PRESS BRIEFING BY DEPUTY EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR

At a Headquarters press briefing today, Carolyn M. McAskie, Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), announced the launch of the Inter-agency Consolidated Appeals for 2003.  Being held in capitals around the world, the Appeals are $3 billion for 50 million beneficiaries in countries experiencing humanitarian crises.

PRESS BRIEFING BY HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR FOR DEMOCRATIC

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA

With the food and humanitarian situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea deteriorating rapidly, the World Food Programme (WFP) was cutting back its food assistance to cover just 3 million people out of 6 million in need, Masood Haider, Humanitarian Coordinator for that country, said at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

HEADQUARTERS PRESS CONFERENCE BY HEAD OF UN IRAQ WEAPONS INSPECTION TEAM

At a Headquarters press conference today, Hans Blix, Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) said the greatest challenge facing the Commission was to carry out an "effective" inspection of Iraq’s compliance with its disarmament obligations and to report factually to the Council.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION

The international community should assist developing countries in formulating and implementing strategies of innovation and learning in order to improve the contribution of industry to their sustainable development, correspondents were told this morning at a Headquarters press conference.

PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON RIGHT TO FOOD

In a world overflowing with riches, it is an absurdity that 100,000 people die every day from hunger-related diseases and that 815 million people were undernourished last year, Jean Ziegler, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this morning.

HEADQUARTERS PRESS BRIEFING ON REFUGEES BY NEW YORK OFFICE OF UNHCR

Developing countries that produced 86 per cent of the world’s refugees over the past decade also lead the world in granting asylum to refugees, according to the first annual Statistical Yearbook 2001, produced by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

PRESS CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN SUDAN

There had been no significant improvement in human rights in the Sudan in the past year, but there was hope that the latest peace process would be “successful” -- defined as ending the war, negotiating power-sharing agreements and impacting the human rights situation, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon. 

HEADQUARTERS PRESS CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN MYANMAR

Contact between the Myanmar Government and the leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD) had not yet led to a structured political negotiation on the future of the country, according to Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY COALITION TO STOP USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS

HEADQUARTERS PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNRWA

Absolute poverty, characterized by growing unemployment and limited opportunities for the education of Palestinian children, was rising rapidly and disastrously in the occupied territories because of the curfew and blockades imposed by Israel in those areas.  As a result of that situation, there was the fear that victims could be tempted into violent action.