Press Conference

The counter-terrorism regime created by the Security Council was “outside the scope of its powers”, and while international terrorism remained a very serious threat and constituted an atrocious crime, it did not justify an exercise by the Security Council of supranational quasi-judicial sanctioning powers over individuals, said a United Nations human rights expert at a Headquarters press conference today

A major food crisis was averted in Niger, thanks to good donor support, massive humanitarian intervention, good collaboration between the Government and humanitarian partners, and better than expected rains in the country, the top United Nations humanitarian affairs official said today.

Speaking at a Headquarters press conference today, the United Nations Special Rapporteur, promoting the right to physical and mental health, said that the so called “campaign for a drug free world” could actually result in violations of the right to health, as people who used drugs might not come forward to get the care they needed for fear of being arrested, or could be denied health care if they sought help.

The Head of the United Nations mission in Côte d’Ivoire — known as UNOCI — told reporters gathered at Headquarters today that the presidential elections would be held as scheduled on 31 October in the West African country. Addressing correspondents via a video link, Choi Young-jin, who is also the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Côte d’Ivoire, said solutions had been found to meet the logistical and political challenges surrounding the elections.

Prevailing economic and political pressures in Haiti and Iraq were compounding the already enormous difficulties faced by internally displaced persons and more must be done by those Governments — and the United Nations — to ensure their most basic protection needs were being met, Walter Kälin, Representative of the Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, said today at a Headquarters press briefing.

The enormous cumulative effect of prolonged Israeli occupation, accelerated settlement expansion in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and related policies to destroy homes and revoke residency permits made the vision of an Israeli-Palestinian peace based on a two-State consensus a “political impossibility”, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, said today.

The inadequate and often appalling housing conditions faced by millions of international migrant workers around the world were largely due to discriminatory practices that could only be remedied through a human rights-based approach, the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing said today at a Headquarters press conference.

Catherine Bragg, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, speaking at a Headquarters press conference today on her recent trip to Haiti, said that an enormous amount had been accomplished by the humanitarian community and the Haitian Government, but with 1.3 million people still living in camps, there was still a long road to recovery.

The six young winners of the second annual “Citizen Ambassadors to the United Nations” video contest told reporters at Headquarters today of their desire to make the world a better place by raising awareness of the Millennium Development Goals.

At Headquarters today, in his first press conference since assuming the Presidency of the sixty-fifth United Nations General Assembly, Joseph Deiss, of Switzerland, said the work of the 192-member body had so far been “quite positive” and he wanted to maintain “global governance” as the theme of its efforts throughout this entire year.