Security Council members Ellen Margrethe Løj (Denmark), Chair of the Counter-Terrorism Committee; César Mayoral (Argentina), Chair of the Committee concerning Al-Qaida and the Taliban; and Mihnea Ioan Motoc (Romania), Chair of the Committee to prevent access of non-State actors to Weapons of Mass Destruction, this morning updated correspondents on their Committees’ work during a press conference at Headquarters.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY NEW UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES

 

Introducing the new United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), António Guterres, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told correspondents today that Mr. Guterres had been in the job for less than two weeks, but he had wasted no time in getting started in the field where the problems were.

Press conference by united kingdom on development financing

 

Today’s High-Level Financing for Development meeting was an important staging post on the way to the Millennium Summit in what was an extraordinary year for development, the United Kingdom Secretary of State for International Development told correspondents today at a Headquarters’ press conference.

PRESS BRIEFING BY CIVIL SOCIETY REPRESENTATIVES ON GENERAL ASSEMBLY HEARINGS

“We don’t want decisions to be taken in small groups and behind closed doors”, Pera Wells of the World Federation of United Nations Associations told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.  “We want to see the United Nations come back to an open, inclusive decision-making process.”

PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT FUND FOR WOMEN

Summarizing the first-ever civil society hearings with the General Assembly from a gender perspective, panellists at a Headquarters press conference today said there had been a strong recognition of the need to advance women’s human rights as a key to attaining the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals.

PRESS BRIEFING ON POVERTY AND GENDER

 

Almost all the strategies aimed at eradicating poverty in Africa failed to address its root causes and to consult the most affected people at the grass roots, whom they were supposed to help, a spokesperson for the international network Social Watch said at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT

 

The first-ever informal interactive hearings of the General Assembly with representatives of civil society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector, scheduled for 23 and 24 June, represented a new stage in dialogue between Member States and those representatives, Assembly President Jean Ping (Gabon) told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

PRESS CONFERENCE ON ‘COMMUNITY COMMONS – LOCAL PERSPECTIVES

ON MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS’

Press conference by president of sixtieth General Assembly

 

Stressing that the world community was currently “facing a test of multilateralism”, newly elected General Assembly President Jan Eliasson told correspondents today that the United Nations must accept and live up to the highly intertwined challenges of development, security and human rights.

Press Briefing on Millennium Development Goals report

 

While there had been a massive, unprecedented reduction in extreme poverty in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, facing a complex and critical situation, had not witnessed the same progress, the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, José Antonio Ocampo, told correspondents today at a Headquarters press briefing.