PRESS CONFERENCE ON ‘ARTISTS FOR THE UN’

An initiative to encourage artists, entertainers, statesmen and stateswomen to publicly support the ideals, vision and mandate of the United Nations as the best organization to promote peace across the globe was launched at a press conference today at United Nations Headquarters.

PRESS BRIEFING ON PEACEKEEPING IN AFRICA

While real progress had been achieved in Africa in 2003, many challenges still remained, and it was important to sustain the peacekeeping efforts there, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, told correspondents at Headquarters today.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

Briefing correspondents today on the Security Council’s schedule for February, its President for the month, Wang Guangya (China), said that, according to the Chinese calendar, today marked the beginning of the spring season, on whose good start a whole year’s work depended.  He hoped that augured well for the work of the Council this year.

                                                            3 February 2004

PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR ETHIOPIA, ERITREA

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PALESTINE’S PERMANENT OBSERVER

    The debate over the wall, which was destroying the life and future of the Palestinian people and making the two-State solution impossible, was over, the Permanent Observer for Palestine declared today at a Headquarters press conference, following the issuance Friday of a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the barrier violated international law and should be dismantled.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY ISRAEL

At a time when brutal terrorism threatened citizens throughout the world, it was important for world figures, and the United Nations as a whole, to call terror by its name and hold the leaders and regimes that sponsored terrorism accountable, Israel’s Ambassador told correspondents at Headquarters this morning.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY CHAIR OF WOMEN’S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE

Briefing correspondents at Headquarters today just ahead of tomorrow’s conclusion of the thirtieth session of the Women’s Anti-Discrimination Committee, Chairperson Ayse Feride Acar (Turkey) said that the persistence of discriminatory stereotypes and entrenched patriarchal attitudes had led to grave and systematic violations of women’s human rights across a whole spectrum of nations.

PRESS BRIEFING BY POPULATION DIVISION DIRECTOR

During a press briefing at United Nations Headquarters today, the world body’s top population demographics official warned that with more and more people leaving their homes in search of a better life for themselves and their families, a key challenge for our world in the twenty-first century would be finding ways better manage migration.

PRESS BRIEFING BY OUTGOING COMMANDER OF FORCE MONITORING ISRAEL-SYRIA CEASEFIRE

The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) would celebrate

30 years of successful service on 31 May, Major-General Franciszek Gagor (Poland), the outgoing commander, said at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECRETARY-GENERAL, BARBADOS +10 CONFERENCE

Small island developing States urgently needed the concerted efforts of the international community to shield them from forces that were beyond their control, Anwarul Chowdhury, the Secretary-General of the Barbados +10 Conference on Small Islands, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today.