United Nations Daily Highlights, 06-10-10

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

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

U.N. HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERS DISCUSS NORTH KOREA DRAFT RESOLUTION

There are no meetings or consultations of the Security Council scheduled for today, but Council members are continuing to discuss at the experts level a draft resolution in response to the nuclear test announcement by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Asked whether Secretary-General Kofi Annan had spoken to any DPRK officials since the nuclear test, the Spokesman said he had not. In response to a further question, the Spokesman added that the Secretary-General had not spoken in the past day with Republic of Korea Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon.

ANNAN DISPATCHES TOP POLITICAL OFFICIAL TO DR CONGO

TO ENCOURAGE SMOOTH ELECTIONS

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari, will leave New York today to start a trip to the

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where he will visit from 12-15 October.

The purpose of his trip is to encourage smooth and peaceful presidential and provincial assembly elections later this month, while underscoring support for the major UN electoral assistance operation being carried out through the UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the UN Country Team.

Gambari will meet with the key Congolese political actors and the Independent Electoral Commission, as well as with Special Representative William Swing and his team. He will be accompanied by Craig Jenness, Director of the Electoral Assistance Division of the Department of Political Affairs.

Gambari will be continuing on from the DRC to South Africa, where he will launch in Cape Town on 16 October the first of a series of consultations about mediation in peace processes, involving experts from different regions of the world.

Asked about disagreements between presidential candidates Joseph Kabila and Jean-Pierre Bemba, the Spokesman said that Swing and his team have been working with the two candidates to work out their differences before the elections.

The Spokesman declined to comment on a decision by the UK Government to pull out some of its nationals during the runoff elections, saying that the United Nations would not second-guess security measures taken by countries. He noted that the United Nations undertakes regular security assessments and makes arrangements accordingly.

ARMED FORCES REMAIN MAIN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATORS IN D.R. CONGO

In the latest human rights report on the DRC ,the mission that the Congolese Armed Forces remain the main human rights violator in the restive

Kivus, Ituri District and Katanga provinces. The National Police also flouted human rights norms by arbitrarily rounding up some 800 people, including street children, during the recent post-election unrest.

Sexual violence against women and girls, as well as the unlawful activities of Congolese and foreign armed groups such as the Ugandan Lords Resistance Army, also continue to pose enormous challenges to the Congolese authorities.

Meanwhile, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that the first of its convoys repatriating Congolese refugees from Burundi is scheduled to leave northern Burundi today with a group of some 300 refugees. The six-hour journey should end at Uvira, a border town in Congo's South Kivu province.

HEAVY FIGHTING ON DARFUR-CHAD BORDER THREATENS REFUGEE CAMPS

UNHCR says it is deeply concerned about the heavy fighting that took place in

Darfur on Saturday between the Sudanese Army and Sudanese rebels within a few kilometres of the Ouré Cassoni refugee camp on the Chadian side of the border.

Although no one in or around the camp was harmed, UNHCR says the incident is further evidence of the destabilization that is happening in the region and which the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, has repeatedly warned about.

UNHCR adds that the ongoing deterioration of the security situation in Darfur and increasing insecurity throughout eastern Chad highlights the urgent need to move Sudanese refugees in Ouré-Cassoni camp further away from the border.

The World Food Programme (WFP) says that in September, food rations reached more than 158,000 people in Darfur who had been cut off in recent months. The number of people not reached has been dropping steadily from 470,000 in July to 355,000 in August and now 224,000. But WFP says while it is heartened by this improvement, among the 224,000 not reached last month are 139,000 who have gone without food aid for four months.

PREPARATORY GROUP FOR IRAQ COMPACT MEETS IN BAGHDAD

The Preparatory Group for the International Compact with Iraq held its second meeting at the

Baghdad office of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq.

The meeting, co-chaired by Ashraf Qazi, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Iraq, discussed progress made thus far, and the upcoming steps to ensure success of the Compact. These steps will include, among others, expanding and reviewing the Compact draft to reflect comments by Iraqi officials and donors.

The next Preparatory Group meeting will be held on 19 October in Baghdad.

GUATEMALA STILL NEEDS AID FOLLOWING HURRICANE DESTRUCTION

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that, one year after Hurricane Stan struck Guatemala, the country still needs more aid and the physical damage from the storm is still visible.

The World Food Programme is continuing to provide food aid to hurricane survivors. But the agency needs $4 million to finance those efforts until February 2007.

PLAN FOR REFORM OF HAITIAN POLICE IS SHARED WITH SECURITY COUNCIL

The Secretary-General has shared with the Security Council a letter from the

Haitian government on the adoption of a plan for reforming the Haitian National Police.

The plan was worked out in coordination with the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, and it provides a detailed plan on how to improve the police force currently, that police force has just 7,000 badly equipped and poorly trained officers and most of their 200 police stations need to be repaired or rebuilt.

ANNAN URGES MORE ATTENTION ON WOMENS ROLE IN PEACE AND SECURITY

The Secretary-General, in his report on women, peace and security, says that, while gender equality is increasingly recognized as a core issue in the maintenance of international peace and security, the role of women in peace processes generally continues to be viewed as a side issue rather than as fundamental to the development of viable democratic institutions and the establishment of sustainable peace.

In that regard, the Secretary-General calls upon the Security Council and the UN Peacebuilding Commission to give priority attention to the situation of women in conflict and post-conflict countries.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

MORE ATTENTION NEEDED ON ISSUE OF DEATH FROM SUICIDE: Today is

World Mental Health Day and this years theme is: Building Awareness - Reducing Risk: Mental Illness and Suicide. In a message to mark the occasion, the Secretary-General says that deaths from wars, homicide, terrorism and other forms of violence are rightly of concern, yet deaths from suicide do not receive nearly enough attention. The best way to reduce the disastrous impact of suicide is to tackle the mental disorders that are linked closely to it, he says in the message.

THREE PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS IN AFRICA EXCHANGE VIEWS: The Special Representatives of the Secretary-General and senior officials from the UN Political Office for Somalia, the UN Mission in Sudan and the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea held a two-day inter-mission meeting in Nairobi. The meeting, which began yesterday, is the first of its kind. It allowed the three missions to exchange views on the political and military situations in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea in particular. Participants also surveyed inter-state relations and the role of regional organizations, including the Intergovernmental Agency on Development, the African Union and the League of Arab States, in furthering UN mandates and priorities in mission areas.

CHILDREN DISCUSS OUTER SPACE ISSUES AT MODEL U.N. CONFERENCE: On the occasion of World Space Week, some 50 children, aged 6 to 10, today held a Model UN Conference on Outer Space at the headquarters of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs in Vienna. The children, who each represented a different country, discussed among other subjects how to acquire more satellites to monitor deforestation and help solve environmental problems on Earth. The children were also briefed by scientists from the Austrian Aeronautics and Space Agency, which co-organized the event, before receiving certificates of participation and souvenirs from various scientific research bodies, including the European Space Agency and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

QUEEN SOFIA OF SPAIN AWARDED CERES MEDAL: Queen Sofia of Spain was today awarded the Ceres Medal by the Food and Agriculture Organization in recognition of her efforts to raise the living standards of rural women in developing countries. The Ceres Medal named after the Roman goddess of agriculture is awarded to distinguished women who have made an outstanding contribution to agricultural development and food security.

HUMANITARIAN VIDEO GAME NOW IN SEVEN LANGUAGES: This week, the world's first humanitarian video game "Food Force" will be available in seven languages following the launch of French, Hungarian and Chinese versions. The games are being released in the lead up to World Food Day, 16 October. Food Force is an educational computer game created by the World Food Programme.