United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-03-04

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 4 March, 1999

HEADLINES

• Security Council members renew demand for Ethiopia and Eritrea to stop fighting.
• Political impasse in Haiti remains cause of continued concern for Security Council.
• Secretary-General and US First Lady call for renewed efforts to promote women's rights in global economy.
• Veteran Chilean diplomat assumes leadership of International Labour Organization.
• A series of debates on ageing opens at UN Headquarters to spotlight issues of the "greying of the planet".
• Taliban and opposition alliance in Afghanistan to meet under UN auspices.
• Stressing need for tolerance and openness, Secretary-General sends message to Internet magazine for young writers.
• UN food agency seeks emergency funds to help Miskito Indians in Honduras.
• UN food aid dispatched to Angolan refugees in southern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The OAU Framework Agreement was approved by the Summit of the Central Organ of the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution on 17 December 1998.

In a press statement by the President of the Council for the month of March, Ambassador Qin Huasun of China, members of the Security Council expressed their concern at the continuing fighting along the borders between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Noting that both countries had already accepted the OAU Framework Agreement, Council members deplored the fact that the hostilities had not been ceased and regretted that Ethiopia still continued its military actions.

Following a briefing by H‚di Annabi, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, the President of the Security Council, Ambassador Qin Huasun of China, said that members of the Council remained concerned at the political and electoral impasse in Haiti. They deplored the violence in that country.

Members of the Security Council praised the professionalism of Haitian National Police in keeping civil order in this period of political tension. They also commended the efforts of the Friends and the Representative of the Secretary-General in Haiti.

The Secretary-General and Mrs. Clinton were addressing a panel organized by the United Nations Group on Equal Rights for Women as part of a series of events marking International Women's Day on 8 March.

Mr. Annan urged the international community to rededicate itself to eliminating the discrimination and disadvantage to which women are still subjected, whether in access to health care, social services and safety nets, in peace-building and reconstruction, in the home or in the workplace.

The Secretary-General also addressed the issue of "deadbeat dads". As divorce rates increased, he said, more women were left with the responsibility of caring for their children without the support, which the father was legally and morally obliged to provide. On the issue of staff members in default of court-ordered family support payments, the Secretary- General said the United Nations will voluntarily deduct the funds owed from the salaries of such staff members and pay it to the spouse and/or the children.

Mrs. Clinton said a nation's progress depended not only on protecting women's fundamental human rights but also ensuring that those women had access to the tools of opportunity. No nation, she said, could expect to succeed in the global economy of the twenty-first century if half of its people lacked the opportunity and right to make the most of their potential.

Women have been at the frontlines in the battle for human rights and individual dignity for a very long time and their voices were finally being heard, said Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Somavia was elected by the ILO Governing Body on 23 March 1998 to become the ninth Director-General of the ILO since its founding in 1919. The Governing Body, which comprises 28 government members, 14 employer members and 14 worker members, is the executive arm of the ILO and takes decisions on the implementation of ILO programmes and policies.

"We have agreed internationally to promote open societies and open economies," Mr. Somavia said on assuming office, adding that consensus would not hold if real benefits for ordinary people and their families were not put into the equation. He said he was proud of what the ILO stood for, noting its contribution to peace had been acknowledged by conferring on it the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969. "I have the responsibility to modernize and help steer the tripartite structure to make ILO values prevail in the new global realities," Mr. Somavia said.

The ILO is built on the constitutional principle that universal and lasting peace can be established only if based on social justice. Its contributions to industrial society include the institution of the 8-hour day, maternity protection, child labour laws, policies to promote workplace safety and peaceful industrial relations. The ILO is unique among UN agencies because it is a tripartite structure involving governments, employers and workers.

Since its formation in 1919 the ILO has adopted 186 conventions and recommendations which set international labour standards covering a wide range of issues, including certain basic human rights. Among these are freedom of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively, the abolition of forced labour and the worst forms of child labour, and the elimination of discrimination in employment.

The debates are part of the observance of the International Year of Older Persons in 1999, which was designated by the General Assembly on the initiative of Ambassador Julia T. de Alvarez of the Dominican Republic, who is a leading spokesperson on ageing issues at the United Nations.

The forum, which is called "Age Quake Debates" to underscore the worldwide nature of the phenomenon, was a joint effort of non- governmental organizations, such as the New York Committee on Ageing, and the United Nations, with the support of the UN Consultative Group for the International Year of Older Persons.

Every month, one million people turn 60 years of age, which makes dealing with demographic change a growing focus of national policy or at least concern worldwide. "One can't perform plastic surgery on demographics," Ambassador Alvarez said, underlining the importance of focusing on issues of the "greying planet."

The Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, announced the upcoming meeting in Islamabad on Thursday. The two sides met in Ashkabad last month and agreed to meet again. The United Nations will be represented by a senior official.

Meanwhile, Mr. Brahimi, will travel to Iran on Friday on the third leg of his current mission to the region. Following several days in Teheran, he is expected to go to Moscow and to several Central Asian Republics before returning to Islamabad.

The Internet magazine, "In the Window", was founded by Hero Joy Nightingale, who is wheelchair-bound and can only communicate by hand signals. She won a Childnet International Prize for the Internet magazine for students and young writers.

Recalling his own school days in Ghana, the Secretary-General wrote of the need to look beyond the obvious and beneath the surface, to bear in mind the larger picture, not to focus just on the blemishes.

"The displaced, the refugees, the different are the ones who enrich all our lives, and your tolerance and openness towards them will open new worlds for you, and make you welcome wherever you go", said Mr. Annan in his message.

WFP needs to fly a one-month's supply of food to the isolated northeastern province of La Mosquitia, where Hurricane Mitch washed away homes and farms, said Giuseppe Lubatti, the WFP Representative in Honduras. Citing the findings of its assessment team that had just returned from the remote Atlantic Coast region, the Rome-based UN agency said that many children and families in the area had not had regular food distributions since mid- January.

The proposed operation will last 10 days, during which 1,000 metric tonnes of food aid will be transported. WFP then plans to establish a regular delivery "pipeline" using ocean ships. After Hurricane Mitch pounded La Mosquitia last October, the few dirt roads to the region were either flooded, washed away or blocked by fallen trees and other debris. WFP used planes and helicopters borrowed from Canadian, United States and Venezuelan air forces to get food to the area, but the equipment was withdrawn once the initial crisis was over.

Last November, the agency launched a six-month, $60-million operation to feed 1.1 million of the most vulnerable victims of the hurricane in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. Next May, WFP begins a two- year, $73-million rebuilding programme for the four countries, the most heavily-damaged by Mitch in Central America.

The food, expected to arrive at three refugee camps around Kisenge in three days' time, should be sufficient to last at least two weeks. It is the first delivery out of 1,900 tonnes of food aid WFP is purchasing from neighbouring Zambia.

"Up to now, the local population has been sharing its meagre food stocks with the Angolan refugees," said Moumini Ouedrago, WFP's Officer- in-Charge in Kinshasa. "But food has become scarce in the region and the refugees' nutritional status is deteriorating rapidly."

The refugees fled the civil war in northeastern Angola last year and sought refuge in Katanga province in neighbouring DRC, where food supplies are scarce. WFP is also supplying relief assistance to 10,000 refugees who had fled into DRC's Bandundu and Vas-Congo provinces, where small quantities of food are being sold at prices well beyond their means.

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

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