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Sunday, 1 September 2024
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United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-07-03United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSThursday, 3 July 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 said on Thursday that the quest for the economic and social advancement of the world's people remained one of the central undertakings of today. He also reiterated his view that development remained the primary mission of the United Nations, and the Organization's most critical long-term task. The UN leader made that comment in Geneva where he addressed the high-level session of the Economic and Social Council which had been debating the question of fostering of an "enabling environment for development". He stressed that the timing of the gathering -- just after the General Assembly special session on Agenda 21, and just prior to his unveiling of a package of United Nations reforms -- was very opportune. The Secretary-General said that Earth Summit + 5 that just ended in New York demonstrated again the power of the United Nations to bring world leaders together on issues of global significance. He stressed that it now fell to the Economic and Social Council, a body which is assigned a key role in promoting international cooperation for development by the UN Charter, to help sustain the momentum built at the New York summit. Focusing on UN reform, the Secretary-General said he had already taken a number of steps to improve the efficiency of the United Nations machinery in the economic and social field. The next step, he told the Council, would be his wide-ranging reform proposal to be presented to the General Assembly later this month. "It will place the role of the Organization in the context of the work of the system as a whole. It will discuss our vital relationship with the private sector, civil society and other multilateral players. And it will set out a blueprint for the Organization's long-term future," he said. Also addressing the Economic and Social Council on Thursday, General Assembly President Ambassador Razali Ismail of Malaysia said the United Nations role in economic and development issues required "greater seriousness on the part of developed countries to discuss economic issues in the UN, particularly the hard issues, without simply referencing similar discussion and activities in Bretton Woods Institutions and the World Trade Organization". He called on developed countries to deal with the need for economic growth "everywhere and not just domestic unemployment, inflation and the dismantling of their welfare". He also called for the involvement of more world leaders in discussions at the UN "to put life and political content into our debates, not just at the annual general debate every September". In an effort to bring together the parties to the Georgian/Abkhaz conflict, the United Nations is planning to convene a meeting in Geneva by the end of July, a UN spokesman said on Thursday. Spokesman Fred Eckhard said that Secretary-General's Special Representative for Georgia Liviu Bota discussed that matter with the UN leader in Geneva on Thursday. The Spokesman said that the proposed meeting would open a new page for the United Nations efforts to bring peace to that trouble spot. "The UN has not been central to the Georgian peace process for the last two years or so and I think this marks a kind of fresh beginning of a new UN involvement", he added. Calling for the reinforcement of human rights and civic education activities of the United Nations International Civilian Mission in Haiti, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended to the General Assembly a five month extension of the mandate of the UN component of the mission. The Mission, whose current mandate expires on 31 July 1997, is comprised of 64 international members of United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS). Charged, among other things, with monitoring the human rights situation, the Mission helps to promote democratic values in Haiti through training in human rights, civic education and conflict resolution. In his report, which contains an overview of the human rights situation in the country and an assessment of the functioning of the police, the judiciary and prisons, the Secretary-General notes that the extension of the Mission will help support the expected judicial reform efforts as well as to contribute to institution-building in the country. At the same time, the report says that the political situation in Haiti has deteriorated and divisions within the ruling Lavalas movement have deepened. Referring to the stagnating economy, high unemployment and widespread popular disillusionment, the Secretary-General notes the Government's inability to address some of the social and economic ills. On a positive note, Mr. Annan states that despite the sometimes troubled situation, individual rights and fundamental freedoms continued to be widely enjoyed. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday that he was determined to "get to the facts" in the investigation of disturbing reports of mass killings of Rwandan refugees in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Responding to a question from the press about what he would do if the authorities in the country refused to receive the Joint Investigative Mission as long as it included UN Human Rights Commission's Special Rapporteur Roberto Garreton, the Secretary-General said the most important thing was to get to the facts while remaining realistic and practical. "The alleged mass killings ought to be investigated and we will do whatever we can to investigate them", said Mr. Annan. If for one reason or another it were not possible to field the team as originally constituted, he pointed out, "we have to come up with other means of getting to the facts, and we will do it". The Joint UN/OAU Special Representative for the Great Lakes region has warned that the fighting in Congo/Brazzaville which started last month may spill over into Congo/Kinshasa. Speaking to the press corps at UN Headquarters in New York following his briefing of the Security Council on Thursday, Ambassador Mohamed Sahnoun said that tension could run high between the two countries because a number of shells fired from Brazzaville fell in Kinshasa. Stressing the need to form an international force to prevent the escalation of the conflict into Congo/Kinshasa, the Special Representative said such a force could build trust between the Government forces and militias by ensuring that weapons and reinforcements did not flow into Congo\Brazzaville to give advantage to one side or the other. The force would also provide security to humanitarian organizations such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as they moved around helping the victims of the conflict, said Ambassador Sahnoun. He pointed out, however, that the major problem in forming a peace-keeping force was that no country had expressed willingness to lead such a force. The other problem, he noted, was lack of finances. The head of the United Nations children's agency has expressed concern at the continuing plight of thousands of children who have been abducted by the rebel forces of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda. Carol Bellamy, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said in statement on Thursday that despite the failure of current advocacy efforts to end the abductions and secure the unconditional release of the children, she was encouraged by the recent visit to Sudan of a Ugandan delegation seeking to secure the release by the LRA of a number of adolescent girls abducted in late 1996. According to UNICEF, an estimated five to eight thousand children had been abducted over the past two years in northern Uganda. The UN children's agency said that the majority of the children, between the ages of 12 and 16, were trained as fighters or given as wives to rebel commanders. UNICEF said that concerted international efforts to secure the release of the Ugandan children would send an important lesson to other countries in similar situations. United Nations said on Thursday that more than 200,000 Rwandese and some 35, 000 Burundese refugees who had been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo remained unaccounted for, "without factoring in violent and non-violent deaths". According to the figures released by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 20,000 refugees were still in Congo/Kinshasa. The UN refugee agency had also located thousands of other refugees in the Central African Republic, Congo/Brazzaville, Angola, and Tanzania. 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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