As a deeper understanding of sustainability issues gained momentum around the world, companies of all sectors were stepping up efforts to build environmental and social considerations into management strategies and policies, although much remained to be done to fully realize corporate sustainability and translate commitments into tangible action, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press conference today.

With the start of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil looming, countries were still far from agreeing on a summit declaration or plan of action, a civil society activist said today at a Headquarters press conference.

The Secretary-General told the General Assembly this morning ahead of the G-20 meeting in Mexico this month that the world economy is in a precarious position. He said that beyond the current global anxiety there is opportunity, and that is the forthcoming Rio+20 Conference on sustainable development.

It was the Security Council’s responsibility to devise a new strategy to arrest Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir and his aides who had been indicted for serious crimes in Darfur, the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor said this afternoon at a Headquarters press conference.

Significant progress had been made in only four of 90 internationally agreed environmental goals and objectives assessed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said an official today upon the release of the Programme’s latest report in its flagship Global Environment Outlook (GEO) series.

Through the direct engagement of its Member States, the General Assembly had been able to respond promptly to many important and serious situations during its current session, the President of the 193-nation body said today at a Headquarters press conference on a wide range of issues, including the upcoming Rio summit on sustainable development, the crisis in Syria, and combating violence against women.

Despite the weakening and scattering of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), it continued to be one of the gravest violators of children’s rights and must be stopped, a top United Nations official said, as she introduced a United Nations report on the subject to correspondents this afternoon.

The Euro debt crisis remained the biggest threat to the world economy, according to a United Nations report launched today at a Headquarters press conference by United Nations Assistant-Secretary-General of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Jomo Kwame Sundaram, and Rob Vos, lead author of the text and Director of the Department’s Development Policy and Analysis Division.

The Secretary-General and Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan spoke at the General Assembly’s informal meeting on Syria this morning, and they warned the Member States that the situation there continues to deteriorate.

The General Assembly voted this morning to elect Vuk Jeremic, who is the Foreign Minister of Serbia, to be the President of the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly. Mr. Jeremic received 99 of the 185 valid ballots cast.