Results for Press Releases

Unacceptable physical abuse is causing long-term damage to the lives and futures of far too many children in East Asia and the Pacific, according to a report released by UNICEF, August 8.

Those wishing to take Pacific style, hand woven or tapa cloth mats into New Zealand need to be taken to Tonga MAFFF for inspection and/or treatment before departure, as a Phytosanitary certificate will have to be issued by them to attest to the inspection and treatment they had carried out. – NZ High Commission.

More than 300 officials from the European Union and the Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific States will convene this week in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu for one of the most important meetings of the year between the two groups.

Tonga's King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau'u left Tonga on Saturday May 5 to attend special events in London, to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde Welcomes Progress towards Using US$1.1 Billion of Gold Profits as part of a strategy to Boost Concessional Lending to Low-Income Countries and Calls on More Members to Join Effort.

The global economy must help deliver the right type of growth and the jobs that people need. That is not happening on the scale needed right now and therefore some fundamental issues need to be addressed, Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, said in an address to the Brookings Institute, on April 12, when she called on strengthened cooperation and a strengthened IMF to help take advantage of "the tectonic shifts taking place in the global economy", and to achieve equitable and inclusive growth.

Niue signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) today, becoming the 183rd country to do so. Tibor Tóth, Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), said: "I welcome Niue to the CTBT family of nations. Niue's signature of the CTBT consolidates the Pacific region's firm stand against nuclear testing and closes the door on nuclear testing a bit further. I also hope that this step will serve to encourage other Pacific Island States that have not yet done so to sign and or ratifiy the Treaty at the earliest opportunity."

World Water Day is an annual event to help focus the world's attention on water and its development and conservation. It is observed every 22 March. The global theme this year is 'Water and food security – The world is thirsty because we are hungry'. The Pacific theme for World Water Day 2012 is 'Water Security is Food Security'.

Vijay Krishnarayan, heralding from Trinidad and Tobago and current Deputy Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, has been appointed Director of the intergovernmental organisation.