At a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon, Pino Arlacchi, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Executive Director of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), announced that the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan had banned the cultivation, use and trade in opium.
Christine Umutoni, Assistant to the Ministers in the Office of the President of Rwanda, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning that the genocide in her country had changed its population; women now accounted for 70 per cent of the population. However, due to tradition, women had no tools to deal with the responsibilities of their new roles.
Vigils will be held worldwide tonight to protest the failure of some States to pay their United Nations dues, representatives of four non- governmental organizations (NGOs) told correspondents this afternoon at a press conference at United Nations Headquarters. In New York City, the protest would be held at 6:15 p.m. at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.
At a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon, the Secretary-General's Special Representative to Study the Impact of Armed Conflict in Children, Olara Otunnu (Côte d'Ivoire), stressed the need for concerted action to correct the abominable situation faced by children during and after armed conflict.
At a Headquarters press conference this morning, Dr. George Alleyne, the candidate nominated by Barbados for the position of Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), told reporters that if elected he could make the organization more effective and more relevant in addressing regional problems.
