The following is a near-verbatim transcript of todays noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
Building consensus around the conflicting concepts of State sovereignty and international responsibility would be the focus of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, Canada's Foreign Minister, Lloyd Axworthy, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning.
Despite a decline in its production of raw opium in 2000, Afghanistan remained by far the world's largest opium poppy producer, Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), said at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of todays noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
It is a good thing we have some visitors, otherwise the room would be almost empty. But thank you for coming, Debbie.
**Timorese Athletes Take Part in Olympics
The Fourth International Conference of New and Restored Democracies will be held in Cotonou, Benin, from 4 to 6 December this year, Antoine Kolawole Idji, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Benin, announced at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.
The United States and its European allies were more effective in supporting United Nations peacekeeping operations when they worked together, United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference yesterday afternoon.
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of todays noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Susan Markham, Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly.
Briefing by Spokesman for Secretary-General
Good afternoon.
At a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon, Nicolas Bwakira, Director, New York Liaison Office, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told correspondents that the recent murder of an agency staff member and the abduction of another had occurred amid growing tensions in the country of Guinea.
The Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund, Carol Bellamy, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon that it was critical to engage young people in any peace-building process and she could think of no other country where young people were more involved in such a movement than Colombia.
