United Nations Daily Highlights, 05-11-22

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

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN'S NOON BRIEFING

BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPEALS FOR RESPECT FOR BLUE LINE

Secretary-General Kofi Annan

deplores in the strongest terms the exchange of fire across the Blue Line yesterday, which resulted in the reported deaths of several Hizbollah fighters and an unconfirmed number of wounded on both sides.

The hostilities, which were initiated from the Lebanese side, quickly spread along the entire Blue Line with Israeli civilian areas reportedly being targeted.

UNIFIL has brokered a ceasefire to prevent further escalation.

The Secretary-General appeals to all parties to respect the Blue Line in its entirety. He also calls on the Government of Lebanon to extend its authority over all of its territory in accordance with Security Council resolutions.

The Secretary-General appeals for a return to calm and calls on all parties to exercise utmost restraint.

ANNAN STUDYING LETTER FROM SYRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

Asked if the Secretary-General had received a letter from the Syrian Foreign Minister, asking for his help in negotiating with Detlev Mehlis, the head of the investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister

Rafik Hariri, the Spokesman said a letter had been received, was being studied, and would be responded to.

But the Secretary-General had made his position clear yesterday in comments to the press, by saying that his efforts were focused on encouraging Syria to cooperate fully with the relevant Security Council

resolution.

As for how interviews would take place between Mehlis and Syrian officials, that had to be worked out by Mehlis himself. The Secretary-General would not be negotiating for Mehlis, the Spokesman added.

SECRETARY-GENERAL AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY SEEK U.N. REFORM

Speaking to the press yesterday evening, following his meeting with the Group of 77, the Secretary-General said that everyone in that meeting had wanted an effective, efficient United Nations that would implement the mandates given to it by the Member States. Saying that there were no sides and that we were all one team with one mission, he added that the encouraged reforms should be in the interests of all Member States.

Responding to a question about alleged power struggles between the General Assembly and the Secretariat, the Secretary-General emphasized that the General Assembly was in the drivers seat, and that, at the end of the day, it made the final decisions.

In related news, the Secretary-General and his senior management team are today holding a one-day retreat, here at UN headquarters, dedicated to budget and human resource regulations, oversight, and mandate review requests which came out of the summit. issues.

Asked whether any new proposals would come out of that management retreat, the Spokesman said the Secretary-General met every week with his Senior Management Group and that once or twice a year, they held a theme-focused retreat, where they could discuss issues in depth and in a relaxed atmosphere. The outcome of this retreat would be reform proposals that would be sent to the General Assembly over the next few weeks.

Asked about the latest developments regarding UN management reform especially in relation to an ethics office, whistleblower policy, and financial disclosure forms the Spokesman later announced that those new policies would be finalized by the end of the first week of December. At that time, Under-Secretary-General for Management Christopher Burnham would brief the press.

Asked to elaborate on comments by U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, allegedly expressing frustration with the pace of UN reform, the Spokesman referred to the Secretary-Generals comments from yesterday, in which he said it was not up to him to interpret what Ambassador Bolton had said. The Spokesman added that the United Nations was working closely with the United States, as it was with all the other Member States, on the issue of reform.

U.N. SUDAN ENVOY WORKING FOR MEANINGFUL TALKS IN ABUJA

The

UN Mission in Sudan reports that the Secretary-Generals Special Representative there,

Jan Pronk, will be heading to Darfur tomorrow for consultations with some of the leaders of the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army prior to talks that have been scheduled for Abuja next week.

Pronk has said that he was looking forward to a signed and meaningful agreement in Abuja.

The Secretary-General, in his monthly

report on Darfur, said that a further deterioration of the situation there can be averted by consolidating the progress made at previous talks in Abuja. He called upon the international community to help implement any agreement reached by the parties.

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY STILL OPEN FOR MIDEAST PEACE

The window of opportunity to revitalize the Middle East peace process that opened during the past year is still open, the Secretary-General says in his latest

report to the General Assembly and Security Council on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. However, he says, setbacks include Israel's building of the separation barrier and the Palestinian Authority's failure to help restore law and order.

Noting the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank in September, the Secretary-General commends Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's political courage and steady commitment to disengagement. He also commends the Palestinian Authority for its responsible behavior during this period, in facilitating a smooth and peaceful operation.

DISASTER TOLLS CAN BE REDUCED

Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator briefed journalists in Geneva today on a meeting of the International Task Force for Disaster Prevention, which is taking place over the next two days.

Noting that, in the last two years, hundreds of thousands of people had died and hundreds of millions of livelihoods had been lost due to natural disasters, Egeland said that, with a more effective humanitarian system and better prevention and preparedness systems, those losses could have been reduced significantly.

This particular meeting of the Task Force will be focusing on the risk of earthquakes striking mega-cities in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

HUNGER KILLS SIX MILLION A YEAR, U.N. FOOD AGENCY SAYS

In a new report published in Rome today, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that hunger and malnutrition are killing nearly six million children each year.

The State of Food Insecurity in the World, says many of the children die from a handful of treatable infectious disease, and would survive if their bodies and immune systems had not been weakened by malnutrition.

The agency says that if developing regions continue to reduce hunger at the current pace, only South America and the Caribbean will meet Millennium Development Goals on hunger.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY WORKS ON REFORM

General Assembly President Jan Eliasson is in Geneva, holding consultations on the Human Rights Council and other Summit follow-up issues.

In New York, this morning the first meeting is being held of the informal consultations of the plenary on follow-up to the World Summit outcome on development and

ECOSOC reform, co-chaired by the Ambassadors of Belgium and Mali. Member States are considering a letter that was circulated by the co-Chairs on Friday, proposing that the consultations ahead focus on two central tasks: spearheading follow-up across the UN system on the Summits Outcome on development and deciding how this would be monitored; and moving forward on the agreed reform of ECOSOC. That letter is available from our office or on the Summit follow-up website.

Also this morning, the Third Committee is taking up a number of draft resolutions, including one on the situation of human rights in Uzbekistan.

Tomorrow morning, the General Assembly will meet in plenary to consider a number of agenda items, including appointments for various bodies, financing of the UN operations in Cote dIvoire and Haiti, and a draft resolution on the International Criminal Court (A/60/L.25). They will also consider several recommendations forwarded by the Sixth Committee, including for a new Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracting. This had been under negotiation since 2002 by the Working Group on Electronic Commerce of the UN

Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL); a press release will be available from them.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

TROOP WITHDRAWAL UP TO IRAQIS: Asked about a timeline for the withdrawal of coalition troops from Iraq, the Spokesman said that the Multinational Force in Iraq was sanctioned by Security Council

resolution 1637, which had just been renewed recently. That resolution made it clear that the coalition forces were in Iraq at the request of the Iraqi Government. Therefore, it would be up to the Iraqi authorities to change that arrangement.

IRAQ MONITORING BOARD REPORTS COMPLETE AND SUBSTANTIAL: Asked if the United Nations was being derelict in its duties via-a-vis the

International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB) for Iraq, since it was not reporting regularly on what it was doing, the Spokesman took objection to the phrase dereliction of duty. The IAMB had maybe been at fault for not providing enough press briefings. However, the bodys reports had been complete and substantial.

NO SECURITY COUNCIL MEETINGS HELD TODAY: Out as a document is the

report of the recent Security Council mission to Central Africa. The Security Council makes very specific recommendations on four countries in the region.

YEMEN TO REGISTER SOMALI REFUGEES: The Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), together with the Government of Yemen, is about to

begin a large-scale operation to register thousands of refugees in that country, most of them from Somalia. The Yemeni authorities agreed on Sunday to start registering at six newly-created centres around the country, the first such exercise since the last registration in June 2003.

U.N. REFUGEE AGENCY ENDS POST-TSUNAMI ROLE IN SRI LANKA: UNHCR has

completed its post-tsunami role as the coordinator of a nation-wide transitional shelter effort, after the target of more than 58,000 shelters built by over 100 non-governmental organizations was reached. UNHCR will now be returning its focus to its pre-tsunami work of providing assistance to people internally displaced by the conflict, and refugees repatriating from India.

MURDER OF PHILIPPINE JOURNALISTSCONDEMNED: The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, today condemned the murder, in separate attacks, of two Philippine journalists. Matsuura said the murders of Ricardo Uy and Robert Ramos showed the alarming level of violence faced by media professionals in the Philippines. He called on the government to take strong measures to protect reporters.

U.N. CHILDRENS FUND REPORTS INCREASE IN BREASTFEEDING: Breastfeeding has increased by 15 percent worldwide and has saved millions of lives, according to a new

report by the UN

Childrens Fund. The report says that breastfeeding has increased as much as four fold some developing countries, saving as many as six million lives a year.

U.N. WORKING AGAINST GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE: The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) today announced grants totalling $1.8 million to 24 groups in developing countries who are working to end gender-based violence in their countries. Among the recipients are organizations advocating new protective laws in Tanzania, Cambodia and Nigeria; a Central American programme which will analyze domestic violence legislation in that region; and an Afro-Brazilian womens group working against racism.

SPECIAL RAPPORTEURS ARE INDEPENDENT EXPERTS: Asked about a report by a UN special rapporteur, which allegedly said that poverty in the United States constituted a human rights abuse, the Spokesman said he had not seen that document. Nonetheless, it was important to note that special rapporteurs were independent experts named by the Commission on Human Rights.

NO FURTHER NEWS ON THE MERCEDES: Asked about a Mercedes, referred to in the September

report of the

Independent Inquiry Committee, the Spokesman said that his deputy had already read out a statement on this matter yesterday and that he had nothing further to add to that.

** The Guest at the Noon Briefing was Dermot Carty, Landmines Coordinator of UNICEFs Landmines and Small Arms Team. He reported on Portfolio of Mine Action Projects 2006.

Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

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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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