United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-07-28

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Monday, 28 July 1997

HEADLINES

• High-level international conference on governance for sustainable human development opens in New York.
• Members of the Security Council reaffirm the obligation of parties to Dayton Peace Accord to implement all aspects of the agreement.
• UN Secretary-General says UN Observer Mission in Liberia played a critical role in the successful completion of Liberia's electoral process.
• The Congo-Brazzaville talks end on a high note as delegates agree to study proposal by International Mediation Committee.
• After four weeks of intensive deliberations, Economic and Social Council suspends its substantive session in Geneva.
• Working Group on Indigenous People convenes annual session in Geneva to review issues on land and sustainable development.
• United Nations children's agency says all children deserve protection from tobacco.
• Members of the Security Council backs Secretary-General's proposal to appoint Bernd Lubenik of Austria as Force Commander of MINURSO.

In an inaugural statement to the conference, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said good governance demanded the consent and the participation of the governed and the full and lasting involvement of all citizens in the future of their nation.

The UN leader told the conference that the United Nations was fully engaged in efforts to improve governance around the world. He said the number of requests for assistance had grown in recent years, reflecting the recognition by Member States that good governance was indispensable for building peaceful, prosperous and democratic societies. The Secretary- General stressed that good governance gave societies sound structures for economic and social development adding that in post- conflict settings, good governance could promote reconciliation and offer a path for consolidating peace.

In his welcoming remarks to the conference, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme UNDP), Gustave Speth said good governance was about encouraging politics of inclusion, accommodation and tolerance. He said good governance was local, and that decentralizing governance enabled people to participate more directly in governance processes and could empower people previously excluded from decision- making.

Speaking to journalists following Council's briefing by the High Representative on the implementation of the Peace Agreements in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ambassador Carlos Westendorp, Council President, Ambassador Peter Osvald of Sweden said the members of the Council expressed full support for the High Representative and his team. He said members of the Council shared the concern of the High Representative at the slow pace of implementation of the peace agreement.

Members of the Council also expressed their full support for the declaration of 30 May and for the High Representative's plans to suggest concrete recommendations if deadlines contained in the declaration were not met, Ambassador Osvald said.

Meanwhile, the High Representative Ambassador Westendorp told a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York that progress was very slow towards implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. He said that while there had been progress in recent weeks, it had not been enough.

The High Representative warned that if the agreements were not implemented by the deadline of end of July, he would propose that the international community take action against those parties that did not comply and meet the deadline.

In a letter to the President of the Security Council, the Secretary- General congratulated the people of Liberia for the serious and responsible manner in which they had demonstrated their commitment to democracy and their support for the peace process. He noted that the UN Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL), played an effective and critical role in the successful completion of the electoral process, which constituted the final element of the implementation of the Abuja Agreement.

The Secretary-General said the joint operation between the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), was an example of the type of cooperation that could give new impetus to international efforts to promote peace and stability in Africa and throughout the world.

Spokesman Fred Eckhard said the two parties to the conflict took with them a proposal by the International Mediation Committee which is chaired by President El Hadj Omar Bongo of Gabon.

"The proposal includes the nomination of an interim Prime Minister to be chosen by common agreement from outside of President Pascal Lissouba's circle. The two delegations also recommitted themselves to the ceasefire and this has reduced tension in Brazzaville, which is described as calm and quiet", said the Spokesman.

On the last day of its session, the Council approved a set of agreed conclusions on its high-level discussion on the subject of fostering an enabling environment for development. It remarked, among other things, that democracy, respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to development, and effective participation by civil society were essential to the necessary foundations for the realization of social and people-centre sustainable development.

The Council also passed a resolution demanding that the Israeli occupation force cease measures of collective punishment against the Palestinian people, in particular the closure of the occupied Palestinian territory. In another resolution, the Council recommended, among other things, that all governments intensify their efforts in the specialized agencies and other organizations of the United Nations system to accord priority to the question of providing assistance to the peoples of non- self-governing territories.

During the four-weeks of debate, the Council discussed the coordination and funding required to provide effective encouragement for development. Numerous speakers commented on the decline in core funding for United Nations development activities, and a similar drop in general resources given for official development assistance (ODA).

Also discussed at length during the month-long session were efforts by the United Nations and its specialized agencies to coordinate their activities and programmes related to development to avoid overlapping and ensure that the most was made of available resources. As in previous years, the Council reviewed and adopted a long series of resolutions and decisions recommended to it by subsidiary bodies, including the Commission on Human Rights.

In a closing statement, the Council Vice-President Anwarul Karim Chowdhury of Bangladesh described the session as "highly productive and successful" because members of the Council had shown "an unfailing willingness to work together and reach agreements on many difficult issues". He noted that there had been a series of useful panel discussions and that for the first time the Council had succeeded in adopting agreed conclusions on the theme of its high-level segment.

Some 700 participants from more than 50 countries are attending the annual meeting of the Working Group in Geneva, which will focus on issues relating to environment, land and sustainable development. The week-long session will also resume discussion on the creation of a permanent forum within the United Nations structure for indigenous people.

Speaking in response to a report on Tobacco Policy and Public Health, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said the global marketing of tobacco was a direct challenge to her agency's mission too ensure the survival of children in developing countries. She said the members of the Advisory Committee which was formed to advise Congress on a proposed US tobacco liability settlement, deserved the highest praise for their recognition that tobacco was wholly preventable threat to the health and development of young people in every country.

"Acute respiratory infections are killing 4 million children in those regions every year, a figure that will surely rise in direct proportion to the expanded marketing activities of the tobacco industry," said Bellamy. "It defies logic to spend millions every year on strategies to save children, as USAID is doing, while standing by as the tobacco industry targets them as consumers," she added.

Among its recommendations, the Committee urged that US international policy initiatives include support for tobacco-control activities by such multilateral groups as UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the Pan- American Health Organization.

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

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