PRESS CONFERENCE BY UN CHILDREN’S FUND

Addressing child marriage as a violation of a child's basic rights, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released a new report today entitled "Early Marriage: Child Spouses".  The report looks at the many implications of child marriages and analyses their root causes, seeking to begin a global campaign to end that widespread practice.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

Unless urgent measures were taken, the ethnic tensions of Kosovo could spill over its borders and destabilize the entire region, Zoran Zizic, Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

PRESS CONFERENCE ON WOMEN'S COMMISSION

Gender mainstreaming, trafficking in human beings and gender aspects of the problems of HIV/AIDS and racism were among the issues to be highlighted during the two-week session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which began its work today, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

PRESS CONFERENCE ON WORLD ASSEMBLY ON AGEING

At a Headquarters press conference today on preparations for the Second World Assembly on Ageing, John Langmore, Director of the Division of Social Policy and Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said the fact that many people were living longer was one of the greatest achievements of the twentieth century.

DAILY BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of the daily press briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General

PRESS CONFERENCE BY UN MINE ACTION SERVICE

The remarkable headway achieved by recent international and regional initiatives aimed at banning, as well as curbing the sale or transfer of anti-personnel landmines, confirmed the global community's renewed sense of energy to ensure the safety of the world's people, Martin Barber, Chief of the United Nations Mine Action Service told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

PRESS BRIEFING BY EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR

The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, worsened by drought, required urgent action to prevent a catastrophe, Kenzo Oshima, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told correspondents at Headquarters today as he briefed them on his recent trip to that country.

PRESS BRIEFING BY UN POPULATION DIVISION DIRECTOR

ON WORLD POPULATION PROSPECTS REPORT

The world would be about 50 per cent larger by mid-century as well as substantially older, more ethnically and culturally diverse, and more urbanized, with megacities concentrated in the developing countries, Joseph Chamie, Director of the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, told correspondents this morning.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY SWEDEN AS CHAIR OF EUROPEAN UNION

Sweden’s Minister of Defence, Bjorn von Sydow, gave a press conference at United Nations Headquarters this afternoon on interaction between the United Nations and the European Union.  Sweden is currently Chair of the Union.

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNDP ASIA PACIFIC BUREAU HEAD

The United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) expected to play an even more active role in East Timor after the establishment of a national government there, Hafiz Pasha, Assistant Secretary-General and head of the Asia Pacific Bureau of UNDP, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon, as he briefed them on his recent trip to Asia.