The status of the Holy See as a Non-Member State Permanent Observer at the United Nations should be reviewed, representatives of Catholics for a Free Choice and other women's and civil society groups urged at a Headquarters press conference this morning.
The United Nations Standby Arrangements system was a valuable step towards establishing a rapid deployment capacity for the Organization, Commander Erkki Platan of the Standby Arrangements Unit told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon. He was introducing the annual report on the Unit's activities in 1999.
The role of legislators was key in ensuring that peace agreements that were being put into place by governments had the requisite political support domestically, regionally and internationally, Shazai Rafi, Secretary-General of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.
The Secretary-General today appointed 16 Commissioners to the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), the Under-Secretary- General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, announced at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.
The Security Council would hold an open debate tomorrow entitled Maintaining peace and security: humanitarian action in the Security Council, Carolyn McAskie, Emergency Relief Coordinator a.i., told journalists at a Headquarters press briefing today.
The Charge d'Affaires a.i. of the Mission of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the United Nations, Vladislav Jovanovic, told correspondents this morning at Headquarters that he had been prevented from addressing the Security Council yesterday during its discussion of the situation in Kosovo.
Lakhdar Brahimi of Algeria, newly-appointed Chairman of the Panel established by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to conduct a major study on United Nations peace operations, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing today that when such operations were being ventured, staying power, political will and resources must be ensured until their completion.
"I am still an optimist", Dr. Bernard Kouchner, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Kosovo, and the Head of the United Nations Mission in the province (UNMIK), told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon, as he was asked whether he was still as big an optimist as he had been just over six months ago.
At a Headquarters press conference this morning, held to launch the Inter-Parliamentary Union survey entitled Politics: Women's Insight, United Nations Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Angela King, told correspondents that the survey left no doubt that the world of politics was still broadly unwelcoming to women.
Mitrovica was only the most visible tip of a Kosovo-wide problem of attacks on minorities, including harassment, intimidation and persecution, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in Kosovo, Dennis McNamara, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.
