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United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-05-06United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSTuesday, 6 May 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
Calling it "an historic event", UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened on Tuesday the inaugural conference of a new organization that will be charged with enforcing a global ban on chemical weapons. Speaking in the Hague at the first session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Secretary-General said that the newly-formed Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) would put at the disposal of the international community "a powerful instrument for verification and enforcement". The Hague- based OPCW will implement the Convention while the Conference of ratifying States, or States Parties, will be the highest decision-making body, meeting on an annual basis. In his remarks at the Conference, which was attended by 160 countries, the UN leader pointed out that the signing of the Convention was not merely a great step in the cause of disarmament and non- proliferation. "It is much more. It is a momentous act of peace", said the Secretary-General, who is the Depository of the Convention. At present 165 countries have signed the Convention and 88 have ratified it, and more still are preparing to do so. The Security Council today reiterated its support for the United Nations five-point peace plan which calls for a cease-fire and a peaceful transition leading to democratic elections in Zaire. In a Presidential statement issued on Tuesday, the Security Council paid tribute to South African President Nelson Mandela and UN/OAU Special Representative Ambassador Mohamed Sahnoun, for facilitating the recent meeting between President Mobutu Sese Seko and ADFL leader, Laurent Kabila. The Council met on Tuesday for consultations on the situation in the Great Lakes region and a briefing on the latest developments by Kieran Prendergast, Under- Secretary-General for Political Affairs. Speaking to reporters after the consultations, President of Security Council Park Soo Gil of the Republic of Korea appealed to the leaders concerned to do their utmost to attain the objectives set out in the Council's five-point peace plan and said that members of the Council had expressed serious concern over the humanitarian situation in eastern Zaire. The head of a United Nations food aid agency warned of potentially dangerous food shortages in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and appealed for additional contributions to help the plight of children in the country. Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday that bilateral and direct government contributions are urgently needed to avoid malnutrition and potential starvation during this year. She told a press conference at UN Headquarters today that the 1997 food shortage in DPRK would be 2.3 million tons, while the Government believed it could raise only about one million tons of food. Even though the resulting shortfall was 1.3 million tons, WFP was now appealing for 200,000 tons food as it could effectively monitor the distribution of that amount. Ms. Bertini said that the food would be distributed to children under six years of age in nurseries and kindergartens, to hospitals and to people in the central and southern parts of the country working in flood rehabilitation and food-for-work programmes. The High-Level Committee on the Review of Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) continued today the work of its tenth session which began yesterday. The Committee is, among other things, discussing new directions for cooperation among developing nations, and progress made in the implementation of the 1978 Buenos Aires Plan of Action for promoting such cooperation. The newly elected Chairman of the Committee, Mamodou Kebba Jallow of Gambia told the Committee on Monday that the tenth session was an excellent venue to formulate programmes to further South-South and North-South cooperation. Addressing the opening meeting of the session on Monday, the Netherlands said that technical cooperation among developing countries should not be treated as a separate programme, but should be integrated in the overall work of United Nations development agencies. Speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States Arjan Hamburger of the Netherlands said that a regional approach to TCDC would increase the chances for successful cooperation. The impact of TCDC, he pointed out, would increase if the available funds to the development agencies of the United Nations were used in a focused manner instead of being sent to a multitude of small projects with the risk of diluting their impact. Meanwhile, Tanzania pointed out that the lack of financial resources had adversely affected progress in the utilization of the TCDC modality. Ambassador Daudi Mwakawago who spoke on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, also stressed that the international community was slowly recognizing that the future belonged to South-South cooperation. He said they were confident that in time, it could become the dominant form of international development cooperation as more developing countries achieved higher levels of technical development and sought, on this basis, to exchange experiences with other developing countries. The liberalization of investment and trade on the African continent has resulted in the emergence of a new phenomenon: the African transnational corporation. That is the conclusion of a just released report by a United Nations agency dealing with questions of trade and development. The report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) surveys 53 Africans countries presenting the most complete and authoritative source of data on investment trends and statistics in existence. Entitled World Investment Directory on Africa, the 465-page study was the fifth in a six-part series being published by UNCTAD, the principal organ in the United Nations system dealing with investment questions, in part in the area of investment promotion and trend analysis. The report notes that foreign direct investment (FDI) flows are no longer concentrated on the traditional primary commodities, moving instead into service industries, particularly in the finance and insurance sectors, and mining. Highlighting the significance of the report's findings, Georg Kell, Officer-in-Charge of UNCTAD's New York office, told a press briefing on Tuesday that greater investment opportunities now existed in Africa and it would be a grave mistake for investors to discount them because of the generalized negative perception of the region as a whole. 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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