Press Conference

As he worked to prepare a transition plan for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo told correspondents during a press briefing today that he had just called on the Security Council to devise a comprehensive strategy before his departure in June for implementing all outstanding arrest warrants related to the situation in Darfur.

Following is a transcript of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s press conference, held in New York on 14 December:

Although malaria mortality rates had fallen significantly, a projected funding shortfall threatened that progress, leading experts in the fight against the disease said at Headquarters today.

Tiina Intelmann, President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, introduced the institution’s newly elected Prosecutor, Fatou B. Bensouda, at a Headquarters press conference today. The Assembly elected Ms. Bensouda earlier today at the start of its tenth session, which is scheduled to run through 21 December, after a year-long nomination process.

Showing sad parallels with the climate crisis, the effects of the financial and economic crisis had been felt most seriously by those in no way responsible for it, Roberto Bissio, Coordinator of the non-governmental organization Social Watch, said at Headquarters today.

Recent events in Tunis, Cairo, Madrid, New York and hundreds of other cities and towns across the globe demonstrated that “the voice of ordinary people has been raised and their demands made clear”, Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at Headquarters today.

Extremely concerned about the millions in Yemen and the Philippines who were currently facing a severe and worsening humanitarian crisis, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Catherine Bragg briefed correspondents at Headquarters today on her recent missions to those countries.

The Security Council work programme for December would contain 18 open meetings — including 2 debates, 11 briefings and 5 meetings to adopt draft resolutions — as well as 20 closed consultations, Council President Vitaly Churkin (Russian Federation) said at Headquarters today.

Despite low expectations for the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, currently under way in Durban, South Africa, a positive outcome of that meeting would advance the global climate change agenda and help world leaders better address broader sustainable development issues in the coming year, a senior United Nations policy adviser said this afternoon.

Describing a “rather grim” world economic situation, senior officials of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs warned today that the global economy was at real risk of a “double‑dip” recession due to a trend towards more fiscal austerity, among other things.