United Nations Daily Highlights 96-09-11

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, September 10, 1996

HEADLINES

• UN Secretary-General says UN agencies and NGOs are working hand in hand to provide basic services to deliver humanitarian assistance.
• UN General Assembly adopts Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
• World Food Programme relief aid to revive nearly five thousand severely malnourished children in Liberia.
• High-Level Panel to discuss UN New Agenda for Development of Africa in the 1990s.
• UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee on the Return of Cultural Property to meet in Paris to discuss various claims.

"It requires the earliest possible involvement and active participation of NGOs in the policy-making process. This cannot happen without the consent and support of Member States," Dr. Boutros-Ghali said. He said the UN agencies and NGOs are working hand in hand to provide basic supplies and services to deliver vital humanitarian assistance. "NGO staff have worked tirelessly to promote the UN causes of peace and development," the Secretary-General noted.

Highlighting the gap between the influence and activism of NGOs of the North and those of the South, Dr. Boutros-Ghali noted that "we must not permit the NGO movement to become just one more example of our divided world". He emphasised that everyone has the responsibility to encourage and support the activities of developing world NGOs.

In adopting the draft text, the Assembly called on the Secretary- General to open the treaty for signature as soon as possible. In an unprecedented move, a General Assembly meeting was called on Monday, to consider the adoption of the treaty, ahead of its schedule.

Following opposition by India, the Conference on Disarmament at its session in Geneva was unable to arrive at a consensus text for a draft comprehensive test ban treaty after two-and-one-half years of negotiations. Subsequently, Australia sponsored a draft resolution for consideration by the General Assembly. Some 120 Member States co- sponsored the draft resolution, ensuring support by a two-thirds majority.

The representative of Australia, in his introduction of the draft resolution said that its adoption would allow for the opening of the comprehensive nuclear test-ban treaty for signature in just two weeks. He said that by that action, the Assembly would lay down a milestone of history-- that there should never again be nuclear explosions.

Addressing the Assembly, the representative of India has warned that India will never sign "this unequal Treaty, not now, nor later". She said India had indicated that it would withhold its consent to the Treaty text unless its concerns were addressed. "We could have prevented... the sad turn of events in which a text which runs contrary to customary international law has been brought for adoption to the General Assembly of the UN", the representative of India said.

Meanwhile, the UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has welcomed the adoption of the comprehensive test ban treaty, the Secretary-General's Spokesman Sylvana Foa said.

She said the prohibition of nuclear weapons tests is an important first step toward nuclear disarmament and the future elimination of all nuclear weapons from the face of the earth. "The Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) has been high on the Secretary-General's priority list for a very long time," the Spokesman said, adding that the Secretary-General has called for the speedy ratification of the CTBT so that "our children and grandchildren can grow up without the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation".

Three trucks, carrying WFP food to revive nearly five thousand severely malnourished children arrived in the city of Tubmanburg where some 35,000 people are suffering from extreme hunger.

Eight more trucks with emergency food supplies were expected to arrive on Tuesday with another 74 tons, enough to feed 10,000 older children and adults for the next two weeks. "The situation is very bad", said Dipson Tulay a WFP food aid monitor who accompanied the first trucks into Tubmanburg.

World Food Programme officials said thousands of children have sought refuge in the jungle, following fighting in the cities. "The children are all malnourished, many have swollen hands, swollen feet and swollen bellies and you can count their ribs," the WFP official said.

The high-Level Panel was established in 1992 by Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to advise and assist him in his effort to ensure the effective implementation of the New Agenda and to foster Africa's development in general.

The Panel is charged with developing new ideas and themes around which international response could be mobilised, convincing governments to take action and encouraging agencies of the United nations system to improve coordination.

The Secretary-General would open the Panel's meeting, which will review and discuss his report for the general Assembly's mid-term review of the New Agenda for Africa's development, to be held from 16 to 20 September. In addition to presenting their views on progress made in the New Agenda's implementation. The Panel would also discuss the implementation of the special Initiative, which was launched on 15 March.

The initiative, which seeks to mobilise international support and financing for development programmes mainly in the areas of health, education, water and capacity-building, was drawn from the objectives of new agenda and is designed to boost its implementation.

The 22 member Committee would discuss the legal arguments concerning Greece's claim that the Parthenon marbles, also known as the Elgin marbles, be returned to Greece from the British Museum. Also to be examined is Turkey's claim for the return of the sphinx of Boguskoy from Berlin, and other continuing international negotiations on restitution of cultural property.

Besides UNESCO Member States, the meeting will be attended by representatives of organisations interested in the fight against illicit traffic in cultural property.

From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

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