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United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-03-07United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSFriday, 7 March 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
The United States on Friday evening vetoed a draft resolution which would have called upon the Israeli authorities to refrain from all actions or measures, including settlement activities, which alter the facts on the ground, pre-empting the final status negotiations, and have negative implications for the Middle East Peace Process. As a result of a negative vote of the United States, the Council failed to adopt the draft resolution which was supported by the other 14 members of the Council. In an explanation of the vote, the Permanent Representative of the United States, Ambassador Bill Richardson said "we have never believed, despite the useful role the Council can and has played in working for Middle East peace, that it is an appropriate forum for debating the issues now under negotiation between the parties". He said the resolution made sweeping statements concerning the legal status of Israeli settlements, which the parties themselves had agreed were to be treated as a permanent status issue in the talks that were about to resume. The draft resolution was sponsored by France, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The Security Council has expressed its grave concern at the deteriorating situation in the Great Lakes region, in particular in eastern Zaire. In a statement read by its President, Ambassador Zbigniew Wlosowicz of Poland, the Council underlined the urgent need for a comprehensive and coordinated response by the international community in support of the efforts of the joint United Nations/Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative for the Great Lakes region to prevent any further escalation of the crisis. The Council called upon the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo/Zaire to declare publicly, their acceptance of the five- point peace plan - adopted by the Council last month - in all its provisions, in particular an immediate cessation of hostilities, and called on all parties to implement its provisions without delay. "The Security Council is concerned about the effect which the continued fighting is having on the refugees and inhabitants of the region and calls upon all parties to allow access, by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and humanitarian agencies, to refugees and displaced persons and to guarantee the safety of refugees and displaced persons as well as United Nations and humanitarian aid workers," the statement said. The Council also took note with concern of allegations of violations of international humanitarian law in the conflict zone and welcomed the sending of a United Nations fact finding mission to the area. Concluding a two-day meeting Thursday, speakers in the Security Council called upon the Government of Israel to rescind its 26 February decision to build a new settlement in the Jabal Abu Ghneim area of East Jerusalem. Forty-nine speakers addressed the Council on the issue, with a number of them characterizing the recent Israeli approval of plans for Har Homa, a 6, 500 unit housing project, as part of an overall Government plan to create a fait accompli and ensure the Judaization of Jerusalem before the beginning of negotiations on the final status of the city. Many speakers called upon the Israeli Government to refrain from any action that altered the facts on the ground or prejudged the final status negotiations. Some speakers referred to the recent statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which reiterated his country's absolute sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, as evidence of an uncompromising and unstatesmanlike attitude that could only harm the peace process. Few causes promoted by the United Nations have generated more intense and widespread support than the campaign to promote and protect the equal rights of women, according to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In a message on the occasion of International Women's Day, Mr. Annan said women were notably absent from the peace table, despite evidence suggesting they bring a particular and positive perspective to preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peace-keeping. "Those United Nations peace and security missions which were characterised by gender balance in their management and staff clearly benefited from the involvement of women," he said. The assessments of operations in Guatemala, Namibia and South Africa indicated that the women who participated were perceived to be compassionate, averse to choosing force over reconciliation and willing to listen and learn, Mr. Annan explained. Focusing on United Nations reform, Mr. Annan said whatever shape reform took, he remained dedicated to mainstreaming a gender perspective into the work of the entire United Nations system and to ensuring that women's rights and women's programmes remain integral parts of the Organisation's global mission. "In making these commitments on this important day, and as we observe the anniversary of the Commission on the Status of Women, I offer to the world's women my pledge of continued solidarity with your long and worthy campaign for equal rights, development, freedom and peace", the Secretary- General said. United Nations Secretary-General has noted with regret the decision taken by the Government of Zaire on 4 March 1997 to expel from, Zaire international aid workers. The workers had been relocated from Kisangani to Kinshasa on 1 March 1997 owing to a deteriorating security situation, according to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General Fred Eckhard. "He wishes to underscore that the aim of humanitarian assistance is to provide relief to all those in need, wherever there is a need, and to do so without jeopardising the safety and security of relief personnel," the Spokesman said. It was the expectation of the Secretary-General that, security conditions permitting, those humanitarian workers who wished to do so, would return to resume their work from Kisangani, the Spokesman said. "The Secretary-General, having communicated his concerns to Prime Minister Kengo wa Dondo, is sanguine that the Government of Zaire will show understanding for the situation of humanitarian workers in a dangerous security environment, and therefore refrain from implementing its decision to expel them from Zaire. The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, signed on 15 April 1994 in the framework of the Uruguay Round negotiations, represents a signal change in international standards for protecting intellectual property required by many developing countries, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) says in a report released earlier this week. Its implementation is likely to engineer fundamental changes in industrial structure, market competition and growth in many countries, the report said. It argues, however, that the Agreement entails both costs and benefits. In accommodating their economic development goals to the TRIPS requirement, developing countries and economies in transition would do well to safeguard a balance between incentives to innovate and the need for adequate diffusion of technological knowledge into their economies, the report notes. The 76-page report, entitled "The TRIPS Agreement and the Developing Countries", was originally commissioned by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), which invited UNCTAD to study the financial and other implications of the TRIPS Agreement for developing countries. At the ninth session of the Conference (UNCTAD IX, Midrand South Africa, May 1996) member States asked the secretariat "to assist developing countries in collaboration with WIPO and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to identify opportunities provided by the TRIPS Agreement, including for attracting investment and new technologies". Worldwide deforestation is continuing at a high rate, according to a new UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report, State of the World's Forests - 1997, released earlier this week. An estimated 11.3 million hectares (ha) of the world's forests are lost each year, according to the report. The 200-page biennial report was released ahead of a 4-day meeting of the FAO Committee on Forestry, set for 10-13 March in Rome. The meeting will bring together senior forestry officials from around the world to review progress towards sustainable forestry management, to look at the implications the World Food summit Plan of Action has for forestry and to guide FAO's forestry programme of work for the coming two years. The report estimates the area of the world's forests, including natural forests and plantations, at about 3.5 billion ha in 1995, 26.6 percent of the total land area of the world except for Greenland and the Antarctic. The 1997 session of the Commission on Human Rights will begin Monday in Geneva. The opening meeting of the Commission will hear statements from the outgoing Chairman, Gilbert Vergen Saboia of Brazil and from the High Commissioner, Ralph Zacklin, who was named Officer-in-Charge of the human rights programme by the Secretary-General. 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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