In progress at UNHQ

Press Conference


Governments on the United Nations-identified list of 49 least developed countries should intensify efforts to bridge the widening gap between economic growth and unemployment, a senior official from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said at a Headquarters press conference today.
Proper sanitation and hygiene were key to promoting robust and healthy living conditions in communities around the world, and ensuring sustainable development, panellists said at a Headquarters press conference today to mark the first World Toilet Day.
The Security Council should “unlock” the situation in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile States so that humanitarian agencies and partners could have unfettered access to administer polio vaccinations in the two States, a senior official from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said at a Headquarters press conference today.
The Security Council’s work programme in November would adhere to a “tight” schedule, comprising 30 meetings and consultations on 20 items, with the Middle East and Africa featuring highest on the agenda, the Permanent Representative of China said today, as he assumed the presidency of the 15-member body.
A new legally binding international framework was urgently needed to regulate the use and activities of private military and security companies and to adequately address human rights violations, said the chair of the Working Group on the issue, at a Headquarters press conference today.

Underscoring the need for collective international action to build peace, stability and development in the crisis-torn Sahel region, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced at a Headquarters press conference today that he would undertake a joint visit there next week with Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, and senior officials from the European Union and African Union.

Ending child marriages, both in law and practice, and giving both boys and girls unfettered access to comprehensive sexual education, health services, reproductive choices and contraception would curb adolescent pregnancy worldwide, a senior United Nations population official said at a Headquarters press conference today.