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United Nations Daily Highlights 96-07-10United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSWednesday, July 10, 1996This document is prepared by the Central News Section of the Department of Public Information and is updated every week-day at approximately 6:00 PM. HEADLINES
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali attended the closing session of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Summit, which was presided over by President Paul Biya of Cameroon and the current Chairman of the OAU. He later met with the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECOA), Kingsley Amoako, UN Spokesman Sylvana Foa said today. The Secretary-General had been in Yaounde, Cameroon, since Saturday, 6 July, to attend the thirty-second Summit of Heads of State and Government of the OAU. Dr. Boutros-Ghali also held several bilateral meetings with African leaders, including the Secretary-General of the OAU, Salim Ahmed Salim; Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Movement (PLO), Yasser Arafat, who was scheduled to address the Summit. The discussion dealt with the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa; conflict resolution with special focus on Angola, Burundi, and Liberia; the situation in Western Sahara; and efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Bakassi Peninsula question. The Secretary-General addressed the OAU Summit meeting, attended the Summit of Heads of State and Government of Central Africa and congratulated its Committee on the adoption of a Final Declaration. He pledged the support of the United Nations for its implementation. After attending the closing session of the OAU Summit, Secretary- General Boutros Boutros-Ghali addressed UN staff stationed in Cameroon. "It is difficult to get money for medicine but easy to pay for the coffin, to quote the Chinese proverb", said Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali as he urged the international community to act effectively for the prevention of humanitarian disasters. He was addressing the Humanitarian Working Group, at its invitation, in Geneva. The Humanitarian Working Group is an informal grouping of those nations which assist the United Nations in its humanitarian work. Dr. Boutros-Ghali said donors were willing to give money for humanitarian relief but there was a disturbing reduction in the amount of development aid. Governments were willing to give money after the accident happened, but would not provide resources to prevent the accident. He pointed out that development can be the best form of prevention and warned against focusing on short-term relief needs to the detriment of development. The theme of the Working Group's discussion was: "The future role of the United Nations in prevention and conflict resolution". The Secretary-General has appointed Mr. Norbert Heinrich Holl as the new Head of the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan, according to UN Spokesman Sylvana Foa. Mr. Holl succeeds Mr. Mahmoud Mestiri, who resigned last May due to health reasons. Mr. Holl, a German national, was the Director for South Asia of the Federal Foreign Office in Bonn until his appointment, Ms. Foa said. He is to assume his functions immediately. Following briefing in New York, Mr. Holl will be based in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, pending the return of the Special Mission to Kabul, she added. The United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) has launched an appeal for $863,000 for emergency relief needs for 250,000 internally displaced persons in the North Kivu Province of eastern Zaire, UN Spokesman Sylvana Foa announced today. The appeal covers the period of six months and aims at meeting the immediate humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable population such as children in especially difficult circumstances. Ms. Foa noted that most of the money is to go to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for its operations in health, education, nutrition, water and sanitation. These activities are designed to complement ongoing operations in the region by other partners, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and Medicins sans Frontiers, she added. The Trade and Development Board, the executive body of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), has established three subsidiary Commissions and agreed on the provisional agenda of their first sessions, in accordance with decisions taken during UNCTAD IX, held in South Africa in May. According to UNCTAD, the three commissions are: Commission on Trade in Goods and Services and Commodities; Commission on Investment, Technology and Related Financial Issues; and Commission on Enterprise, Business Facilitation and Development. The Commissions will perform integrated policy work in their respective areas of competence, meeting once a year, in sessions as short as possible and not exceeding five days, states UNCTAD. At the same meeting, held in Geneva, earlier this week, Slovenia was elected member of the Board, bringing its membership to 144. The Executive Director of the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Peter Piot, has announced the start of the Perinatal Transmission (PETRA) study, a new clinical trial for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Mother-to-child transmission of HIV is currently estimated to account for more than 90 per cent of all infections in infants and children, according to UNAIDS. The new trial, which will involve 1900 HIV-positive pregnant women in five sites in South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda, aims to evaluate the efficacy and tolerance of three regimes for the prevention of mother-to- child transmission of HIV in a population where breast-feeding is the norm. The PETRA study is sponsored by the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, in Australia; Instuto Superiore di Sanita, in Italy; the National AIDS Therapy Evaluation Centre, in the Netherlands; and the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control. It is expected to continue for three years. For information purposes only - - not an official record From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgUnited Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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