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United Nations Daily Highlights, 96-12-06United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSFriday, 6 December 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
UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has told the General Assembly that traffic in human beings has become a serious challenge to the entire international community. In a statement to the Assembly on the occasion of the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, Dr. Boutros-Ghali said the traffic in persons was now a highly organised international trade with links to organised crime. "It is a trade which mainly affects young women and girls. It can and often does lead to prostitution, forced domestic service and pornography", the Secretary-General said, adding that in the late twentieth century, that situation was simply unacceptable. Citing the Platform for Action adopted last year in Beijing, and the Declaration and Agenda for Action adopted by the Stockholm World Congress, Dr. Boutros-Ghali said these platforms provided new hope for the millions of women and child victims of trafficking. He, however, noted that good intentions in themselves cannot save one woman or child from sexual and physical exploitation. Canada has submitted to the Security Council its first report on the multi- national force for eastern Zaire, the Secretary-General's Spokesman Sylvana Foa said today. The report "notes the significant improvement in the situation on the ground in eastern Zaire. However it says it is possible that there might be an appreciable number of refugees and displaced persons in eastern Zaire who still require assistance", the Spokesman said. She said the multinational force has been undertaking aerial and ground reconnaissance missions in order to obtain a clear picture of the location, number, needs and intentions of the remaining refugees and displaced persons. Currently, the multinational force has 345 personnel in Uganda and Rwanda and 32 military personnel in the planning group in Stuttgart, the Spokesman added. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Sadako Ogata on Friday called on all parties to allow humanitarian agencies full access in eastern Zaire. The High Commissioner said that despite its best efforts, UNHCR has not been able to locate substantial numbers of refugees and distressed people out in the forests and hills of Zaire. "We cannot simply stand idly by, frustrated at every turn as we try to carry out humanitarian missions. We need access to these people", High Commissioner Sadako Ogata said. Expressing appreciation for the efforts of the Rwandan government to receive and integrate the returnees in their home communes, Ms Ogata, stated that Rwanda needs more help in caring for the returnees, particularly in providing food. She said the provision of shelters and recovery of property also remain high priority. The General Assembly has called upon the factions in the Liberian conflict and their leaders to cease all hostilities and disarm their combatants according to the agreed timetable. By the terms of one of five resolutions, the Assembly appealed to Member States and the United Nations to intensify support for the reconstruction and development of that country. In another resolution, the Assembly requested that the United Nations support the Lebanese Government in capacity-building and institutional renewal, and in implementing field-based programmes for the rehabilitation and reintegration of displaced persons, and to reconstruct areas such as southern Lebanon. By a resolution on assistance to Djibouti, the Assembly appealed to all governments and international financial institutions, and United Nations bodies, to respond as a matter of urgency to the financial and material needs of that country. The Assembly asked donor countries to participate in a round table on the rehabilitation of Djibouti. Adopting a draft on assistance to countries adversely affected by Security Council sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Assembly reaffirmed the need for continued international response to deal more effectively with the special economic problems faced by those nations in the period following the lifting of sanctions. The need for improved efforts to remove anti-personnel land-mines and for heightened efforts to address the needs of their victims was stressed, as the General Assembly began its consideration of assistance in mine clearance. Several speakers cited the continuing impact of mines in their countries long after the conflict in which they were laid had ended. The continuing existence of some 110 million unexploded mines in more than 70 countries --with 20 new mines being laid for each one that was removed-- resulted in a problem of massive dimensions, the Assembly was told. Recalling the words of the Secretary-General, the representative of Canada described the situation as "the war that never ends". Citing the need to develop improved demining technology, the representative of Norway said more resources were set aside for producing new weapons including mines, than for alleviating the damage they caused. The elderly population of the world had become an issue of concern and challenge in many developing and developed countries as their numbers have begun to grow rapidly, according to the Population Division of the Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis (DESIPA). According to DESIPA the elderly are not a homogenous group. The oldest-old, those 80 years of age or older, are one of the fastest growing population segments in the world. Their concerns and needs are often quite different from the younger elderly (those aged 60 to 79), but little has been known about the oldest. With the numbers of the oldest- old increasing rapidly, demographers and other scientists are taking notice and beginning to "uncover" them separately in their studies. A three-day United Nations meeting of the , Working Group on Projecting Old- age Mortality and Its Consequences looked at ways of making the oldest-old an explicit group in the official UN population estimates and projections. A fundamental consequence of the Working Group and the work envisioned by the UN Population Division during the next few years is that the oldest-old will no longer be invisible. 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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