In progress at UNHQ

Press Conference


Ahead of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development planned for June, representatives of international non-governmental organizations exchanged a variety of views on the idea of a “green economy” this morning at a Headquarters press conference.
With roughly seven weeks left before the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), civil society activists expressed both frustration and expectations today at a Headquarters press conference, urging Member States to accelerate and energize negotiations.
Laying out the programme of work of the Security Council in May, under the first presidency of Azerbaijan, the country’s Permanent Representative this afternoon vowed to work to maintain unity among members for addressing the conflict in Syria and the many other complex situations the body was seized with.
With rapid and widespread changes in the world’s human population, coupled with unprecedented levels of consumption, it was more urgent than ever to unravel the conundrum “what will happen when we run out of space and resources?,” experts warned today as they introduced a Royal Society of London study on how best to seize the opportunities — and avoid the harmful impacts — of population changes.
With 24 out of the 300 United Nations military observers authorized by the Security Council for Syria already on the ground and the rest planned to arrive by the end of May, it was now up to all parties in the conflict-wracked Middle East country to stop the violence, which continued to take an unacceptable toll, the Organization’s peacekeeping head told correspondents this morning.
A fisherman’s tale about Italian immigrants who decades ago harvested beaches “paved with fish” along the now fish-depleted United States north-east coast underlined a stark warning sounded at a Headquarters press conference today by an expert panel on the sustainable management of oceans and fisheries.
Every minute one child dies from malaria and every year 216 million people are newly affected with the preventable disease, and an increase in collaboration and partnerships, as well as additional funding, was needed to boost efforts to fight the disease, correspondents were told at a Headquarters press conference today.