United Nations Daily Highlights, 02-06-07

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

OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY

STEPHANE DUJARRIC

ASSOCIATE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Friday, June 7, 2002

ANNAN SAYS GLOBALIZATION HAS TRANSFORMED CONTEXT OF UN'S WORK

In Geneva today, Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered the keynote address at the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Graduate Institute of International Studies, where he studied in 1961-1962.

Globalization has transformed the context in which the United Nations works, he said. In 1945, it was assumed that any threat to world order would come from aggression by one sovereign state against another. "What keeps people awake at night" now, he said, is "the fear of what might be done by a handful of fanatics--perhaps armed only with box-cutters, like those who attacked the United States last September."

Yet even the best-organized states are not finding globalization easy to manage, he went on. The security challenges are economic, physical, environmental and psychological in nature and can make even a strong state look weak. For example, population movements bring people from different cultural backgrounds into formerly stable communities, prompting questions about how inclusive a nation should be, and what its identity should be based on.

What is needed, he concluded, is a kind of ladder of institutions that allows people to link up with each other in an emerging world community, starting at the village level and culminating in the United Nations itself.

Earlier today he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the school.

In the afternoon, the Secretary-General met with his Special Envoy for Myanmar, Ismail Razali.

He then saw Adolf Ogi, his Special Adviser on Sports for Development and Peace.

The Secretary-General also went to Villa Barton, on the edge of Lake Leman, where he met privately with Switzerland's Foreign Minister, Joseph Deiss.

SECURITY COUNCIL APPEALS FOR FUNDS TO LOYA JIRGA IN AFGHANISTAN

The Security Council met in closed consultations today on Afghanistan with Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Sir Kieran Prendergast briefing in advance of the scheduled meeting of the Loya Jirga scheduled to start on Monday in Kabul.

In a press statement read by Security Council President, Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe of Syria, the Security Council said it shares the concern expressed in Prendergast's briefing about the shortfall in funding for the Loya Jirga process, the urgent humanitarian situation, and the formation of the Afghan national army. Members of the Council appeal to the International Community to contribute urgently to making up the shortfall, the statement said. In addition, the Council members call on the Afghan people and their leaders across the country to work together, within the framework of the Bonn Agreement, to build democratic institutions and to prepare in due course for national elections, he said.

LOYA JIRGA DELEGATES BEGIN ARRIVING IN KABUL FOR MONDAY MEETING

In Afghanistan, the selection process for the Emergency Loya Jirga concluded today.

The final list has not yet been issued, but among the delegates elected, there are 20 women. This is in addition to the 160 reserved seats for women. According to the procedures established by the Special Independent Commission, the Loya Jirga will include approximately 1,500 representatives. One thousand of these will be elected and the other 500 will be selected among particular groups.

Hundreds of delegates have already begun arriving in Kabul. In the days before the Loya Jirga convenes on Monday, the delegates will have orientation sessions and there will be presentations on the history of Loya Jirga and the roles and responsibilities of the delegates.

Also on Afghanistan, The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that for the third week in a row, they have seen 100,000 Afghans return home since the repatriation program began on 1 March. The total number of assisted returnees now stands at more than 900,000, the vast majority of them coming back from Pakistan.

When asked if this number was the total of returnees to Afghanistan, the Spokesman later said the UNHCR estimated that another 200,000 refugees had returned spontaneously since the fall of the Taliban.

UN ENVOY ON SPORTS ARRANGES FOR AFGHANS TO WATCH WORLD CUP

The Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Sports for Development and Peace Adolf Ogi today in Geneva briefed the Secretary-General on efforts to facilitate a contribution from the Football Federation, FIFA, to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to help install three large-screens TV monitors at public venues in Kabul, so that Afghans could follow the World Cup. According to Ogi, these will be set up by Sunday.

In other World Cup news, peacekeeping contingents from Japan and the Republic of Korea based in East Timor have launched a Mini World Cup to coincide with the real one taking place in their home countries. The month-long competition involves matches between 40 local clubs. The winning team will face off in a final against a joint Japanese-Republic of Korea team on 30 June. The Republic of Korea battalion has also erected a massive screen near their headquarters in Oecussi and has been showing live World Cup matches to large crowds.

UNHCR APPEALS TO KENYA TO ALLOW SOMALI REFUGEES TO BE MOVED

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees is again appealing to Kenyan authorities to allow Somali refugees to be moved away from the border area to existing refugee camps deeper inside Kenya.

UNHCR says it and partner agencies are struggling to help vulnerable Somali refugees in a ramshackle border zone camp in northern Kenya where 17 people, most of them children, have died of disease and malnutrition since June 2.

UNHCR staff report that refugee children can be seen everywhere in the border town of Mandera scavenging for food, begging and trying to find work to help their families survive. Women often have to walk a fair distance in search of firewood. Refugee leaders fear that this makes them vulnerable to abuse.

The UN refugee agency also reports that stream of displaced and refugees from Liberia continues to grow day by day. UNHCR flags its concern about the refugees in camps near Monrovia, who have been closed off from any UNHCR assistance since the fighting started several weeks ago.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT MEETING ENDS IN BALI

The final session of the Ministerial Segment of the Preparatory Committee meeting of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) ended today in Bali, with speakers wrapping up their discussion of elements for the political declaration to be adopted by Heads of State at the Johannesburg Summit.

The Chairman of the Preparatory Committee, Emil Salim, held a press conference where he said that 80 percent of the text of the draft implementation plan had been agreed on and that negotiations for the remaining twenty percent would take place in Johannesburg. One of the most contentious areas is that of financing and trade.

The Preparatory Committee itself was scheduled to resume its deliberations on the implementation plan.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

In response to a question on when the Secretary-General would be meeting with the President-elect of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, the Spokesman said the two would meet here in New York on June 17.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) today reiterated their appeal for donor governments worldwide to extend immediate food aid assistance to the countries of southern Africa where nearly 13 million people face starvation. The two Rome-based organizations said Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Zambia could be facing the worst humanitarian disaster that the region has seen in over a decade. This problem is further exacerbated by the huge HIV/AIDS infection rates in that region.

Also from the FAO today, four international organizations decided to join hands in combating the Tsetse fly and the disease it transmits, sleeping sickness. The disease threatens 50 million people and 48 million cattle in 37 sub-Saharan countries.

On Tuesday 11 June, the fifth annual Summit on Staff Security will take place in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. This years summit, The forgotten staff," will focus on field service, in particular, the continuing problem of detained, abducted, missing and murdered staff, the status of locally recruited staff and the plight of staff returning from mission assignments will be considered. The plenary session, which will be addressed by Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, will be followed by a panel discussion. The Summit is organized by Organized by the Standing Committee on the Security and Independence of International Civil Servants and the UN Staff Council.

A Note has been issued by the President of the Security Council documenting procedural developments in the Council in 2001. The note, dated May 30, says that the Council members agreed to issue the document in the spirit of promoting greater concerning developments in the work of the Council.

The Emergency Relief Coordinator today issued a statement welcoming the announcement by the US Agency for International Development that it would contribute an additional 100,000 metric tons of food aid to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. He said this generous contribution would help remedy the anticipated break in the food pipeline to that country in July.

THE WEEK AHEAD AT THE UNITED NATIONS

Sunday, June 9

The Secretary-General leaves Switzerland for Rome.

Monday, June 10

Secretary-General will address the World Food Summit Assembly and will attend luncheon hosted by Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The World Food Summit: Five Years Later, begins in Rome and ends on Thursday. The Summit will look at the gains made since the World Food Summit in 1996. The Committee for Programme and Coordination begins its 42nd session, which lasts through 5 July. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors meets in Vienna for a week. The Council of the International Maritime Organization meets in London for a week. Gillian Sorensen, Assistant Secretary-General for External Relations, will be the guest at the noon briefing. Sorensen will discuss next week's meeting of UN Goodwill Ambassadors.

Mushahid Hussain, Chairman National Kashmir Committee and Dr. Ghulan Nabi Fai, Executive Director of Kashmir American Council will brief on Kashmir at a press conference at 3:00 p.m.

Tuesday, June 11

The Secretary-General returns to New York. The Security Council has scheduled consultations on Cyprus and will hold a closed meeting with Troop Contributing Countries to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A panel discussion, Gender Mainstreaming in the Functional Commissions of ECOSOC, will be held in the ECOSOC Chamber, starting at 10:00 a.m. Opening remarks will be by Othman Jerandi, Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women, and Angela King, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women.

The report of the Independent Panel of Eminent Persons on the review of the UN New Agenda for Development of Africa in the 1990's will be launched at a press conference sponsored by the Office of the Special Coordinator for Africa and the Least Developed Countries (OSCAL/DESA), beginning at 11:00 a.m.

The Fifth Annual Summit on Staff Security will be held in the Trusteeship Council Chamber, starting at 10:00 a.m. The theme is The Forgotten Staff and will focus on all aspects of field service including detained, abducted, missing and murdered staff, the status of locally recruited staff and staff returning from mission. Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette will address the gathering. Wednesday, June 12

The Security Council will hold consultation on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Secretary-Generals report on Bosnia and Herzegovina is due today. Today is the first World Day Against Child Labour, launched by the ILO at its General Conference in Geneva. Thursday, June 13

The Security Council will hold consultation on Sierra Leone, followed by a formal meeting on Cyprus. In the afternoon there will be a closed meeting with the troop contributing countries to the United Nations Mission on Bosnia and Herzegovina. Friday, June 14

The Security Council will hold a formal meeting on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Members of the Council will hold their monthly luncheon with the Secretary-General. Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole on the final review and appraisal of the New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s holds its organizational session in New York.

Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General United Nations, S-378 New York, NY 10017 Tel. 212-963-7162 - press/media only Fax. 212-963-7055

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