Press Conference

The world had already consumed 90 per cent of the global stock of large fish on the high seas — a third of it caught by illegal, unregulated and unreported vessels, according to marine experts and legal scholars who spoke at a Headquarters press conference today as the United Nations kicked off the second annual World Oceans Day.

Stemming violence, boosting aid and building local capacity remained critical for the populations of Chad and Sudan, John Holmes, Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said today at Headquarters following his return from a mission to the two African countries.

A proposal to create a group of experts under the United Nations umbrella, which would assess existing mechanisms for innovative development finance, and husband new initiatives, was proposed at the United Nations today by Philippe Douste-Blazy, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Innovative Financing for Development. This would enhance the United Nations role as a catalyst to new ideas and as an implementing agent in this area.

Building bridges across cultures was important because it had an impact on politics and helped create the necessary conditions for long-term peacebuilding and peaceful societies, Marc Scheuer, Director of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Forum, said at a Headquarters press conference today.

Children and armed conflict, justice and the rule of law, and the situation in Sudan were among the major areas to be considered by the Security Council during Mexico’s presidency in June, Claude Heller, that country’s Permanent Representative, said at a Headquarters press conference today.

The outstanding resilience of blue helmets in Haiti provided a powerful symbol for the marking of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers this year, United Nations Secretariat officials said this afternoon. “Haiti tested us to the limit and we showed we have learned from experience and were able to deliver,” Susana Malcorra, Under-Secretary-General for Field Support told correspondents at Headquarters. “It was the best way to pay tribute to the ones we lost,” she added.

The World Cup would change the image of the African continent for the better, Wilfried Lemke, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, said today at a Headquarters press conference where several United Nations agencies highlighted their planned activities for the event.

Despite predictions of a modest global recovery in 2010 and 2011 — resulting from rising production and world trade, and a tentative rebound in private consumption and business investment — United Nations economic experts warned that widespread joblessness and large public debt in some States, if not well managed, could mean mediocre economic growth in coming years.

By week’s end, States parties to the landmark 1995 United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement would likely suggest concrete ways to improve management of the world’s key shared fisheries and tackle such pressing problems as over-fishing, over-capacity and the limited ability of developing countries to monitor off-shore coastal zones, a key ocean management official said Wednesday during a Headquarters press conference.

Some 20 years after the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, universal adherence to its two Optional Protocols would lead to the eradication of misuse of children as soldiers and sex workers, “if we do it together”, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, said at Headquarters today.