PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON RIGHT TO ADEQUATE HOUSING

There were 1.6 billion inadequately housed people across the world and an estimated 100 million who were completely homeless, comprising 20 to 40 million in the urban areas and about 60 million in the rural areas, Miloon Kothari, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, said at a Headquarters press briefing this morning.

PRESS BRIEFING ON FORCED LABOUR REPORT

 

According to a new International Labour Organization (ILO) report, entitled “A Global Alliance against Forced Labour”, at least 12.3 million people -- one out of every 500 people -- were trapped in forced labour around the world.

PRESS CONFERENCE ON TREATY ON NON-PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

“The United States could not preach temperance from a barstool”, United States Congressman Ed Markey said yesterday at a Headquarters press conference, referring to the United States’ interest in developing a nuclear “bunker-buster” weapon while seeking to suppress the nuclear threat elsewhere in Iran and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

PRESS CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE RISK INVESTOR SUMMIT

 

Responding to the urgent need to address climate change, leading global investors at the 2005 Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk today committed to investing $1 billion of capital in the next year in companies with clean technologies, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press conference today.

PRESS BRIEFING ON RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

 

With full deployment of the eastern division of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) throughout the Ituri district and North and South Kivu provinces, the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had significantly improved, but still remained volatile, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

PRESS BRIEFING BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

 

Briefing correspondents on the Security Council’s programme of work for May, this month’ Council President, Ellen Margrethe Løj of Denmark, announced that tomorrow, 4 May, the Council was expected to adopt a resolution on a four-week rollover of the mandate for the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI).

Press conference by MAYORS FOR PEACE

 

At a Headquarters press conference this morning, representatives of the Mayors for Peace organization highlighted their vision of a nuclear-free world by declaring that even one nuclear weapon in the world was one too many.

Press conference by JAPAN’S FOREIGN MINISTER

The current makeup of the United Nations Security Council, consisting of five permanent members with veto powers and 10 non-permanent two-year seats, failed to truly reflect today’s global reality, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told correspondents at a Headquarters briefing on Friday.

Press briefing on nuclear non-proliferation treaty

 

Although concerned about an “erosion of confidence” in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty –- a sentiment expressed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his recent report “In Larger Freedom” -- the States parties to the Treaty believed it was an important instrument, which must fulfil its objectives and purposes, Sergio de Queiroz Duarte (Brazil) said at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

Press conference ON HELSINKI PROCESS ON GLOBALIZATION AND DEMOCRACY

The problem was not a lack of solutions to the many problems arising from globalisation, but the lack of political will and the resources to implement the solutions, United Republic of Tanzania’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abdulkader Shareef said today at Headquarters, as he briefed correspondents on the “Helsinki Process”.