Press Conference

PRESS BRIEFING ON 2003 NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD

While most drug-related crime at the community level was nonviolent and petty, illicit drugs had created dangerous “no-go” zones in many localities, according to Vincent McClean, New York representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, who briefed correspondents at Headquarters Tuesday on the 2003 annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).

PRESS BRIEFING BY ENVOY FOR HIV/AIDS IN AFRICA

The World Health Organization (WHO) initiative, in conjunction with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), aimed at treating 3 million people by the year 2005 with antiretroviral drugs -- the “3 by 5 initiative”-- was one of the most important initiatives emerging from the United Nations system in the life of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press briefing today.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

During its work this month and for the next six months, the Security Council would be talking a lot about Africa, and most particularly about the need to guarantee stability in West Africa, Council President Jean-Marc de La Sablière (France) said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

PRESS CONFERENCE ON REPORT ‘UNLEASHING ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

MAKING BUSINESS WORK FOR THE POOR’

PRESS CONFERENCE BY COSTA RICA’S PRESIDENT

Abel Pacheco, President of Costa Rica, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today that his Government was opposed to human cloning on moral grounds and he hoped that the United Nations would reach a decision before the end of the year on a convention against human cloning.

PRESS CONFERENCE ON AFRICA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Even as developing countries as a whole had been extremely successful in expanding their share of manufactured goods in global trade, accounting for some 70 per cent of developing country exports, Africa had not shared in that success, Jan Kregel, Senior Adviser, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), told a Headquarters press conference today.

PRESS BRIEFING ON IRAQ FACT-FINDING MISSION

Once the basic legal framework had been completed, it would take at least eight months to hold credible and well organized elections with results that would be accepted by the Iraqis, Carina Perelli, Director of the Electoral Assistance Division, Department of Political Affairs, told correspondents at Headquarters this morning.

Press Briefing by director, electoral assistance division

Elections should not be seen as “silver bullets that cured all ills”, Carina Perelli, Director of the Electoral Assistance Division of the Department of Political Affairs, said at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

PRESS BRIEFING BY COTE D’IVOIRE HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR

Although ethnic tensions still gripped pockets of Côte d’Ivoire and troubling humanitarian concerns lingered, nearly two years after a military rebellion wrecked the economy and threw the country into crisis the fragile peace process was finally gathering some momentum, the top United Nations humanitarian official for the country said today.

PRESS BRIEFING BY OUTGOING LEBANON FORCE COMMANDER

Aware of the current tensions and potential for escalation in southern Lebanon -– “the toughest neighbourhood in the world” -- the outgoing military commander of the United Nations force monitoring the situation there said today much more work was needed to ensure that the troubled region moved from fragile stability towards lasting peace and security.