United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-07-17

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From: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 17 July 1998

HEADLINES

• Statute on International Criminal Court is adopted at UN Conference in Rome.
• Secretary-General flies to Rome to attend signing ceremony for International Criminal Court.
• Secretary-General calls death of Mahbub ul Haq, a leading thinker on development issues, "a loss for the world."
• Economic and Social Council calls on Secretary-General to draw up rules for emergency humanitarian assistance.
• Renewed fighting in Angola shuts down some UNHCR support operations to repatriate refugees.
• Experts on involuntary disappearances, outlining positive trends, warn that many cases are yet to be solved.

The statute was adopted by a vote of 120 in favour and seven against, with 21 abstentions.

The agreement was reached after weeks of intensive debate on the scope and powers that would be accorded to the court.

In the last days of debate, the relationship of the Security Council and the court had become a matter of protracted negotiations.

Under the statute approved on Friday, if the Security Council refers a case to the court, jurisdiction would be automatic. But if the Council's fifteen members decide to block the Court's jurisdiction, they can do so through a resolution.

Another provision guarantees that States would have seven years after the treaty's entry into force to opt out of the agreement. They could do so by declaring that they do not accept the court's jurisdiction if a crime is allegedly committed by one of their nationals or on their territory.

Much debate focussed on the term "forced pregnancy," which is listed with other forms of sexual violence, including rape, as a crime against humanity.

The final wording states that forced pregnancy "means the unlawful confinement of a woman forcibly made pregnant, with the intent of affecting the ethnic composition of any population or carrying out other grave violations of international law." The definition does not affect national laws related to pregnancy.

While the statute grants the Court jurisdiction over four types of crime -- genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression -- one provision states that jurisdiction over the crime of aggression is delayed until an agreement can be reached on its definition.

The ceremony is scheduled for 4:00 pm (10:00 am EST) on Saturday.

Mr. Annan left Buenos Aires, where he was scheduled to meet with university students, after having finished the official part of his visit there. He boarded a commercial airliner for Frankfurt, where a private plane provided by the Government of Italy would be ready to take him to Rome, where he was scheduled to arrive around 12 noon local time.

The Secretary-General visit to Latin America is expected to resume on Monday, in Guatemala.

In its request, the Council reiterated the need for coordinated humanitarian assistance by the United Nations system to emergency situations.

It also stressed that United Nations humanitarian activities be adequately funded. This action concluded the Council's two days of discussions on humanitarian issues, a direct outgrowth of the Secretary- General's plan for reform.

The Economic and Social Council also took up discussions on coordination in the area of human rights, during which Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, introduced a report on the follow-up to 1993 World Conference for Human Rights.

In that segment of the meeting, Mrs. Robinson said that in the past few months human rights activities had moved out of the offices in New York and Vienna and into the field.

She suggested the integration of UN efforts for democracy, sustainable development and human rights in a holistic approach to those issues. Mrs. Robinson did not support the idea of expanding her office. "Being Irish, I do not want an empire," she said.

The exchange of views on coordination in the area of human rights also included the heads of UNICEF, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Secretary-General's adviser on gender issues, Ms. Angela King.

In a statement released on Friday, the Secretary-General called his death "a loss for the world." "He said the loss was especially great for those "who were privileged to know and work with him in the UN system, to which he contributed so much."

Mr. ul Haq was a leading champion of the concept of human development -- measuring the wealth of nations according to the standards of living of their populations, not by gross national product. He was the creator of the widely acclaimed Human Development Reports, which the Secretary-General called "his enduring monument."

"It reflected Mahbub's profound conviction that what matters in development is not quantities produced but the quality of life lived by human beings," the Secretary-General said.

The reports greatly inspired the major United Nations conferences of the 1990, according to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). James Gustave Speth, in a statement released on Friday, called Mr. ul Haq "a giant in thinking and visionary leadership."

His major publications included: Strategy of Economic Planning (1966); The Poverty Curtain (1976); Sustainable Development: From Concept to Action (1992); A National Agenda: Critical Choices for Pakistan's Future (1993); The UN system and the Bretton Woods Institutions (Co- editor, 1995); and Reflections on Human Development (1995).

A minute of silence in honour of Mahbub ul Haq was observed on Friday morning by the members of the Economic and Social Council. A memorial service was held at the Frank Campbell Funeral Home in Manhattan at noon.

There are 22,000 new refugees from Angola who have crossed the border into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a briefing note released by UNHCR on Friday. An estimated 100,000 Angolan refugees were already in the country.

UNHCR's support operations for repatriation of these refugees have been shut down in three provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Meanwhile, consultations took place on Thursday and Friday between the United Nations, the Government of Angola and representatives of the Union for the Total Independence of the People of Angola (UNITA) in Luanda, Angola. The talks also involved representatives of the "Troika" - - Portugal, the United States and the Russian Federation.

Chairman Ivan Tosevski of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia said that there are still more than 45,000 cases of disappearance to be considered. The cases span more than 70 countries across the globe.

Despite this figure, some positive trends needed to be mentioned, Mr. Tosevski told correspondents at press briefing.

At the conclusion of its first session for this year, which had met from 13 to 17 July, the working group had clarified nearly 50 cases. "This is a very good indication of the cooperation between our Working Group and different governments, " Mr. Tosevski said.

He added that the group had received a report from the Government of Sri Lanka, which has established a special commission on disappearances. Sri Lanka alone accounts for about 10,000 cases of forced or involuntary disappearance.

Finally, Mr. Tosevski said, a number of governments had undertaken measures to compensate victims of disappearances or their relatives.

While compensation is not a substitute for clarifying the case, it is "an important step that has been taken in some countries, and mainly in Latin America," according to Diego Garcia-Sayan, the expert from Peru.

The Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances was established in 1980, and is made up of five experts who meet three times a year. One of its principal functions is to monitor the compliance of States with their obligation under the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances of 18 December 1992, which affirms that any act of enforced disappearance is an offence to human dignity.

From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

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