Press Conference

The United Nations, as part of its ongoing effort to bolster international law and strengthen the rule of law, will host its annual treaty event from 20 to 22 September and 26 to 27 September on the margins of the General Assembly’s general debate, top legal officers said today at a Headquarters press conference.

Following is a transcript of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s press conference, held in New York today, 15 September:

The General Assembly will convene a landmark meeting next week to energize the global community’s strategy to tackle deadly non-communicable diseases — including heart disease, the world’s number one killer — which not only caused huge numbers of premature and preventable deaths, but also undermined socio-economic development, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official said at Headquarters today.

With staggering numbers of people in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa affected by — and on the run from — severe shortages of food and water, a senior official overseeing the response of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to the crisis said today that the United Nations was intensifying its efforts to save lives and livelihoods, while working with regional partners to help drought-prone countries avert future catastrophes.

Remarkable but fragile gains had been made in the fight against malaria over in last decade, making it critical to close funding gaps, scale up the use of effective interventions, combat drug and insecticide resistance, while supporting research and development to ensure that new ambitious targets would be met, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at a Headquarters press conference today.

The General Assembly’s incoming President, in his first Headquarters press conference this afternoon, said the sixty-sixth session would focus on the priority theme of mediation.

Preventive diplomacy — first defined by former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld 50 years ago — was crucial to defusing tensions before they escalated into conflict, and such efforts were increasingly being undertaken by the United Nations, Member States and other partners amid the changing political and security landscape, B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said today at a Headquarters press conference.

In the past year, the General Assembly had made important contributions to the mobilization of support for the Millennium Development Goals, the green economy and sustainable development, as well as the role of the United Nations in global governance, Joseph Deiss (Switzerland), outgoing Assembly President, said at his final Headquarters press conference today.

Visiting the United Nations as a “father who wants to bring his son home”, the father of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit said today that his son’s release must be considered in the context of the Palestinian bid for recognition as a Member State during the upcoming General Assembly session.

Diplomats working to strengthen implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities stressed today the need for Governments to work harder to identify and tear down barriers hampering the employment of disabled persons and preventing them from participating fully in their communities.