees and the use of torture in places of detention.

“It is of fundamental importance to clearly establish what has happened in Rakhine state and to ensure accountability. Reconciliation will not be possible without this, and exaggerations and distortions will fill the vacuum to further fuel distrust and tensions between communities,” he said on Saturday prior to leaving the country.

Urgent attention was also required to address the immediate humanitarian needs of the displaced, particularly in the larger camps, he said, urging the international community to respond to Myanmar authorities’ appeal for increased assistance.

He also stressed the need for the Government to develop a longer-term strategy for rehabilitation and reconciliation – one that is based on integration and not separation of the Rakhine Buddhist and Rohingya communities.

Ojea Quintana also met prisoners of conscience at Insein Prison and called for the release of all remaining prisoners of conscience without conditions or delay. He commended the President for releasing a number of other prisoners of conscience, including Phyo Wai Aung who was released during his visit.

He interviewed six UN staff members, in Insein and Buthidaung prisons, who have been detained in connection with the events in Rakhine State, adding that he had also received information that a number of staff of international non-governmental organizations had been similarly detained.

“Based on my interviews, I have serious concerns about the treatment of these individuals during detention,” said the Special Rapporteur, who called for their immediate release, adding that the charges against them are “unfounded” and that their due process rights have been denied.

Welcoming the ceasefire agreements reached with 10 ethnic armed groups, and the ongoing dialogue in this regard, Mr. Ojea Quintana said that efforts towards finding a durable political solutions to the conflicts should be accelerated and should address long-standing grievances and deep-rooted concerns amongst ethnic groups.

“Yet, as a result of ongoing conflict, particularly in Kachin State, I continue to receive allegations of serious human rights violations committed, including attacks against civilian populations, extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, internal displacement, and torture. Furthermore, I received allegations of the use of landmines, the recruitment of child soldiers, as well as forced labour and portering committed by all parties to the conflict,” he said.

He reiterated the need to address these allegations as a matter of priority, as well as grievances from decades of human rights violations.

The Special Rapporteur called on Myanmar to ensure that a human rights-based approach is firmly embedded in its economic and social development, especially given the increase of foreign investment.

During his visit, Ojea Quintana met a number of high-level Government officials, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Vice-Speaker of the Pyithu Hluttaw (lower house) and members of several parliamentary committees, the National Human Rights Commission, local authorities in Rakhine State, and civil society. He also met pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

“Last year, we were able to halt the downward spiral into starvation for hundreds of thousands of people. Famine conditions have not been present since January,” said the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, in a news release.

“However, the humanitarian situation in Somalia remains critical with 2.51 million people in urgent need of aid and a further 1.29 million at risk of sliding back into crisis,” he added.

On 20 July 2011, famine was declared in southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle, after the regions were hit by one of the worst droughts in decades. A month later, the famine spread to four more regions in the country, including the capital, Mogadishu.

The six-month crisis caused thousands of deaths and required a massive humanitarian aid programme, before the famine was declared officially over on 2 February 2012. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), famine is declared when acute malnutrition rates among children exceed 30 per cent, more than two people per every 10,000 die per day, and people are not able to access food and other basic necessities.

The humanitarian situation was complicated by the broader context on the ground. The militant group known as the Al-Shabaab has denied direct access, for a range of international humanitarian organizations, to those people most in need in parts of the country under its control. The Al-Shabaab has been engaged in warfare with Somalia’s military and the UN-backed African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) over territory.

Bowden said there had been progress largely on the humanitarian front due to the exceptional harvest at the beginning of the year and innovative approaches to food security, which address changes in world food prices and obstacles to access people.

However, he noted, the progress made since last year could easily slip backwards if high levels of assistance are not sustained.

“Humanitarian actors need funds to provide the most vulnerable Somalis with urgently needed assistance, such as food, clean water, sanitation facilities and medical care,” Bowden said. “These funds are also needed to build sustainable livelihoods for people who have few or no resources after years of drought and conflict, thereby increasing their resilience to future crises.”

Also today, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stressed that the situation in Somalia remains critical as reduced rains this year will lead to a below-average to poor harvest in many parts of the south.

“Continued humanitarian support is of utmost importance,” said FAO’s Head of Operations in Somalia, Luca Alinovi, adding that there is also a need to build social safety nets to protect the most vulnerable if and when drought hits again in the future.

FAO has been helping farmers and herders build long-term resilience not just through the immediate provision of cash but also by providing improved seeds and fertilizers, as well as vaccinations for livestock to increase production.

For its part, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today that it has been working on long-term interventions to build resilience and address the needs of the most vulnerable, including nearly one million children who have been treated for malnutrition across the Horn of Africa.

“Traditional coping mechanisms are being stretched to the limit for many communities,” said UNICEF’s Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Elhadj As Sy. “We need to preserve our hard-won gains, and invest in children today to prevent similar crises from happening again in the future.”

UN agencies and humanitarian non-governmental organizations are urging donors to provide $576 million to address the population’s needs over the next six months. According to OCHA, the revised appeal for the entire year is $1.16 billion, half of which has been received.