Press Conference

The Security Council resolution on dismantling and eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities established a new norm ensuring that the use of such weapons by anyone anywhere constituted a threat to international peace and security, the 15-member body’s President for September said today.

Emerging from a period of difficult transition into a “decade of transformation”, Afghanistan’s upcoming April 2014 elections represented a critical juncture that would have wide-ranging implications for the country’s long-term peace and security, its Deputy Foreign Minister said at a Headquarters press conference today.

For too long, persons with disabilities had been excluded from development planning and it was time to recognize their enormous potential to create a more inclusive and equitable world, top United Nations officials said today, highlighting an unprecedented event aimed at dismantling the barriers to their full participation in society.

A renewed and stronger global partnership was necessary to accelerate the race to meet internationally agreed development goals by 2015, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today as he launched an annual progress report on those global commitments.

Many child victims of violence, exploitation and abuse remain out of sight, are not reflected in statistics, are surrounded by stigma, and are very often neglected by their communities, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children and Armed Conflict said at a Headquarters press conference today.

Viet Nam seeks to promote the peaceful resolution of conflicts not only with its neighbours, but also internationally as it continues to implement a foreign policy of peace and development cooperation while striving to become a constructive and responsible member of the international community, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations said at Headquarters today.

While significant gains had been made since the historic World Conference on Human Rights — held in Vienna, Austria, in 1993 — more was urgently needed to fully realize those rights for millions of people around the world, a top United Nations official said today at a Headquarters press conference, spotlighting an upcoming event to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Vienna Conference.

Following is a transcript of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s press conference, held in New York, 17 September:

Acknowledging attempts by many of his predecessors to move Security Council reform forward, the new President of the General Assembly said today that he would work for consensus on what that reform should look like.

The General Assembly would convene its sixty-eighth session on 17 September with more than 130 Heads of State and Government expected to address the 193-nation body from 24 September to 1 October, a senior United Nations conference management official said at a Headquarters press conference today.