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United Nations Daily Highlights, 96-11-12United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSTuesday, 12 November 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
Canada has confirmed its willingness to participate in a multinational force to provide humanitarian relief to eastern Zaire, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Sylvana Foa said today. If the circumstances are appropriate, Ms. Foa added, Canada will take the command of this operation. Consultations are being held between the Department of Peace-keeping Affairs and the Coalition of the Willing, the Spokesman said. They see this mission as humanitarian, Ms. Foa indicated, adding that its main purpose will be that more than a million people get food, water and medical attention. It is expected that the Coalition of the Willing, through Canada, will write to UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who will forward the letter to the Security Council. The Secretary-General has confirmed in Rome, Italy, that Canada was ready to command the multinational force in Zaire. UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and the executive heads of all the specialised agencies and UN programmes and funds, meeting in the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC), have reaffirmed their commitment to pursue and intensify the reform effort within the United Nations system. An ACC Joint Statement indicated, in regard to the new global challenges that "the basic objective of the reform processes under way was to adapt the functioning on the United Nations system to these challenges, so it can respond to them with maximum impact and cost- effectiveness." The General Assembly has recommended that the first general meeting between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and its associated institutions and the United Nations system take place next year, by the terms of a resolution adopted without a vote. The purpose of the meeting, to be held in New York, would be for the consultations on projects, measures and procedures to facilitate and strengthen cooperation between the two organisations. The resolution calls as well on UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to assist in furthering the development of peace and security within the region, and urges the specialised agencies and other organisations to cooperate with the Secretary-General in order to maintain and increase consultations and programmes with CARICOM. Abiding by the commitment made on 6 August that the negotiations should be finalised by the end of the year, the Government of Guatemala and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) have formally undertaken to conclude the negotiating process and sign a Firm and Lasting Peace Agreement on 29 December in Guatemala City, according to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Sylvana Foa. The Peace Commission of the Government of Guatemala and the leadership of the URNG resumed their negotiations on 9 November. Conscious of the wishes of the Guatemalan people that the process should prosper, the parties have made important decisions for peace in Guatemala, the UN moderator informed, adding that the parties invited all Guatemalans and the international community to celebrate this day, the entry into effect of the peace agreement and a new chapter of national conciliation. Secondly, the delegations have reached an agreement on the substantive aspects of the Agreement on the Definitive Cease-Fire, according to the UN moderator. This Agreement, which will enter into effect once the Peace Agreement is signed, covers different aspects of cease-fire, separation of forces, demobilisation and international verification. He stated that still pending are a series of technical and operational aspects which will be discussed in Oslo, Norway, where the agreement is to be signed at the beginning of December. The parties confirmed that the Agreement on Constitutional reforms and Electoral regime will be signed in Stockholm and that the Agreement on Bases for the reintegration of the URNG into political life will be hosted by the Government of Spain and signed in Madrid. Governments must show political will and cooperate with both employers' and workers' organisations, as well as with the media and universities to eradicate child labour, according to David Freedman, a representative of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) who addressed the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) as it continued its general debate on the promotion and protection of the rights of children. He said the objective was to eliminate child labour by changing social attitudes and strengthening the capacity of Governments to implement reform policies in such crucial fields as education and the labour market. Mr. Freedman stated that the ILO was working towards the adoption of a new binding international instrument aimed at banning the most intolerable forms of child labour, such as work by children in slave-like conditions, drug trafficking, or pornography, and work which threatened their safety or health, or prevented them from attending school. Meanwhile, the ILO has issued a report indicating that 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 were working in developing countries, nearly double previous estimates. The organisation has stated that because the problem of child labour is so enormous and the need for action is urgent, choices must be made to concentrate available human and material resources. The report said that 61 per cent of child workers are in Asia, and 32 per cent in Africa, while there was evidence that child labour also exists in many industrialised countries. As the Third Committee was concluding its consideration of the programme of activities of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, several speakers said there must be tangible results on a United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and on the establishment of a permanent United Nations forum for them. A number of delegates spoke of the lack of any United Nations body which dealt with the needs of indigenous people in a comprehensive way. The implementation of the UN New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s during the period 1998-2001 should highlight the need for financial resource mobilisation, the transfer of technology and for solutions to Africa's external debt, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) was told as it discussed the programmes in the medium-term plan for that period. Speaking on behalf of the African Group of States on programme 6 -- Africa: New Agenda for Development, the representative of Cameroon, Jean Marc Mpay said the trends towards globalisation and interdependence made it normal for Africa to expect partnership from the rest of the world. "No nation, no matter how powerful and rich or developed, could afford to entertain the illusions of comfort and isolated security by treating with contempt the plight of any nation or continent," he stated. The General Assembly would call for determined efforts by the nuclear- weapon States to reduce nuclear weapons globally with the goal of their ultimate elimination, by one the draft resolutions on nuclear weapons approved by the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security). The Assembly would also urge States not party to the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to accede to it at the earliest possible date. The draft was approved by a recorded vote of 132 in favour to none against, with 11 abstentions. Under the terms of another draft approved, the Assembly would reaffirm its endorsement of the concept of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in South Asia, and welcomed the support of all five nuclear-weapon States for that zone. In regard to that draft, the representative of India, Arundhati Ghose said it was politically motivated and aimed solely at her country, for which it did not have her support. By the terms of another text on nuclear-weapon-free zones, approved without a vote, the Assembly would welcome recent steps for consolidating the regime of military denuclearisation established by the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, Treaty of Tlatelolco. Further, the General Assembly would request the Conference on Disarmament to begin negotiations for a convention to prohibit the use of nuclear weapons, under the terms of a resolution approved by the First Committee. The draft, which the Committee approved by a vote of 76 in favour to 26 against, with 24 abstentions, would have the Conference use a draft convention included in an annex to the text as the possible basis for such an agreement. A ceremony has marked the first anniversary of the basic agreement which led to the creation of the UN Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES), in Erdut, the Spokesman for the Secretary- General said. The ceremony took place at the Yellow House where the first agreement was signed. A plaque was put on the wall of the Yellow House, and a plum tree was planted. The incident in which an International Police Task Force (IPTF) monitor of the Netherlands was reportedly shot and wounded yesterday in the former Yugoslavia, turned out to be an accident and not hostile fire, according to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General Sylvana Foa. The Spokesman said that an IPTF patrol gave a ride to a Bosnian Serb uniformed police officer in Koraj, adding that when the Serb officer was trying to reach his pistol belt, which he had removed on entering the IPTF vehicle, the pistol discharged accidentally. The bullet struck the Dutch monitor in his left hip. The injury is not life-threatening. He is being transported back to the Netherlands for further medical treatment. 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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