Press Conference

Delegates at the just-concluded Third Preparatory Committee for the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference today adopted an agenda and reportfor the 2010 summit -- a “good omen” that reflected encouraging political realities and a fresh, cooperative spirit, which had eluded past meetings, Committee Chair Boniface Chidyausiku of Zimbabwe said at a Headquarters press conference.

Eric Danon, Representative of France to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, said today that the two-week preparatory meeting for the 2010 Nuclear Non-proliferation Review Conference heralded a change in attitude towards the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and brought new momentum to talks.

A viable climate change agreement was achievable before the critical Copenhagen meeting in December, but with only 200 days left, progress must accelerate, Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said at a Headquarters press conference today.

The international community must remain steadfastly committed to Haiti’s long-term recovery and development as the impoverished Caribbean island nation grappled with the impact of four hurricanes last year, sharp hikes in food and oil prices, and the global recession, the head of a team of United Nations advisers that visited Haiti last week said today at a Headquarters press conference.

Two senior advisers to the President of the General Assembly for the upcoming Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development today underlined the urgency for restructuring the global financial system, during a press conference at Headquarters.

A draft global plan of action to prevent trafficking in persons was not a panacea, but a “practical tool to further efforts in a focused way to achieve results”, Andrei Dapkiunas, Permanent Representative of Belarus to the United Nations, said today as he shed light on efforts to create a comprehensive United Nation strategy to address human trafficking.

Responding to a 13 May deadline set by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, some 69 countries filed claims to oceanic territories along their coast for an area extending 200 nautical miles from shore, said Hariharan Pakshi Rajan, Secretary of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

Stressing that only 1 to 2 per cent of the millions of human trafficking victims were rescued every year, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), implored Member States this afternoon to do a better job of combating the scourge.

The convergence of the global food, fuel, financial and economic crises, against a backdrop of climate change, presented an unprecedented opportunity for action to reshape the development agenda and should not be wasted, Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, said at a Headquarters press conference today.

The 18 newly elected members of the Human Rights Council would need to prove themselves by implementing the international human rights agenda at home and abroad, Craig Mokhiber, Deputy Director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said during a Headquarters news conference this afternoon.