In progress at UNHQ

Press Conference


At a Headquarters press conference today, Members of national parliaments from around the world called for delegations to the arms trade treaty conference to negotiate a strong treaty, amid concerns that a new draft text to be presented Wednesday would be weaker and “lack teeth” in monitoring and compliance.
Another high-ranking United Nations official added his voice to the growing concern over reports of increased violence between Myanmar’s Buddhist and Muslim communities, calling on the country’s leaders to bring the perpetrators of such intolerance to book.
With only four days left to conclude a strong, robust instrument, the President of the Final United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty should not succumb to pressure from major weapons exporters seeking to weaken its provisions, civil society representatives said at a Headquarters press conference today.
While reaching consensus on the Final United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty was a laudable aim, the main focus of the resumed negotiations should be “getting it right” and ensuring that a strong treaty emerged from the discussions, a civil society representative said at a Headquarters press conference today.
Unprecedented human development gains across the developing world were radically reshaping the international power balance and making the global North and South increasingly interdependent, according to this year’s Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), presented at a Headquarters news conference and ahead of its official launch in Mexico City on 14 March.