She hopes that this will be the start of a series of significant steps to advance the protection of human rights in Cuba, Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva.

Mr. Colville added that it will be particularly good news when the phased release of the 52 detainees has actually been completed.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and the Roman Catholic Church reportedly helped arrange the deal under which the detainees will be released and then head to Spain.

The High Commissioner also welcomed the news that Cuban human rights defender Guillermo Farinas has announced the halt, at least temporarily, of his hunger strike in response to the latest development, Mr. Colville stated.

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The devastating 12 January earthquake destroyed the countrys main post office and the building housing the Express Mail Service (EMS) in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Many post offices in other areas also sustained very heavy damage.

Member countries of the UN Universal Postal Union (UPU), who donated over 0,000 to help get the Haiti Post back on its feet, can now send mail to the country.

All postal items will go through the new 600-square metre processing site which looks like an enormous tent and can withstand winds of up to 225 kilometres an hour, as well as strong seismic activity purchased by the UN agency.

The Post, because of its omnipresence and the services it provides to people and businesses, must be a priority in the devastated countrys reconstruction efforts, UPU Director General Edouard Dayan said at the facilitys unveiling in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday.

Stressing the key role that postal services serve in stimulating Haitis economy, he underlined that the country still requires emergency assistance. But today we must look to the future and develop the essential infrastructures the country needs, including postal services.

Mail exchanges between Haiti and the United States and France resumed on 3 May, while international postal services officially restarted eight days later. On average, Haiti receives 100 bags of mail every day from abroad.

Also on Haiti, the first-ever meeting of the international committee on the protection of Haitis cultural heritage, much of which was damaged in the January quake, wrapped up its work today.

Set up by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and chaired by Haitis Minister of Culture Marie-Laurence Jocelyn-Lassegue, the 10-member committee seeks to mobilize resources and coordinate all actions pertinent to the countrys culture.

At the end of the two-day meeting, the body recommended taking urgent measures to rebuild the city of Jacmel, in the southeast, which was founded in the late 17th century and is on Haitis tentative list of sites to be put forward for consideration for inscription on UNESCOs World Heritage List.

Also severely damaged in the disaster were much of Haitis cultural infrastructure in Port-au-Prince, including the Cathedral, the National Palace and the Palace of Justice.

To date, UNESCO has some million in emergency aid for education, media and coastal alert systems in Haiti.

Regarding culture, however, we have only just received the first donation, said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova.

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“Your engagement is central to ensuring sustained and long-term attention to Haiti’s needs,” Mr. Ban said when he addressed the 31st meeting of heads of States of the Caribbean Community <a href=“http://www.caricom.org”>CARICOM in Montego Bay, Jamaica, late yesterday.

“Recovery will take many years, and will require consistent effort by all Haiti’s partners,” Mr. Ban said, adding that he was honoured to be the first Secretary-General of the United Nations to address a CARICOM summit. Haiti, he said, will continue to be a priority of the UN, adding that elections in November will be fundamental for ensuring the country’s democratic future.

Mr. Ban welcomed the General Assembly’s decision sponsored by CARICOM to convene a high-level meeting next year on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, saying he also looked forward to the organization’s participation in the high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals <a href=“http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals”>MDGs– the eight social development and poverty reduction targets which States have pledged to make efforts to achieve by 2015. The meeting will be held in the UN Headquarters in New York in September.

“Governments must agree in September on a concrete action plan that provides a clear road map to meet our collective targets and promise by 2015,” Mr. Ban said.

Expressing concern over organized transnational crime and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, Mr. Ban said that CARICOM and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime <a href=“http://www.unodc.org”>UNODChave developed a joint action plan to combat the problem.

“We must address security issues and social causes simultaneously. In this regard, I welcome the fact that the recently launched Caribbean Basin Security Initiative goes beyond traditional law enforcement approach, and I applaud CARICOM States on all your efforts to combat illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.

“It is important to consider the problem of drug control and the prevention of crime and terrorism in a regional context – and through the prism of development, human rights, the rule of law and security reform,” Mr. Ban said.

The Secretary-General commended CARICOM Member States for their leadership in the Copenhagen climate talks, saying the Caribbean community had conveyed an important message to the world – the threat of climate change is urgent and growing.

“You have been pioneers in calling attention to the specific vulnerability of Small Island States to climate change. Adaptation strategies to this very real threat will require sizeable and sustained investment,” Mr. Ban said.

The Copenhagen conference called on the international community to mobilize billion a year between now and 2012 and 0 billion a year up to 2020 for mitigation and adaptation actions in developing countries.

Mr. Ban said the UN will continue to support the efforts of nations in the Caribbean region to improve the lives of their people.

“Just as you are helping to advance our agenda, I would like to reiterate the commitment of the United Nations to your goals and aspirations. You can count on me to promote security, development and human rights. I take strength from the immortal wisdom of a great son of Jamaica. I will ‘get up.’ I will ‘stand up.’ And I won’t ‘give up the fight,” Mr. Ban said.

CARICOM Member States are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

Associate members are Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands.

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Lets do everything we can to ensure that Haiti gets state-of-the-art 21st century infrastructure, instead of simply replacing outdated 20th century equipment, said Hamadoun Tour, the agencys Secretary-General.

He was speaking yesterday at a high-level meeting in Barbados attended by representatives of ITU Member States, UN agencies, the World Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank, civil society and the private sector.

More than 200,000 people were killed in the 12 January earthquake, which left 1.3 million more homeless and destroyed countless buildings, including Government facilities, hospitals and schools.

Lets build in resilient features which will help to reduce network vulnerability in the future, Mr. Tour said. Lets make sure that Haiti gets broadband infrastructure, giving the country communications networks which are worthy of such an indomitable nation.

The Barbados meeting wrapped up with participants pledging their support for a trust fund for Haiti to be set up within ITU.

Within 24 hours of the quake on 12 January, ITU had deployed 40 satellite terminals to the capital, Port-au-Prince, for use by Government and humanitarian agencies to coordinate logistics and search and rescue operations. Flown to the Dominican Republic for free by FedEx, the equipment was rushed on UN transport from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince.

The ITU has also dispatched dozens of units with broadband capabilities, as well as engineers, to Haiti. The agency and its partners set up a mobile station providing wireless communications for humanitarian workers in the wake of the catastrophic earthquake.

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Mr. Treki and Mr. Correa discussed the high-level meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York in mid-September that will review progress made so far towards the MDGs, which have a target date of 2015. The Goals include the slashing of poverty, improvements to maternal health, overcoming environmental degradation and boosting school enrolment rates.

During todays talks, held in Guayaquil, Ecuadors largest city, Mr. Treki stressed the importance of developing countries participating at the September gathering, which will also consider where resources and attention should be devoted in the next five years to try to attain the MDGs.

Mr. Treki and Mr. Correa also discussed UN reform, the conflict in the Middle East and ongoing issues regarding international peace and security, according to Mr. Trekis spokesperson Jean-Victor Nkolo.

The General Assembly President also met with Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patio Aroca and other senior Government officials while visiting the Andean country. On this trip Mr. Treki has already visited Venezuela and Cuba.

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Presidential decrees issued last Thursday and yesterday have also mandated that the Provisional Electoral Council organize legislative polls on that date.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban called on the Haitian Government, the Provisional Electoral Council, political parties and all Haitians to ensure that the upcoming elections are transparent and credible and serve to reinforce Haitis democratic institutions as the country strives to recover from the worst humanitarian crisis in its history.

More than 200,000 people were killed in the 12 January earthquake, which left 1.3 million more homeless and destroyed countless buildings, including Government facilities, hospitals and schools.

The Secretary-General reiterates the United Nations commitment to provide comprehensive support to the Haitian authorities in the preparation and conduct of the elections, the statement said.

The UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have already started providing security, logistical and technical assistance for the elections.

In his latest report to the Security Council on Haiti, Mr. Ban said that elections are central to the Governments vision for a renewed State, a vision he appealed to the international community to support.

In his statement today, he encouraged UN Member States especially those taking part in the international task force supporting the polls to provide the financial resources needed for elections as swiftly as possible.

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The Thirty-First Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, which is also known as CARICOM, is slated to begin in Montego Bay on Sunday.

Mr. Ban is expected to tell participants that the international community must act in concert in dealing with the impact of the global economic crisis, particularly its effects on the worlds most vulnerable.

He will also discuss the MDGs, which have a target date of 2015, and the need for Caribbean countries to accelerate progress towards the goals, which include slashing poverty, improving maternal health, fighting environmental degradation and boosting school attendance rates.

In September the UN chief is hosting a high-level event at UN Headquarters in New York that is aimed at charting the progress so far towards the MDGs and determining where attention and resources should be devoted between now and 2015.

In his address to the CARICOM gathering, Mr. Ban is also set to discuss UN efforts to support Haiti in the aftermath of Januarys catastrophic earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people and left at least one million others homeless.

While visiting Jamaica Mr. Ban will also have bilateral meetings with various heads of Government from the Caribbean as well as representatives of regional organizations.

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A UN spokesperson announced today that Francisco DallAnese Ruiz, the current Attorney-General of Costa Rica, will succeed Carlos Castresana at the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (known as CICIG).

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who made the appointment, thanked Mr. Castresana who resigned earlier this month for his excellent work heading CICIG since its inception two and a half years ago.

The achievements of CICIG during that period have been praised by Guatemalan authorities, civil society and the international community alike, Mr. Ban said.

Since becoming Costa Rican Attorney-General in 2003, Mr. DallAnese has waged campaigns against narco-trafficking and organized crime, led major investigations against corruption and helped introduce prominent legislation against organized crime.

Mr. DallAnese has also served as an alternate magistrate in the Supreme Court, taught criminal law at university and co-authored numerous books and articles on criminal, judicial and procedural law. In 2005 he received a prize from the National Values Commission for his work against organized crime.

The UN and the Guatemalan Government set up CICIG as an independent body to support the public prosecutors office, the national civilian police and other institutions to investigate a limited number of sensitive and difficult cases regarding illegal security groups and clandestine security organizations and also dismantle them.

Based in Guatemala City, the capital, the Commission seeks to bolster the rule of law and is permitted by its mandate to conduct independent investigations and help authorities bring representative cases to trial in national courts.

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“Under any circumstances we must not balance budgets on the backs of the world”s poorest people,” the Secretary-General told leaders of the G20 at a working dinner in Toronto, Canada.

Mr. Ban has been taking part in the two-day summit to highlight the need for world leaders to step up efforts to eradicate poverty and achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for reducing extreme poverty and hunger, improving health and education, empowering women and ensuring environmental sustainability by 2015.

Speaking at the working dinner, Mr. Ban said Governments had to mobilize investments and could not depend on consumption alone to recover from the global downturn.

He urged world leaders to invest in three areas of high return which he identified as agriculture, green recovery and health systems.

“Healthy populations, particularly women and children can leverage countries out of poverty,” Mr. Ban said, calling for concrete commitments for the recently released Joint Action Plan for Women”s and Children”s Health.

Experts say the plan will require billion for immediate implementation in the 49 least developed countries, and up to billion per year by 2015.

“Let us be determined to turn these three areas of high-return investments into a reality. Tomorrow, the G-20 can make clear its intention to do so.”

Mr. Ban will convene a high-level summit at the UN Headquarters in New York in September to press countries to accelerate efforts to try to achieve the MDGs.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Ban met on the sidelines with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia. In addition to discussing the summit and the MDGs, Mr. Ban thanked the Prime Minister for his leadership in co-chairing the Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing.

Mr. Ban also met privately with President Lee Myung-bak of the Republic of Korea. The two leaders discussed topics related to the MDGs, as well as nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

Mr. Ban is scheduled to hold additional bilateral meetings tomorrow, in addition to taking part in the main discussions at the summit.

UN News Centre – Americas