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United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-02-11United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSTuesday, 11 February 1997This 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 Kofi Annan and Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon of Iraq Monday reviewed the implementation of the Iraqi oil-for-food formula, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General Fred Eckhard said. "The Secretary- General raised a number of operational issues while Ambassador Hamdoon wanted additional information on problems with contracts and amounts of funds in the six UN accounts," the Spokesman said. He said both agreed that maximum transparency was important in the implementation process. The Secretary-General Tuesday submitted to the Security Council his recommendations on the framework for the holding of elections in Liberia, according to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Fred Eckhard. The Spokesman told UN correspondents that the recommendations were prepared in response to a formal request last October by the Council of State of the Liberian National Transitional Government for UN assistance in developing a suitable electoral framework for the holding of elections in Liberia by the end of May 1997. On the basis of the findings of the UN Technical Survey Team which visited Liberia in December and the subsequent consultations with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Liberian parties in January, the Secretary-General noted the key conditions for success. The conditions, the Spokesman said, included a fair and credible political framework, an efficient and well-planned electoral operation, and adequate support from the international community. "The Secretary-General endorses the recommendations of the technical team for a provisional mechanism which would permit elections on 30 May 1997 in accordance with the Abuja agreement", the Spokesman said. He said the mechanism would take the form of a provisional electoral package which would be enacted at a special meeting of the ECOWAS Committee of Nine with the Liberian parties and become an integral part of that agreement. "This would not involve any change to Liberia's constitution but would permit the installation of the Government of National Unity and the return to constitutional order", he explained, adding that the early adoption of a provisional election package by ECOWAS and the Liberian parties was the critical next step. The Spokesman noted that if the date of 30 May was to be met, an electoral package would need to be enacted by middle of February at the latest. "The Secretary-General therefore recommends that a meeting of the Committee of Nine with the Liberian parties be convened at a earliest possible opportunity," the Spokesman said. The Norwegian Government says it will contribute US$154,000 in support of the mission of Ambassador Mohammed Sahnoun, the UN/ Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region in Central Africa. The donation was made at the request of the Secretary-General of the UN, and is designed to meet the transportation requirements of Ambassador Sahnoun and his team. Armed rebels in Tajikistan have released the Austrian military observer, attached to the UN Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) who was among fifteen international workers taken hostages last week, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General said. The observer, who was being evacuated from the mission area for medical reasons before he was taken hostage, is in Dushanbe and is reportedly in stable condition. The World Health Organisation (WHO) Tuesday started the distribution of model guidelines to its Member States in order to facilitate international donations of essential medicines containing narcotic or psychotropic substance that are needed to treat victims of natural and man-made disasters. International movement of such drugs are strictly controlled by national authorities and international bodies. WHO said narcotics such as morphine and pethidine are among the strongest pain-killers available to emergency victims, but are severely addictive and therefore closely regulated by international conventions. The Agency said psychotropic drugs like sedatives and tranquilisers, although less addictive than narcotics, are increasingly being regulated in a similar fashion by national authorities. The guidelines will assist national authorities in simplifying their regulatory procedures for such donations, which at present make the quick international transport of controlled drugs to sites of emergencies virtually impossible, WHO said. It said the lack of these medicines result in additional human suffering, by depriving those in need of adequate pain relief and sedation. Nations will decide whether or not to pursue a formal, legally binding world convention on forests during the final session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests, which is holding its fourth and final meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 11 to 21 February 1997. The meeting is expected to be the culmination of an intense international debate opened five years ago during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The question of protecting forests under a binding convention has challenged nations like few other environmental issues and dominated much of the 1992 Earth Summit, where countries ultimately adopted a set of legally non-binding "Forest Principles". The debate among governments intensified following the Rio Conference, in tandem with growing public concern about ongoing deforestation and forest degradation. In 1995, nations created an Intergovernmental Panel on Forests, under the auspices of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. 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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