United Nations Daily Highlights, 96-11-29

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 29 November 1996

HEADLINES

• Security Council extends mandate of UN Support Mission in Haiti.
• International Criminal Tribunal hands down first sentence.
• United Nations continues to attach utmost importance to promotion of Palestinian social and economic development, UN Secretary- General says on International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People.
• Understanding and awareness of HIV/AIDS must be translated into positive action and more effective public policy response, says UN Secretary-General on AIDS Day.
• UN High Commissioner for Refugees urgently seeks US$236 million for Bosnia repatriation.
• Special Political and Decolonisation Committee approves draft resolution on cessation of all Israeli settlement activities.
• General Assembly calls for repeal of unilateral economic sanctions against nationals, companies of third countries.
• Iraq called on to ensure equitable distribution of humanitarian supplies by text approved in Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee.
• Legal Committee approves text on electronic database to disseminate treaty information.
• UN Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution addresses growing problem of aviation fuels pollution.

According to the summary of the judgement, Erdemovic participated in the murder of 1,200 unarmed civilians over a five hour period on 16 July 1995. The Court said Erdemovic was responsible for the murder of some ten to 100 people.

The Secretary-General acknowledged that this issue was very close to his heart, and stated that this annual commemorative event provided an opportunity to remind the international community that the question of Palestine, which was at the centre of the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East, remained unresolved despite the many efforts made over the years.

"The establishment of an elected Palestinian administration over Gaza and parts of the West Bank earlier this year was a significant advance along this road. It is now of the utmost importance not to dissipate those achievements, but to build on them in order to fulfil the hopes of all the peoples of the region for a future of peace and security", Dr. Boutros- Ghali said.

The resumption of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations had been an encouraging development, Dr. Boutros-Ghali said adding that it was essential to the parties to abide by agreements already reached. He noted, however, that the proposed construction of new settlements in the West Bank and Gaza posed a serious threat to the continuation of the peace process.

Speaking at the commemorative event, the President of the General Assembly, Ambassador Razali Ismail said that the viability of a Palestinian homeland was now progressively being diminished by policies of continued closure, repression and restricted movement that denies the rights of Palestinian people. He noted that this in turn affected the much expected inflow of financial and other resources so necessary for development which had not materialised.

Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali stated that some 22 million people were living with HIV/AIDS, while the total number of worldwide AIDS-related deaths had reached 6 million. He pointed out that these were appalling statistics, but there was nothing inevitable about the global spread of HIV.

"In the developing world, the challenge remains greater. Over 90 per cent of all new HIV infections occur here, and programmes to prevent the spread of the infection have so far met with limited success. In addition, new anti-viral therapies and treatments remain extremely costly and beyond the means of the vast majority of AIDS sufferers in the developing world," the Secretary-General said.

Under the auspices of the President of the fifty-first General Assembly, Ambassador Razali Ismail and co-sponsored by the Department of Public Information (DPI), the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UN-AIDS) and the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), World AIDS Day will be observed at UN Headquarters on 2 December. This year's theme for World AIDS Day is "One world. One hope."

The High Commissioner said that unless contributions come in, UNHCR will be unable to start its programme for Bosnia-Herzegovina and neighbouring republics. "1997 is the second year of peace in Bosnia. UNHCR wants to make it the year of return and organised repatriation," she added.

The 1997 UN Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal aims to promote the repatriation, return and local integration of refugees and displaced persons and to ensure that the basic humanitarian needs of the population are met. The UN humanitarian programme for 1997 is designed to meet the objectives of the two-year stabilisation period established following the September elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The representative of Libya, Mohamed A. Azwai, introducing the draft resolution, said the Assembly had expressed concern about the harmful effects of coercive economic measures and had appealed to the international community to put an end to such actions. He added that those practices continued and this year the United States enacted laws punishing non- American companies investing more than $40 million in petroleum resources in Libya and Iran.

The representative of the United States, Edward W. Gnehm Jr., explaining his country's position before the vote, said the Government of Lybia would have Member States believe that the draft was about free trade and the right of States to choose their own models of economic development. In truth, he pointed out, it was aimed at distracting attention from Lybia's support for international terrorism and its obstinate refusal to comply with its obligations under Security Council resolutions.

Security Council resolution 986 (1995) and the May 1996 agreement between Iraq and the Secretary-General authorised the sale of up to $2 billion worth of oil over a six month period to purchase essential food and medical supplies.

The Assembly would also endorse the proposed dissemination of treaties via the Internet, and would recognise that such access to treaty-related information was particularly valuable in countries where the cost of maintaining complete collections of treaties in bound volume form was relatively high.

Moreover, it generates a number of other pollutants, such as carbon monoxide (CO), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulates. The high temperatures in the combustion chamber also lead to the formation of nitrogen oxides (NOx). "The world's current fleet of 400,000 aircraft is responsible for 2 to 3 per cent of our planet's air pollution. This share may very well double or triple by the year 2015," said Lars Nordberg of the UN/ECE.

The Protocols to the UN/ECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution already recommended specific technologies to control the emissions from traffic, but until now these recommendations have dealt almost exclusively with road vehicles, such as cars, mopeds, and lorries. The Executive Body for the Convention is now increasingly turning its attention to other sources of emissions, such as tractors, construction equipment, lawnmowers, ships and aircraft.

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

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