United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-07-11

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 11 July 1997

HEADLINES

• Security Council calls for immediate and unconditional restoration of constitutional order in Sierra Leone.
• Good governance is the single most important issue for Africa's future, UN Secretary-General says in a message to a forum in Addis Ababa.
• The joint United Nations/Organization of African Unity Envoy convinces the two warring parties in Congo/Brazzaville to sign a ceasefire agreement.
• Lebanon requests the Security Council to extend the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
• UN human rights experts voice concern over a threat to their colleague's immunity as a result of action by Malaysian courts.
• UN refugee agency identifies small groups of Rwandan refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Some 30 displaced Serb families return to their homes in southern Croatia.
• Economic and Social Council hears calls for practical action to ensure equal enjoyment of benefits of UN programmes.
• Antigua and Barbuda says it has introduced legal reforms to eliminate discrimination against women.

In a Presidential statement read out by Council President Ambassador Peter Osvald, the Council said it was concerned about the grave crisis in Sierra Leone which endangered the peace, security and stability of the whole region and, in particular, about its possible negative impact on the ongoing peace process in neighbouring Liberia.

The Council expressed strong support for the decision of the Thirty- third Summit of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) held in Harare, Zimbabwe, from 2 to 4 June 1997. The OAU Summit appealed to the ECOWAS leaders and the international community to help the people of Sierra Leone to restore the constitutional order in that country.

The action follows a request to the Council by the Economic Community of West African States to send a clear and unequivocal message to the regime in Sierra Leone to comply with the demands of the international community and return power to the legitimate Government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.

Speaking on behalf of his colleagues from Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Guinea, the Foreign Minister of Nigeria said that if the developments in Sierra Leone were not contained, they might affect the progress being made in Liberia and create refugee problems in other countries in the region. The four Ministers constitute the Committee of Four on Sierra Leone, which was formed at a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of ECOWAS at Conakry, on 26 June.

Also addressing the Council, the Permanent Representative of Zimbabwe said that his President and current Chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Robert Mugabe, had expressed support for ECOWAS noble mission on behalf of Sierra Leone. He said Africa called on the Security Council to unconditionally support efforts of ECOWAS and the OAU in seeking the "non- recognition and demise" of the military regime in Sierra Leone and the restoration of democratic government in that country.

The Forum is co-sponsored by the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It forms an integral part of the United Nations Special Initiative on Africa, a 10- year plan launched by the UN in 1996 to consolidate the work of UN agencies on the continent. The two-day conference brought together delegates from 14 countries, including government ministers, non- governmental organizations and regional organizations directly involved in governance.

In his video-taped statement to the Forum, Secretary-General Kofi Annan stressed that the United Nations stood ready to improve its services and to engage African governments in their bilateral and multilateral relations with donors and international agencies.

Mr. Annan said he believed Africa was entering a "new wave of progress", based on peace, democracy, human rights, and sustainable development. These four pillars, he added, formed the pillars of good governance".

The UN/OAU Special Representative, who was charged by the international mediation committee chaired by President Omar Bongo of Gabon to mediate a cease-fire, said he was optimistic that the agreement would soon be signed.

The United Nations Interim Force is, among other things, charged with restoring international peace and security and to assist the Government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area.

The warning came in a letter to UN Secretary-General from the current Chairman of the meeting of United Nations Special Rapporteurs and other independent human rights experts, Sergio Pinheiro, who asked the UN leader for a further affirmation of the immunity of Special Rapporteurs.

The move followed the decision earlier this month of the Malaysian Court of Appeal to deny an application by Param Cumaraswamy, the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, seeking a stay of an earlier High Court order that he must file his statement of defence in respect of a $25 million libel suit by two Malaysian companies against him.

During March this year, the Secretary-General presented a certificate asserting that Mr. Cumaraswamy, as Special Rapporteur, enjoyed the protections provided under the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. Subsequently, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur held that the certificate given by the Secretary-General confirming the Special Rapporteur's immunity from legal process was merely an opinion and was not binding on the Court.

UNHCR said it had become extremely difficult to locate the refugees and bring them to transit sites where they could be flown to Rwanda. Since April this year, the UN refugee agency had airlifted more than 50,000 Rwandan refugees from Congo/Kinshasha to Rwanda.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the return was conducted under an April agreement by UNHCR, the UN Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES), and Croatian authorities. They agreed that the Croat Office of Displaced Persons and Refugees (ODPR) would be responsible for the safe two-way return of Croats and Serbs to and from Eastern Slavonia.

The refugee agency said that there were no reports of violence against the returnees. It said that approximately 50,000 Serbs displaced during the Croat offensive of August 1995 remained displaced in Eastern Slavonia.

The Council, which is currently meeting in Geneva, heard that increasing the participation of women at the national and international levels, and within the United Nations, was essential to ensuring that UN development efforts benefitted women and men equally. The Council heard that concrete implementation of mainstreaming objectives also required an increase in resources.

Illustrating concrete progress in mainstreaming, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said the growing recognition of the connections between unrealized potential in development, the growth of poverty and the marginalization of women has encouraged the integration of social aspects in proposals for sustainable development.

Dowdeswell said her agency, among other things, now screened all projects to ensure that they met gender-sensitive criteria and encourage the right of women to manage, own and make decisions on land use.

The 23-member Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which monitors implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, is meeting in New York to examine individual country reports on measures taken to implement the treaty.

The head of the Directorate of Women's Affairs of Antigua and Barbuda, said that in reassessing its work following the 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, the Directorate had decided to focus on eliminating violence against women, encouraging more women in decision-making process, and expansion of general health and reproductive health programmes mainly targeted at young women.

"We must ensure that young people not only know the choices open to them but have the appropriate information and services to help them make the right decisions", said Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

To mark the day, UNFPA issued three booklets entitled "Generation 97", "The Youth Perspective" and "UNFPA and Adolescents". The booklets deal with issues such as sexually transmitted diseases, adolescent sexuality, peer pressure, teenage pregnancy, and special problems that adolescents face.

World Population Day is observed in order to create awareness of population issues and their impact on development and the environment. It was first celebrated in 1987 when the world population reached 5 billion.

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

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