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United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-07-17United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSThursday, 17 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
Spilling blood on the floor to demonstrate how tough you are does not necessarily translate into effective reform, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday as he addressed United Nations staff stationed around the world. Addressing UN staff at the Organization's Headquarters in New York, with a live video-conferencing hook-up to United Nations offices in Geneva and Vienna, the Secretary-General stressed that the comprehensive package of reform proposals he had unveiled on Wednesday had only one objective: to strengthen the United Nations and to enable it to do more and to do better. Mr. Annan paid tribute to UN staff at duty stations around the globe, and especially those in the field, and on UN missions, who, he stressed, with great courage endured hardship and danger in the cause of the United Nations. Underlining the main purpose of his reforms, the Secretary-General said his aspiration was to improve and enhance the conception, quality and delivery of the services provided by the Organization. At the same time, he warned against approaching his reform record solely on the basis of staff reduction figures. "There is a tendency to evaluate reform on the basis of cuts, how many people lose their jobs, how much money you save. But the toughest part of reform is the qualitative changes, the changes in attitude, the changes in work habits, the team building and getting people to work cohesively and productively together in time raising productivity giving a better value for dollar", said Mr. Annan. The members of the Security Council on Thursday expressed their continued concern at the violence in Burundi despite some positive development in the political field. Speaking to the press, Council President Ambassador Peter Osvald of Sweden said the Council members urged all parties to continue to pursue a negotiated settlement. Reaffirming their support for the regional mediation efforts of former President Nyerere to achieve national reconciliation, the Council members welcomed the ongoing talks in Rome and expressed the hope for an all- inclusive political dialogue. Ambassador Osvald said the members of the Council reiterated their concern about involuntary resettlement policy and the serious human rights situation. He said the Council members called for a rapid dismantling of the regroupment camps, and further emphasised the need to deal with the problem of impunity and to strengthen the national judicial system in Burundi. Urging all parties in Liberia to respect the outcome of the elections scheduled for Saturday, the members of the Security Council said they were satisfied that, on the whole, preparations for the upcoming elections were satisfactory. During the elections, Liberians will go to polls to elect a president, a vice president, and 90 members of a bicameral legislature. In a statement to the press on Thursday, Council President Ambassador Peter Osvald of Sweden said that Council members also expressed the expectation that all Liberians would continue to participate peacefully in the electoral process and that the elections would be carried out in a peaceful, fair, and free manner. He said that Members of the Council supported the coordination efforts of the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL), the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), a regional group spearheading the peace process in Liberia, and the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Ambassador Osvald said members of the Council also called on the international community to assist Liberia in the post- election phase. In a related development, UNOMIL reported that according to preliminary estimates there were some 730,000 registered potential voters in the country. According to a UN spokesman, the Observer Mission was satisfied that it had facilitated the registration of the vast majority of the estimated number of Liberians eligible to vote. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the Government of Burundi was continuing efforts to secure the lifting of sanctions and encourage political dialogue, while stepping up efforts to combat the growing Hutu insurgency and the mounting death toll. He said Burundi will be able to establish the conditions necessary for the further easing of sanctions if the positive trends continued. In his report to the Security Council covering the main developments in the country since November 1996, the Secretary-General stated that the determination of President Buyoya to pursue all-inclusive negotiations has resulted in improved relations between the Government and those who were interested in advancing a negotiated and peaceful settlement of Burundi's conflict. The UN leader noted that he was encouraged by the new willingness shown by President Buyoya and his Government to cooperate with a variety of international actors in order to help find solutions to Burundi's persistent problems. In an example of a new unified approach to peace-building and development at the country level in the Great Lakes Region, UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan has set up a task force comprising various elements of the UN system and the World Bank, a UN Spokesman announced on Thursday. The Task Force, which is chaired by James Gustave Speth, Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), comprises conveners of the Secretary- General's Executive Committees on Development, Humanitarian Assistance and Peace and Security. UN Spokesman Fred Eckhard said the task force was working on a full range of potential cooperation between the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United Nations such as relief, reconstruction and other issues like capacity building and political questions. Meanwhile, the representative of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ibrahim Jabr told journalists in New York on Thursday that Congo/Kishasha, which had suffered from the recent refugee problems and "a chronic emergency for the past thirty-two years", was going into a new, promising phase. He said it was not inaccurate to say that the country needed "a Marshall Plan for reconstruction", adding that all the elements towards that were positive. Mr. Jabr said the Secretary-General would send a team to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to discuss preparation of a strategic framework for the next two years of transition. The heads of the five United Nations regional commissions told the current session of the Economic and Social Council in Geneva that economic performance around the world continued to improve in 1996. Participating in a discussion on the changing role of their organizations and their part in enhancing the well-being of citizens in various parts of the world, the five Executive Secretaries focused, among other issues, on how to spread economic growth more evenly and avoid further marginalization of the world's poorest countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Responding to questions from country delegations, the heads of the regional commissions noted that programmes in Africa were being decentralized to "sub-regions", where efforts to build national capacities and infrastructures and to spread useful knowledge could be better tailored to the needs of specific countries. In regard to specific activities of the different Commissions, the Council heard that the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) has devised a joint programme for collecting statistics to increase efficiency and reduce costs. The Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC) carried out extensive cooperation with other regional commissions and other regional organizations to take advantage of the relative strengths of each and to avoid duplication, the Council was told. The Council heard that uneven growth in Asia and the Pacific had led the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to give priority in its work programme to the economies of those countries lagging behind. A representative of Antigua and Barbuda told the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women that a 24-hour crisis hotline to assist victims of domestic violence in the country will become operational on 1 August. As the Committee continued its consideration of the country's compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the representative of Antigua and Barbuda said her country's comprehensive programme on domestic violence also included support services and an education and awareness component. During consideration of the report on Armenia, the 23-member expert committee heard that plans were under way for the creation in early 1998 of a new department for the advancement of women. Commenting on the report of Armenia, the Committee emphasized that the taboo on talking about violence against women must be overcome. They warned that privatization could be devastating for women and was generally not appropriate in the area of health care. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, (UNESCO) has announced that it will set up emergency aid to help in the rapid restoration of schools affected by the current flooding in the Czech Republic. The flooding -- which has also devastated neighbouring regions in Poland, Slovakia and Austria -- reportedly caused at least 37 deaths in Northern Moravia and forced the evacuation of thousands of people. UNESCO said it was entirely at the disposal of the Czech authorities in designing a more structured plan for restoration assistance. 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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