United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-12-01

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 1 December, 1998

Latest Developments

HEADLINES

• Following talks with Secretary-General, POLISARIO accepts United Nations initiative for Western Sahara.
• United Nations observes World AIDS Day with special focus on needs and role of youth.
• In World AIDS Day Message, Secretary-General says emergency persists despite medical advances.
• UNAIDS Executive Director warns of unprecedented emergency in Southern Africa.
• World Health Organization Director-General calls for health services for youth to slow spread of AIDS.
• High Commissioner for Human Rights says World AIDS Day is a call to action to fight discrimination.
• United Nations refugee agency urges Greek authorities to promptly process asylum-seekers.
• UN food agency launches security initiative for staff members.

United Nations Spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva told reporters in New York that the package centred on a protocol for identifying applicants from "contested tribal groups" by the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). It also contained a protocol on the appeals process for those potential voters who had already been identified, as well as a memorandum on activities of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the area and an outline of the next stages of the settlement plan.

The Secretary-General had continued his working visit to Algeria on Tuesday with a half-hour one-on-one meeting with Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf, followed by an additional hour-long meeting in the presence of their delegations, according to the United Nations Spokesman. The Foreign Minister had informed the Secretary-General that Algeria supported the proposed United Nations package.

During a subsequent meeting the Secretary-General had reviewed the same set of issues with Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, Mr. Almeida e Silva said.

In the afternoon, the Secretary-General, together with Foreign Minister Attaf, inaugurated the United Nations House, a facility donated by the Government of Algeria to house all United Nations agencies, funds and programmes working in the country.

Mr. de Almeida e Silva also noted that on Monday, Algeria had become the one hundred and tenth Member State to make its full payment to the United Nations regular budget by submitting a check for over $1 million.

Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette told the panel that while some may "fondly imagine" that because better medicines had been found, the AIDS emergency is over, "the facts tell us otherwise."

"Because the victims are mostly young adults, who would otherwise be raising families and supporting the economy, the repercussions are reaching crisis level," said the Deputy Secretary-General. "Whether measured against the yardstick of deteriorating child survival, reduced life expectancy, overburdened health systems, rising numbers of orphans or bottom-line losses to business, AIDS has never posed a bigger threat to development."

The valuable experience of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) showed that prevention efforts were especially likely to pay off among young people. "More must be done to give them the information, skills, support and services they need for self-protection - to teach them to adopt safe behaviour from the start," Ms. Frechette emphasized.

"No matter how much we guide our children within our families, within our churches, within our schools, we are not stronger than the power of sexuality, particularly to a teenager," actress Sharon Stone, Chairman of AmFAR's Campaign for AIDS Research, told the panel. She stressed that "sex is nature" and called for a wholesome approach to addressing the subject to teenagers.

"We wouldn't let our children get their driver's license with the lack of information we let them get their sexuality, and right now, it is just as dangerous," she said.

This view was echoed by the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, who was in Washington, D.C. for World AIDS Day events. She said that young people were bearing a disproportionate share of the suffering caused by the epidemic because, at a time of sexual awakening, "they are deprived for the right to health services and nutrition, to a safe and supportive environment free of exploitation and abuse -- including protection from coerced sex."

"When these rights are denied," Ms. Bellamy pointed out, "people cannot obtain the information and life skills they need to avoid HIV infection -- and they are deprived of access to HIV testing, which is essential if the disease is to be contained."

Meanwhile, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), James Gustave Speth, said that the HIV infection was "nothing less than the mortal enemy of development." He pointed out that AIDS was threatening to cut 17 years of life-expectancy in highly affected countries while leading to increases in infant mortality rates. "HIV/AIDS, with its heavy toll on human life, and its long- term effects on the poor, often changes the very structure of society and robs children of their childhood, " he observed.

The Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Nafis Sadik, called for all people in positions of influence to take up the fight against HIV/AIDS and deal with it openly. "This is a matter of life and death for millions of people; the future of individuals, families, communities and nations is at stake," said Dr. Sadik. "We cannot stand in silence; we must act now."

Although better medicines have been found to combat AIDS, there is still no cure, Mr. Annan said. "At least 95 per cent of all infections and deaths occur in the developing world, where the costly new medicines that can help prolong lives are scarcely available or affordable."

Stressing the vital work of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Secretary-General said that perhaps the most important message the United Nations system could convey is that "we are not powerless against the epidemic." Many countries, including a handful in the developing world, had slowed the spread of HIV by talking openly about AIDS and sexual behaviour; by showing solidarity with those already infected; and by making information about prevention and support available to all citizens.

"Experience tells us that prevention efforts are especially likely to pay off among young people, by teaching them to adopt safe behaviour from the start," said the Secretary-General.

"Young people are a powerful influence for education and understanding in their families, their peer groups, their schools, their communities and their countries," the Secretary-General observed. "On this World AIDS Day, let us recommit to our investment in young people everywhere -- for they hold the key to a safer future."

In his message, the Secretary-General also paid tribute to Jonathan Mann, first Director of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Programme on AIDS, and his wife Mary-Lou, the pioneering AIDS researcher, who died along with several United Nations colleagues in a plane crash less than three months ago.

This year, 1.4 million people between the ages of 15 and 49 were infected in the nine countries of southern Africa, according to UNAIDS. In the four worst-affected countries of the region -- Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe -- between 20 and 26 per cent of adults in that age group are estimated to be living with HIV or AIDS. Zimbabwe is especially hard-hit; between 25 and 50 per cent of all pregnant women were found to be infected with HIV in a series of studies. At least a third are likely to pass the infection on to their babies.

"We now know that despite these already very high levels of HIV infection the worst is still to come in southern Africa," warned Dr. Piot. "The region is facing human disaster on a scale it has never seen before."

In African countries with long-standing epidemics, the death toll from HIV is mounting as people who were infected many years ago develop the life- threatening illnesses typical of the end-stage of HIV infection known as AIDS. Millions of new HIV infections are occurring every year, foreshadowing even greater repercussions from the epidemic.

UNAIDS also pointed to some positive trends in southern Africa, including successful initiatives in prevention, care and support. In hard-hit villages, creative schemes are being devised for setting aside land to be cultivated to feed orphans and AIDS-affected households.

Prevention efforts in the workplace are not only effective, they are also cost-effective, UNAIDS stressed. A recent study in Zimbabwe showed that prevention campaigns in factories costing just $6 per worker significantly reduced the number of new infections.

But the shame associated with the disease continues to block progress by making people reluctant to talk about HIV, recognize the risks and confront the epidemic openly, according to UNAIDS. "All too often we know what needs to be done, but we do not act on this knowledge," said Dr. Piot. He stressed the need to help people overcome the discomfort they feel when talking about sexual issues and HIV infection. "We need to bring AIDS out into the open."

Five young people are being infected every minute with HIV, according to WHO. Half of all new infections are now in young people aged between 15 and 24 years old.

Dr. Brundtland called these statistics a "chilling reminder" that the world was failing its young. "We in the health sector must take our share of the responsibility," she said. Health services must become more youth-friendly, with staff who could talk to young people about issues that affected their lives. "Young people can help themselves, but they need accurate information and appropriate treatment; one way is to provide receptive health services that young people are comfortable with," she observed.

According to WHO, unfriendly staff, excessive paperwork or the perceived lack of confidentiality can all deter young people from using health services.

"When a young person contracts a sexually transmitted disease, including HIV, they may take a long time to come to terms with it because of the association with sex," Dr. Brundtland pointed out. "An unfriendly health facility which further stigmatizes youth will only make matters worse."

Investing in young people pays long-term dividends, said Dr. Brundtland. "The behaviours and attitudes they adopt during adolescence, regarding relations with others, sexuality and the safe use of substances lasts a lifetime," she said. "These behaviours will also affect the health and well being of future children."

World AIDS Day is a reminder of the challenge faced by the international community to respond effectively to the epidemic, said the High Commissioner. "Let us rise to that challenge by working to put prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS within the reach of all and by fighting intolerance and discrimination."

Citing "grim statistics" on the epidemic's spread, Ms. Robinson said the current situation was an indictment of the international allocation of resources to fight HIV/AIDS in developing nations. She said "this means that many people in less developed countries are denied their right to basic health care." In the case of HIV/AIDS, the difference in wealth becomes literally a matter of life and death, she pointed out.

HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects those who are already vulnerable or disadvantaged, including children, women and the poor, the High Commissioner pointed out. "For the millions of others suffering from the denial of fundamental human rights, exposure to HIV infection increases dramatically, leading to the likelihood of further exclusion and exposure to violations."

Meanwhile, the lack of enjoyment of civil and political rights denies individuals and communities the opportunity to discuss the difficult issues surrounding HIV/AIDS, to organize themselves into AIDS service organisations and self-help groups and to take the necessary measures for protection from infection, according to the High Commissioner.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that it was receiving an increasing number of reports of deportation, slowness in determining refugee status and poor treatment of asylum- seekers.

UNHCR said that many asylum-seekers were not issued proper documents and had to wait for months, even beyond a year, before being called in for an interview.

According to UNHCR, Greece has only one official reception centre which can accommodate 300 people. The agency said that this was hardly enough to cope with a monthly influx of 300 asylum seekers. UNHCR said that because of this lack of shelter and accommodation facilities, many asylum-seekers, mainly Iraqi Kurds, were forced to sleep out on the streets in appalling conditions.

UNHCR said that it was particularly concerned about the practice of deportation and that some of the asylum seekers were being returned to Turkey, irrespective of where they had come from. The agency said that these asylum-seekers were not being given the chance to request asylum.

The Rome-based World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Tuesday that the initiative would compliment a programme already put in place by the United Nations Security Coordinator.

The head of WFP's task force on security told United Nations Radio that the thrust of the initiative would be to heighten security awareness among its field workers. Mr. Arnold Vercken said that his task force was ensuring that the basic security guidelines and procedures already developed by the Security Coordinator were enforced and disseminated at all levels of the WFP's staff, particularly those who were working in very difficult conditions.

According to Mr. Vercken an estimated 4,000 WFP staff members were facing security risks in different parts of the world. Noting only just last week, there were some food convoys ambushes in Somalia, Angola and Rwanda, Mr. Vercken attributed the increasing frequency of the attacks against WFP to the availability of light weapons among deprived people all over the world.

UNHCR said that throughout the United Nations, civilian personnel were increasingly becoming targets of violence. This year, for the first time in United Nations history, UNHCR added, civilian casualties had exceeded the organization's military casualties. Since the beginning of 1998, 27 non- peace keeping United Nations staff members have lost their lives, according to UNHCR.

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

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