PRESS CONFERENCE BY AUSTRALIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER

Australia wants the United Nations to have a significant role in the
post-conflict environment in Iraq, that country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, told correspondents this afternoon at a Headquarters press conference.

PRESS CONFERENCE ON ‘POPULATION, EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT’

Not to be able to read and write was a tremendous “unfreedom”, and removing that obstacle in a way that broadened the individual, rather than narrowed his or her outlook, was critically important to personal satisfaction and to harmonious societies, Professor Amartya Sen, 1998 Prize Winner in Economics and Master, Trinity College, Cambridge, United Kingdom, said today at a Headquarters press conference.

PRESS BRIEFING BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

Presenting the Council’s monthly work programme at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon, President of the Security Council for April,
Adolfo Aguilar Zinser (Mexico) stressed that it was essential to keep the Council deeply involved in the subject of Iraq, as well as other issues pertaining to the maintenance of international peace and security. 

PRESS BRIEFING ON IRAQ HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

An element, that remained true in any conflict was that United Nations humanitarian assistance should be provided independently, impartially and under strict control by the Organization, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

PRESS CONFERENCE ON BUSINESS FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT

An awfully good momentum had been started one year ago at the International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Monterrey, Mexico, but if good intentions did not turn into measurable actions, then everyone would lose out, Maria Livanos Cattaui, Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce, said today at a Headquarters press conference sponsored by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

PRESS CONFERENCE BY NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS ON FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT

If the world’s richest countries were genuine in their stated desire to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, they needed to mobilize for the fight against poverty the same political will that was now manifest in fighting wars, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon. 

PRESS BRIEFING ON CAMBODIA BY UN LEGAL COUNSEL

PRESS BRIEFING ON HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE FOR ERITREA

The current shortfall in funding for United Nations humanitarian aid to Eritrea could have catastrophic results, particularly if the war-torn nation’s current drought worsens, Simon Nbongo, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Eritrea, told correspondents this afternoon at a Headquarters press briefing.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT

Noting a “dramatic transformation” in Sierra Leone, following his recent visit there, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, called on the international community not to shift their attention away from that country at such a crucial moment. 

PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED KINGDOM SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

“The one and only certain thing we know is that Iraq has not complied fully, actively and immediately on substance, and there is overwhelming evidence that it has made no attempt to do so”, said the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, Jack Straw, today at a Headquarters press conference.