PRESS BRIEFING ON DPI/NGO CONFERENCE

At a press briefing this afternoon, Under Secretary General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala stated that there would be a spiraling upward of arms expenditures around the world this year.

PRESS BRIEFING BY PRESIDENT OF 57^TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION

PRESS CONFERENCE ON ADMISSION OF SWITZERLAND TO UNITED NATIONS

Speaking at a Headquarters press conference today on the occasion of Switzerland's admission to the United Nations, Kaspar Villiger, President of the Swiss Confederation, and Joseph Deiss, Minister of Foreign Affairs, stressed the continued importance of neutrality for the Swiss, but pointed out that membership in the United Nations reinforced another Swiss value, that of solidarity.

PRESS BRIEFING ON DPI/NGO CONFERENCE

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNITED NATIONS SECURITY AND SAFETY SERVICE

PRESS BRIEFING ON INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

"We are now working the vision of a permanent International Criminal Court into a tangible reality", the President of the Court's governing body told correspondents, pointing out that the Court would start functioning in March 2003.

PRESS BRIEFING BY CHAIRMAN OF GROUP ON SECURITY COUNCIL SANCTIONS

AGAINST AL QAEDA

Michael Chandler, Chairman of the Monitoring Group on sanctions against

Al Qaeda, the Taliban and associates, briefed correspondents this afternoon on the Group's recent report to the Security Council.

The briefing was also attended by the Group's other Experts:  Victor Comras, Hasan Abaza, Surendra Shah and Philippe Graver.

NGO PRESS BRIEFING ON INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

The impact of United States challenges to the new International Criminal Court dominated a briefing for correspondents held by a group of non-governmental organization supporters of the Court this morning. 

PRESS BRIEFING BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

The Security Council would take advantage of the presence of many world leaders in New York to make progress on a number of important issues, the current President of the Council, Stefan Tafrov (Bulgaria) told correspondents today at a Headquarters press conference on the Council's work programme for September.

PRESS BRIEFING ON MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

The international community still had a long way to go towards fulfilling the Millennium Declaration, said Michael Doyle, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, as he briefed journalists on the Secretary-General’s report on the Millennium Development Goals at a press briefing at Headquarters this afternoon.