PRESS CONFERENCE ON IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION SP0NSORED BY UNITED STATES

“We are here to say to the international community that Iraq is back”, members of a team of senior experts from key sectors in Iraq announced today to correspondents, at a Headquarters press conference sponsored by the United States Mission.

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNFPA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

At a Headquarters press briefing today, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Thoraya Obaid, sounded a global alarm to help women combat obstetric fistula, a debilitating pregnancy-related condition caused by prolonged obstructed labour.

PRESS BRIEFING BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UN OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME

The Myanmar and Lao People’s Democratic Republic Opium Surveys for 2003 confirm the downward trend in opium cultivation in the “Golden Triangle” (which also includes Thailand), Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), stated this afternoon at the launch of the surveys at Headquarters.

PRESS CONFERENCE ON PERU’S TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

After two intense years, the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission was nearing the final stages of its work and would soon release a report on its findings, correspondents were told this morning at a Headquarters press conference sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

PRESS CONFERENCE ON CHILDREN IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

The Security Council must give higher priority to protecting the lives and rights of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and holding the perpetrators of abuses accountable, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

NGO PRESS CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

PRESS BRIEFING ON SECURITY COUNCIL’S CENTRAL AFRICA MISSION

Briefing correspondents today on the upcoming Security Council mission to Central Africa, the Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, Jean-Marc de la Sablière, said that the Council’s “ground-based approach” to peacekeeping, involving the deployment of “Blue Helmets” and the authorization of a multinational force, had no hope of succeeding unless there was a solid political process in place. 

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS

The simple announcement of the deployment of a multinational force to Bunia had already made a difference in the people’s lives there, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

PRESS CONFERENCE ON UNITED NATIONS-CIVIL SOCIETY RELATIONS

It was time to look at new methods of interaction between the United Nations and non-State actors, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former President of Brazil and Chairman of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations Relations with Civil Society, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.