The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Marie Okabe, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General:
Host countries must be responsible for the security of humanitarian workers and must punish the perpetrators of crimes against humanitarian workers, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Catherine Bertini, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.
Mpule Kwelagobe, Miss Universe 1999, who has been appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for Botswana, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning that she hoped to use the position to promote the rights of women and youth to information on family planning and to receive proper sexual and reproductive health care and services.
Armed conflict and the HIV/AIDS pandemic had made sub-Saharan Africa the only region in which the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was working where the conditions of children had continued to get worse over the past 10 years, UNICEFs Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Urban Jonsson, told correspondents at Headquarters this afternoon.
The recently-elected President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Claude Jorda, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon that the purpose of his visit to New York was to discuss the future of the Tribunal, as well as a possible timetable for its reform.
The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) urgently needed international police officers, the UNMIK Police Commissioner told correspondents at a headquarters press briefing this afternoon.
