Judge Laity Kama, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, told a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon that the Tribunal would, in the very near future, hand down its first decision since its inception in 1994.
While equal rights for women and men was one of the pillars on which the United Nations was founded, those rights were far from being universally observed, Angela King, the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today.
A three-month ceasefire in southern Sudan was not long enough to end the crisis in that area, the Executive Director of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, said this afternoon at a Headquarters press briefing.
The situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina was improving, but the "litmus test" of reconciliation would be the return of refugees, the High Representative for Implementation of the Peace Agreement on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Carlos Westendorp, said today.
The purpose of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was to give a voice to the voiceless who were becoming more and more marginalized by a global economy, the first Goodwill Ambassador of the UNDP, Danny Glover, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today.
A new global regulatory body -- a world financial organization -- is needed to regulate and monitor international private capital flows, the Chairman of the United Nations Committee for Development Planning, Nurul Islam, said this morning.
Despite encouraging signs, it was premature to conclude that a positive trend was emerging in the number and resolution of cases of government-related disappearances, the Chairman of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today.
The issue of small arms was rapidly becoming a very important item on the disarmament agenda, the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, told a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon. A group of 21 countries would be meeting in Oslo today and tomorrow to discuss issues connected with the subject of small arms and light weapons, he added.
