PRESS BRIEFING BY EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR

 

Briefing correspondents this afternoon on his recent visit to the Sudan, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said 2005 was a “make or break” year for the country.  There was no other place in the world where so many lives were at stake.

Press Briefing by UN Development Fund for Women

 

While there was much to celebrate on International Women’s Day, it was also an occasion for reflection because the progress made had been too uneven and slow, Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), said at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

Press conference on GENDER EQUALITY REPORT

 

While there was much to celebrate in progress toward gender equality, there was still much at risk a decade after the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, research experts told correspondents here this morning.  Despite notable gains in such areas as political participation, education and labour force participation, women continued to face limits on income, authority and power, among other areas of concern.

PRESS BRIEFING ON SOMALIA

 

The international humanitarian effort in Somalia, particularly in those areas affected by last December’s Indian Ocean tsunami, had moved very slowly and the Somali people felt that they had been “as usual left at the bottom of the chain”, Winston Tubman, Head of the United Nations Political Office in Somalia, said at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

Press BRIEFING ON DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

 

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations was not engaged in war -– it was engaged in trying to create peace, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.  The role of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) was to create security and defend civilians.

PRESS CONFERENCEON WOMEN’S GLOBAL MONITORING REPORT

 

Press BRIEFING ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES

 

The Beijing Platform of Action and other international instruments may have recognized indigenous women, but little had been done to change their often desperate situations, a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues told correspondents at a Headquarters briefing this afternoon.

PRESS BRIEFING ON WOMEN AND INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION

 

The nature of international migration was changing, with growing numbers of women migrating on their own rather than as family members as in the past, Jose Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said at a Headquarters press briefing this morning.

PRESS BRIEFING BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

 

The month of March would be a lively month for the Security Council, as it would be meeting practically every day, the current Council President, Ronaldo Mota Sardenberg (Brazil) told correspondents this afternoon.

PRESS CONFERENCEON WOMEN’S RIGHTS BY EQUALITY NOW

 

With profound concern, Equality Now was marking the tenth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, which found discriminatory laws still in force around the world, actress Meryl Streep, a member of the women’s rights group, said this morning at a Headquarters press conference sponsored by the Permanent Mission of the Netherlands to the United Nations.