United Nations Daily Highlights, 03-09-18

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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

Thursday, September 18, 2003

MEMORIAL CEREMONIES TO TAKE PLACE FRIDAY FOR BAGHDAD STAFF

On Friday afternoon, at 4:00 p.m., the United Nations is holding a memorial ceremony in the General Assembly Hall to honor all those who died or were injured in the bombing of the UN Headquarters in Baghdad one month earlier. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will speak at that ceremony, which will also include a candle lighting involving the family members of the staff who died.

Then at 7:00 p.m., also in the General Assembly Hall, Brazilian musician and Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil will perform an hour-long concert in honor of those who lost their lives in the August 19 attack.

Attendance at the two ceremonies will be by ticket only. The events will also be broadcast on UNTV.

SECURITY COUNCIL TO MEET ON SIERRA LEONE, LIBERIA ON FRIDAY

There are no meetings or consultations of the Security Council today.

At 3:30 p.m., the Security Councils Counter-Terrorism Committee is scheduled to meet in Conference Room 7.

On Friday, the Security Council has scheduled three consecutive open meetings, on the UN Mission on Sierra Leone, on Liberia and on its annual report. Also on the agenda for Friday are consultations on the oil-for-food program.

U.N. HUMANITARIAN AGENCIES STEPPING UP OPERATIONS IN ZIMBABWE

According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN agencies such as the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization are stepping up operations in Zimbabwe to address food shortages and their underlying causes.

The United Nations has also identified the need to strengthen a national immunization program, which has been affected by the countrys economic downturn.

MORE THAN 130 COUNTRIES TO SPEAK AT AIDS SESSION MONDAY

Next Monday, more than 130 Member States are inscribed so far to speak at the General Assemblys High-Level Meeting on AIDS, where they are to review progress since the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS was adopted in 2001. The plenary is scheduled to begin at 10 in the morning and may go on beyond midnight.

The Secretary-General and Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme against HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), will present new progress reports on efforts to fight the epidemic at the country level.

Among the many events scheduled for that day is a panel on the Media and AIDS that will take place from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. in the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium, which will be moderated by UN Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown and Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor.

UNICEF: ABUSE AND NEGLECT KILL 3,500 CHILDREN A YEAR IN NORTH

The UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) today published a new report on Child Maltreatment in Rich Nations. According to this first comparative research ever done on the subject, almost 3,500 children under the age of 15 die every year from physical abuse and neglect in developed nations.

Numbers also indicate that the greatest risk is among younger children, while a small group of countries Greece, Italy, Ireland, Norway and Spain appear to have an exceptionally low incidence of child maltreatment death. Belgium, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Hungary and France, however, reach levels that are four to six times higher, whereas the United States, Mexico and Portugal are at the top of the league, with rates that are between 10 and 15 times higher.

According to UNICEF, factors such as poverty, stress and drugs and alcohol abuse are clearly linked with the thousands of children who die each year from violence in their homes, schools and communities.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO MEET ON MIDDLE EAST: The General Assembly is scheduled to meet on Friday at 3:00 p.m., in Conference Room 3, in an emergency special session under the framework of "uniting for peace," to deal with the Middle East, including the question of Palestine.

UN ENVOY FOR LIBERIA ISSUES CLARIFICATION: The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Liberia Jacques Klein, in response to a European press report concerning countries approached for troop contributions, has issued the following clarification. "In the course of Mr. Jacques Paul Kleins statements on the requirement for trained, properly equipped and well led military troops for a United Nations peace operation in Liberia, he indicated that he would like to visit European countries including the Czeck Republic, Slovakia. Romania, and Bulgaria among others to discuss the possibility of troop contributions. At this time no official commitments for troops has been received from any member."

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA COMMISSION MEETS IN KENYA: At the 19th Military Coordination Commission (MCC) Meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya, on Wednesday, the Force Commander of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), Major-General Robert Gordon, reminded the delegations from the two countries that the importance of the Commission meetings would increase as the physical demarcation of the border draws closer.

UN URGES ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS AMONG CIS NATIONS: Addressing ministers of foreign affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) meeting in Yalta, Ukraine, today, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), stressed the importance of stepping up counter-narcotic efforts in the region, especially in view of the large-scale opium production in Afghanistan. He offered his Offices technical assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States in implementing programs against drugs and crime and measures to deal with AIDS.

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