PRESS BRIEFING BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UNICEF

“Children are not an expense, they are an investment” was the message being sent by children during the current special session of the General Assembly, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund, Carol Bellamy, told correspondents this afternoon at Headquarters.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED STATES

United States Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, Wade Horn, and other members of the United States' delegation to the special session, briefed correspondents today on their country's commitment to children and their hopes for the session's outcome document.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY CHILD RIGHTS CAUCUS

At a Headquarters press conference today on the eve of the start of the United Nations General Assembly special session on children, the United States came under harsh criticism for being one of only two countries in the world -– the second being Somalia -- that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

PRESS CONFERENCE BY NATIONAL CHILDREN’S RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS

The same language, the same passion, and the same sense of what is right for children and what their rights are informed the actions of all the independent national institutions currently meeting in the shadow of the special session of the General Assembly on children, New Zealand’s Commissioner for Children, Roger McClay, told a press conference at United Nations Headquarters this afternoon.

NGO PRESS CONFERENCE ON MIDDLE EAST SITUATION

Despite the recent comment made by United States Secretary of State Colin Powell that expectations should not be too high for the upcoming peace conference on the Middle East, the Director of an Israeli women's peace organization said at a Headquarters press conference today that expectations needed to be higher than ever.

PRESS CONFERENCE ON CHILD LABOUR

Launching "A Future Without Child Labour", the International Labour Organization's most comprehensive study on the subject, ILO Director General Juan Somavia told correspondents that 246 million children -- one in every six children aged 5 to 17 -- were involved in child labour.

PRESS BRIEFING BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

The Security Council fully respected the responsibilities of the General Assembly and would do nothing to interfere with that body’s right to act according to those responsibilities, President of the Security Council for the month of May, Kishore Mahbubani of Singapore, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing today held to outline the Council's programme for the month.

PRESS CONFERENCE ON SPECIAL SESSION ON CHILDREN

Next week's General Assembly special session on children would provide an opportunity to address the unfinished business of the 1990 World Summit on Children, M. Patricia Durrant (Jamaica), Chair of the Preparatory Committee for the forthcoming event, said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

PRESS CONFERENCE ON SIERRA LEONE

Lieutenant General Manfred Eisele, team leader of the Disarmament, Assessment Mission in Sierra Leone, briefed correspondents this morning at Headquarters, following the team's most recent visit to the country. 

PRESS CONFERENCE ON DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA

More than 6 million people in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea might face life-threatening shortages of food, basic medicines and clean drinking water unless donor countries acted quickly, Kenzo Oshima, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told correspondents at Headquarters this afternoon.