United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-03-27

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 27 March 1997

HEADLINES

• Security Council extends the mandate of United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia for three months until 30 June.
• United Nations Secretary-General proposes a meeting of countries concerned with the situation in Afghanistan.
• General Assembly President says his recent proposal on Security Council reform is not a magic formula.
• Expert Group reviews developed economies and economies in transition.
• Administrative and Budgetary Committee considers cost of extending United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala.
• Human Rights Committee examines compliance by Georgia with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
• Conference on Disarmament should begin discussing appropriate arrangements to deal with the question of anti-personnel land-mines, Conference hears.
• `Group of 77' asks that observers be allowed to attend meetings of Legal and Technical Commission of the International Seabed Authority.
• UNESCO Director-General condemns the killing of school children during attack in Rwanda.
• The Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication approves 36 new projects.

The Council stressed the importance of close contacts and enhanced coordination between UNOMIL and the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG), at all levels, and in particular, the importance of ECOMOG to continue to provide effective security for international personnel during the election process.

It also stressed the importance of respect for human rights in Liberia, not least during the period leading up to the elections. The Council also urged all Liberian parties to cooperate with the peace process.

In a report on the situation in Afghanistan, the Secretary-General also took note of proposals that an intra-Afghan meeting among the warring parties be held outside Afghanistan in order to provide an opportunity for them to talk to each other in a secure environment.

According to the Secretary-General, the situation in Afghanistan remains precarious and, success in the United Nations peace efforts remains elusive. He said the military situation is dangerously fluid and may soon deteriorate further with the onset of the spring thaw.

The Secretary-General stated that the United Nations and its member States had to increase efforts to address the Afghan question before the situation deteriorated still further.

"There are so many things that are not right about this present Security Council. No magic formula will be able to remove every aspect of imbalance, anomalies, inequities that are in the Council at this moment," he said.

The Assembly President said the ten non-permanent members of the Council are in most cases prevented from fully discharging their responsibilities, and the pressure exerted by the five permanent members of the Council, collectively or individually, was immense. "So we've got skewed decision- making processes and the veto had been done at will as it were on a unilateral, national basis," he added.

Project LINK, whose meeting is being sponsored by the Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis (DESIPA), is an international economic research network of more than 70 economists led by Nobel Laureate Lawrence R. Klein of the University of Pennsylvania, in the United States.

Forecasts of economic growth and budget deficits for western European countries presented at the meeting indicate that expected stronger growth will allow a majority of countries to meet the Maastricht criteria for monetary union in 1997, the judgement year for entering the single European currency area at the start of 1999.

The main exceptions are Germany, which is projected to meet the criteria in 1998, and Italy, which is projected to have a fiscal deficit in 1998 slightly in excess of the stated Maastricht standard of 3 percent of a country's gross domestic product.

Participants noted that despite a progressive recovery in the area, at a rate of about 2.5 per cent a year, and despite progress towards meeting the Maastricht Treaty criteria, continued fiscal retrenchment constrains the economic outlook and the employment situation in many European countries.

The amount would fall under the 1996 - 1997 budget section on peace- keeping and special missions. Explaining her position after the decision's adoption, the United States' representative said the $21 million should be fully absorbed within the current 1996 - 1997 regular budget.

Cuba's representative said she had agreed to the decision on the understanding that the Secretariat would present proposals on how to finance MINUGUA's activities without affecting the implementation of mandates.

Among the other issues of concern to the experts, who serve on the Committee in their personal capacity, were: prison conditions; freedom of religion; the right to privacy; freedom to form trade unions and to strike; problems of minorities; the criteria for detentions; the right to legal representation; the authority of the parliamentary committee on human rights; and the lack of clarity in Georgia's report.

Responding to questions, the Chief Legal Adviser to the President of Georgia, Levan Alexidze, said that freedom of religion had always existed in Georgia, and the coexistence of religions was in the blood of Georgia people. A law was now being drafted to ensure that the orthodox religion did not have any legal advantages, he added.

There was also now unprecedented freedom of expression in georgia, with 300 newspapers being published in a wide variety of languages, he said. In addition, he noted a law on trade unions was being drafted, although the leaders of those unions had to work to overcome the mistrust of unions that had developed during the Soviet era, when they were "mere puppets".

According to the proposal, the Conference would appoint a special coordinator to conduct consultations on how the issue is to be handled. The special coordinator would present a report to the Conference before the end of May 1997.

Introducing the proposal to the Conference in Geneva, the representative of Finland said the fact that it had been made by three countries representing three different geographical groups underlined the importance many countries around the world attached to a ban on anti- personnel land-mines.

The representative of Germany also expressed support for a land-mine ban, announcing the holding of a meeting of experts to be held in Bonn in next month to discuss verification of a proposed treaty.

The first part of the 1997 session of the Conference on Disarmament concluded on Thursday.

The proposal was made by the representative of Brazil in his capacity as Chairman of the Group of 77. The 22-member Commission is currently considering a draft mining code for deep seabed prospecting and exploration.

The proposal prompted an immediate response from the Secretary- General of the Seabed Authority, Satya Nandan. He reported that his earlier consultations with the Chairman of the Legal and Technical Commission and subsequent discussions among its members had resulted in a unanimous decision not to allow observers.

Members of the Commission had agreed, however, that progress reports should be made at the request of the Council, the first of which had been presented earlier, he said.

Mr. Mayor described the incident as an odious act against children who represent the future of Rwanda. "In attacking a school, the aggressors violated what is most holy, innocence; and an institution which is meant to educate a new, more tolerant, generation; liberated of ethnic prejudice," he said.

The projects selected prioritise the Least Developed Countries with a special emphasis on Africa. In Africa, IPDC will be backing two regional and inter-regional projects and nine national projects covering a wide range of activities.

Part of the approved projects include upgrading for the Internet the computer infrastructure of the Pan African News Agency, which is slated to be privatised; and supporting journalists training at the West African Newsmedia and Development Centre, based in Cotonou in Benin.

Since its creation in 1980 to bridge the gap between the developed and developing nations in the field of communication, the IPDC has channelled US$74 million to some 600 projects in over 100 countries. Since 1992, the Council has been giving priority to private media projects in a bid to enhance media pluralism and independence.

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

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