United Nations Daily Highlights, 02-06-21

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

OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY FRED ECKHARD

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Friday, June 21, 2002

ANNAN ENCOURAGES GRADUATING CLASS TO BE RESPONSIBLE GLOBAL CITIZENS

Secretary-General Kofi Annan is on his way to Chicago to deliver the commencement address at Northwestern University late this afternoon.

In the address, which is available upstairs under embargo until delivery, the Secretary-General will encourage the newly minted graduates to be engaged as responsible global citizens.

He will focus in particular on the fight against global poverty and how each and every one of them can and should contribute to this effort.

ANNAN TO ADDRESS RAINBOW PUSH COALITION IN CHICAGO

On Saturday morning, the Secretary-General is scheduled to visit the national headquarters of the Rainbow Push Coalition, the organization headed by the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

In remarks he will make during the organization's weekly community forum, the Secretary-General is expected to highlight the Millennium Development Goals, which are at the core of the United Nations work around the world. He will especially focus on the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

SECURITY COUNCIL HEARS BRIEFING style="font-family:"Times New Roman";

ON LOYA JIRGA IN AFGHANISTAN

At an open meeting this morning, the Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, briefed the Security Council on the Loya Jirga in Afghanistan, which concluded on Wednesday after meeting for nine days.

Prendergast said he believed that the Loya Jirga could be qualified as a success for three reasons: the fact that it was held at all was the first success; that it accomplished what it was mandated to do under the Bonn Agreement; and most importantly of all, that Afghans were able to gather together peacefully, debate heatedly, yet ultimately agree on fundamental questions regarding their common political future.

He also pointed out that an obvious disappointment was the inability of the Loya Jirga to agree to a formula for selecting a legislature.

He went on to say that the security situation in some parts of Afghanistan had deteriorated and he asked the Council to again consider the possibility of a limited expansion of the International Security Assistance Force to areas outside Kabul.

Thursday, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi also issued a statement to mark the end of the Loya Jirga. He said the process had been a crucial milestone in the Afghanistan peace process.

SECURITY COUNCIL EXTENDS UN MISSION IN BOSNIA

[At a formal meeting following the consultations, the Council unanimously adopted a resolution to extend the Missions mandate -- due to expire today-- until June 30, 2002.]

Prior to the formal meeting, Council Members held closed consultations. The first item on the agenda was Afghanistan.

The second item on the consultation agenda was a briefing by the High Level Coordinator on Iraq, Yuli Vorontsov, on the return of Kuwaiti property. The latest report by the Secretary-General on the Return of Kuwait by Iraq came out as a document Monday.

The third item on the agenda was the extension of the mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina ( UNMIBH).

The President of the Security Council, Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe of Syria, read two press statements following consultations -- one of Afghanistan and the other on the return of Kuwaiti property.

The Spokesman was asked if the Secretary-General would be making a visit to lend support to the process which has begun in Afghanistan, and replied that there was no visit planned.

LIBERIAN REBELS ATTACK REFUGEE CAMP, ABDUCT NURSES

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that Liberian rebels on Thursday attacked a refugee camp near the border with Sierra Leone, taking away five local nurses and sending an estimated 11,000 Sierra Leone refugees into flight.

UNHCR said the rebels from a group that calls itself Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) acknowledged that they were holding five nurses from the medical NGO MERCI, which works with the refugee agency.

A rebel commander who identified himself as "General Skeleton" radioed UNHCR from MERCI's stolen ambulance and said they were taking the women to a rebel stronghold near the Guinean border. He said the women were unhurt. One woman was allowed to speak on the radio and said they were being treated well.

UNHCR is appealing to the abductors to immediately release the nurses and the vehicle.

The camp is situated approximately 80 km northeast of Monrovia, on the road leading towards the Sierra Leonean border.

The new fighting has rendered any repatriation of Sierra Leonean refugees impossible, at least in the foreseeable future.

style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA CERTIFIED FREE OF POLIO

The World Health Organizations (WHO) European Region, consisting of countries in Europe and Central Asia, was today declared polio-free. The announcement was made in Copenhagen at the meeting of the European Regional Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication. This is an important public health milestone for the 870 million people in the 51 countries that make up the region.

The European region has been free of indigenous polio for three years, although there have been a few cases of imported poliovirus, mostly originating from the Indian subcontinent. The Chairman of the European Regional Commission, Sir Joseph Smith, said the risk of the virus being imported will continue until polio is eradicated globally and vaccination and surveillance is vital and will continue. In addition, European countries are cataloguing all laboratory stocks of the poliovirus as part of a global plan to ensure effective containment in a polio-free world.

UNRWA APPEALS FOR $55.7 MILLION MORE FOR RECONSTRUCTION

In Geneva today, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East ( UNRWA) released a supplementary Appeal based on the damage and destruction following the events of March and April 2002 in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Rene Aquarone, Chief of the UNRWA Liaison Office in Geneva, told reporters that the additional appeal was for $55.7 million, which was over and above the agencys Emergency Appeal 2002 for $ 117 million.

The amount, he said, was required for shelter repair, relief and social systems, rehabilitation of infrastructure, additional food aid in addition to what was already foreseen in the emergency appeal, education and employment generation.

AGENCY RESTARTS RETURN ASSISTANCE FOR DISPLACED AFGHANS

The International Organization of Migration (IOM) this week restarted providing return assistance to internally displaced Afghans, following pledges of new funding from several donors.

IOM's Director of Programme Support, Jan de Wilde, described the renewed donor support for the project as "encouraging", but warned that the limited nature of the funding would result in "a more tightly focussed programme only targeting the internally displaced."

IOM plans to move some 18,000 people from camps for internally displaced persons in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif between now and the end of the month, at a rate of some 1,000 people per day. Previously, IOM's transport network also served refugees returning home to Afghanistan from Iran, but a severe funding shortfall forced its suspension it in May.

style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; UN ENVOY FOR CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT VISITS NORTH OSSETIA

The Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, returned to Moscow today after a four-day visit to the Northern Caucasus region. He will hold further meetings with officials in Moscow.

Otunnu visited the UNICEF/WHO prosthetics centre in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. The centre rehabilitates children who were victims of landmines and unexploded ordnance. He praised the courage of the young victims who are struggling to come to grips with their new realities. He appealed to donors for the resources to support the centre, which he said could do more to assist the young victims if it were expanded.

Before leaving North Ossetia-Alania, Otunnu met with the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Parliament. On Monday, Otunnu will leave Moscow for London, where he has a number of media appointments. He will return to New York on Thursday.

TOP HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICIAL SENDS MESSAGE ON MIGRANTS TO EU MEETING

High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), Mary Robinson, is sending a message to the meeting of the European Council in Seville, Spain, which will be considering the question of illegal immigration among other issues.

In her message she asked the participants to ensure that accurate information regarding migrants and migration issues was made available, including on the positive contribution that migrants make to the host society. She also invited Member States of the European Union to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and their Families. One more ratification is needed for the Convention to enter into force.

style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; TONI MORRISON TO GIVE LECTURE THE USE OF LANGUAGE IN WAR AND PEACE

On Monday, Toni Morrison, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, will deliver the inaugural lecture in the Secretary-Generals Lecture Series. style="mso-spacerun: Her lecture, The Humanities after 9/11, will explore the uses of language for war and peace. She will argue that the language of peace has more force and power.

The series will last through 2002-2003 and will focus on topics in the humanities and natural sciences. The series was created in an effort to breach political and cultural differences and the speakers will be selected from a wide range disciplines and from all over the world.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

The World Food Programme ( WFP) announced today that it will double its school feeding operation in Chechnya starting in September. The programme to provide hot lunch to 20,000 primary school and 250 pre-school children began in December 2001. In September the programme will be expanded to feed 45,500 students in 165 schools in Grozny and other districts.

The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) announced today in a press release, the launch of a website with information on gender issues in the Horn of Africa. Called HAWKNET, The Horn of Africa Region Womens Knowledge Network, the website will enable women to discuss emerging national issues, network and participate in global debates.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced that the Canadian Government has provided 5.5 million Canadian dollars for a major measles vaccination campaign in Angola.

THE WEEK AHEAD AT THE UNITED NATIONS

style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; Saturday, June 22

The Secretary-General will make remarks to the Rainbow/Push Coalition in Chicago.

style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; Monday, June 24

The Guest at the Noon Briefing will be Joseph Chamie, Head of the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, on the launch of the publication HIV/AIDS: Awareness and Behaviour.

The Security Council has scheduled consultations on Burundi.

The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf begins a one week meeting in New York.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Optional Protocol as well as the pre-sessional working group will both meet in New York until Friday.

Meeting of persons chairing human rights treaty bodies begins today in Geneva and will end on Friday.

The Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons meets for five days in The Hague.

The 26th session of UNESCOS World Heritage Committee will take place in Budapest, Hungary, and will end on the 29th. Several new cultural, natural or mixed heritage sites will be included on UNESCO's World Heritage List of places of "exceptional universal value" at this meeting.

Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, will deliver the inaugural lecture in the Secretary-Generals Lecture Series, at 1:30 p.m. in the ECOSOC Chamber. Delegates, staff and the media are invited.

The regimental band of the Royal Yeomanry, a British army reserve regiment based in London, will give a concert from 1:00-2:00 p.m. on the Visitors Plaza in front of the General Assembly building.

style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; Tuesday, June 25

The Security Council will hold consultations on Angola.

The World Health Organization will begin in Geneva a joint meeting with the Food and Agriculture Organization on Acrylamide in food.

style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; Wednesday, June 26

The Secretary-General is scheduled to attend the G-8 summit in Kananaskis, Canada.

The Security Council has scheduled a public meeting on Kosovo.

At 11:15 am. Mr. Ian Kinniburgh, DESA's Director of Development Policy Analysis Division will brief the press on the "World Economic and Social Survey."

Today is the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. There is a message from the Secretary-General. style="mso-spacerun: In Vienna, the Global Illicit Drug Trends Report 2002 will be launched.

An UNCTAD expert meeting on diversification of production and export in commodity-dependent developing countries begins today in Geneva and ends on Friday.

The United Nations Board of Auditors meets in New York for three days.

style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; Thursday, June 27

The Secretary-General is scheduled to participate in the G-8 working session with African leaders at the summit in Kananaskis, Canada.

The United Nations Postal Administration will issue stamps to commemorate the World Summit on Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, late in August.

At 11:15 am. The Coalition for the International Criminal Court will discuss the entry into force of the Rome Statute. Press Conference sponsored by the Mission of Canada to the United Nations.

style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; Friday, June 28

The Syrian Presidency of the Security Council ends on Sunday.

At 11:15 am. , Amb. Ivan Simonovic, President of the Economic and Social Council, will brief on ECOSOC's high level meeting (1-3 July) and events for the media.

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

All other inquiries to be addressed to (212) 963-4475 or by e-mail to: inquiries@un.org

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