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United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-05-21United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSWednesday, 21 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
The Security Council on Wednesday held an extensive debate on "Protection for humanitarian assistance to refugees and others in conflict situations". During the day-long discussion, the Council heard representatives of Member States and humanitarian agencies call for strategies to protect humanitarian staff and address the underlying cause of the conflicts. Several delegations stressed the key role of preventive diplomacy in addressing the fundamental problems of refugees and displaced persons. Opening the debate, the United Nations Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Yasushi Akashi said the Security Council had to be quick to respond when confronted with emerging crises. He emphasized that by being bold, determined and imaginative in creating conditions necessary for a durable solution, the Council could provide the best support to organizations concerned with the humanitarian dimensions of crises. Soren Jessen-Petersen, Director of the New York Liaison Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), stressed that there were serious shortfalls in today's international response to humanitarian crises. Despite the efforts by humanitarian agencies, there were still millions of forcibly displaced persons who were neither protected nor assisted, he added. He called for concerted action and attention by the Council in areas that would strengthen crisis management. The Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Stephen Lewis said the international community had to find ways to protect humanitarian staff, if necessary with military force. He said humanitarian concerns regarding children in armed conflict should be integrated into peacekeeping and demobilization mandates issued from the Council. The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday adopted the Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses and invited States and regional economic integration organizations to become parties to it. The 37-article Convention governs the non-navigational uses of international watercourses, as well as measures to protect, preserve and manage them. Viewed as a framework Convention, it addresses such issues as flood control, water quality, erosion, sedimentation, saltwater intrusion and living resources. The Convention, which is now open for signing until 20 May 2000, will enter into force on the 90th day following the deposit of the 35th instrument of ratification. The Assembly took action by adopting a resolution by a vote of 103 in favour, 3 against (Turkey, China, Burundi), with 27 abstentions. A number of States who abstained or voted against drew attention to a lack of consensus on several of the Convention's key provisions, such as those governing dispute settlement. Among other actions on Wednesday, the General Assembly appointed five members of the Joint Inspection Unit, to replace members whose terms expire at the end of this year. The Assembly also confirmed the appointment of James Gustave Speth as the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for a further four-year term to begin on 16 July. On Tuesday, the General Assembly elected 11 judges to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to serve four- year terms starting on 17 November. United Nations Under Secretary-General for Administration and Management Joseph Connor warned on Wednesday that the United Nations financial situation remained precarious. Speaking to the press after his briefing of the Assembly's Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), Mr. Connor said that the Organization's cash balances continued to be erratic, and the timing and amount of cash inflows unpredictable. "Uncollected assessments continue to hover at precarious levels. The Organization continues unable to pay its bills on a timely basis so we are on the edge financially", he said, adding that there had been no real change in the last two years. "At any time during the past two years we have had about one year's assessments uncollected, more or less. One group of Member States may perhaps be at the point of permanently financing the assessments owed by a second group of Member States", he noted. Tanzania has called on the General Assembly to approve uniform and standardized compensation rates of $50,000 for death and disability for United Nations peacekeepers to end discrimination in the present system. Speaking in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on Tuesday on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, the representative of Tanzania Muhammad Yussuf said the Group would submit a formal proposal which would save the Organization's funds and simplify complex procedures for paying compensations. During the Committee's debate on the financing of peacekeeping operations, the call to end discrimination was echoed by Pakistan. The representative of Pakistan Ahmand Kamal said it was the United Nations responsibility to ensure equal treatment for all peacekeepers. He said the color of one's skin, or level of national development could not form the basis of the rules and regulations, particularly in cases of death and disability, which in most cases, are the ultimate testimony to one's commitment to the ideals of the United Nations. Meanwhile the representative of the Netherlands Paul Menkveld, speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, said that while there were differing views on the most appropriate arrangement for compensation payments, all Member States saw the need for a simplification of the arrangement. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has announced that the Government of Switzerland on Tuesday handed one of the indictees, Alfred Mousema, to the Tribunal headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. Mousema is charged with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity, committed against the population in the Koubouye prefecture of Rwanda. Mousema was indicted by the Tribunal in July 1996 and subsequently arrested in Switzerland. A United Nations spokesman said on Wednesday that the action by the Swiss Government had brought the number of indictees in the custody of the Tribunal to 12. One remains in the custody of the United States and 8 others are still at large. The United Nations Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, Mrs. Elisabeth Rehn, expressed "grave concern" over the continuing abuse of the human rights of Croatian Serbs who were returning to the homes they had fled in 1995. In a letter to Dr. Mate Granic, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, Mrs. Rehn, in particular, referred to violent incidents on 13 May against a group of Croatian Serbs from Eastern Slavonia who voluntarily returned to their homes in the villages of Gornji Bjelovac, Umetici, Mecencani, Rujevac and Knezovljani, in Hrvatska Kostajnica. Between 100 and 150 persons, armed with stones and wooden sticks, attacked and beat ethnic Serbs, destroying their houses and ransacking personal property. The United Nations human rights rapporteur noted that the incidents reflected "a laxity in resolving the general issue of return", both of refugees and displaced persons. Mrs. Rhen called on the Croatian authorities to make resolution of that problem a priority, avoiding a tragedy for the peaceful reintegration of Eastern Slavonia. Helping countries of Asia and the Pacific region to use modern information technologies in trade and investment is the aim of a United Nations conference that began its work on Wednesday in Thailand. The three-day forum, attended by key leaders, developers, academicians and United Nations trade experts, will feature an array of leading electronic trade and investment projects and solutions in the region. A part of the forum, which is being held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, is an exhibition, where technologies on secure transactions, authentication, certification and electronic payments will be demonstrated. The Bangkok conference is a joint effort of two United Nations bodies -- the Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (ESCAP). It will be broadcast on the Internet to all Asian and Pacific countries. The business community worldwide should play a greater role in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This is the message of a special panel of experts convened by the United Nations in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Wednesday to discuss the ways in which the private sector can respond to the crisis. The event, which brought together industrialists and health experts from South Africa, United Kingdom and Zimbabwe, was organized by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the lead UN body coordinating global action on the epidemic. According to Dr. Rob Moodie, Director of Country Support at UNAIDS, an effective programme of HIV prevention and care around the world should be built on more partnerships between the private sector and governments. "We ask that companies go beyond the workforce into the communities in which they are active, lobby public health officials and start their own programmes", said Dr. Moodie. The Harare panel on HIV/AIDS was held on the first day of the Southern Africa Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum which is taking place in Harare. In a message to the panel, Uganda's Prime Minister Kintu Musoke, appealed to governments, institutions and the business community to join forces in helping to wipe out the scourge. 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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