HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN'S NOON BRIEFING
BY FRED ECKHARD
SPOKESMAN FOR THE
SECRETARY-GENERAL
OF THE UNITED NATIONS
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Thursday,
9 December, 2004
U.N.:
TECHNICAL PREPARATIONS FOR IRAQI ELECTIONS ARE
ON TRACK
Regarding the
Iraqi elections, for which the United Nations serves as an advisor to the independent
electoral commission, the technical preparations for the balloting is on
track, albeit with a very tight calendar.
The United Nations is continuing with its training of
Iraqi electoral workers at locations outside of Iraq. Some 6,000 Iraqi have
now been either directly trained by the UN or followed courses developed by
us.
The electoral
commission has been extended until 15 December, the registration deadline
for political entities. So far, some 241 political entities – comprising
more than 5,000 candidates – have registered. None has been rejected.
As far as UN staffing is concerned, there are 19 UN
electoral staffers currently in Iraq, with more on the way. There are also eight other international electoral
experts, not from the UN, but working under UN coordination.
The process of voter registration is continuing in a systematic fashion, with a
few disruptions attributed to the precarious security environment, and with
85% of the registration centers are up and running.
Asked whether there is still a
ceiling of 59 on all UN international staff in Iraq,
the Spokesman said that was the case. At the same time, he said, the
United Nations was seeking to raise the number of electoral workers in the
country to 25, which it believed to be the minimum needed to carry out
electoral activities.
Asked how the formula for voters
was determined, the Spokesman said it was largely based on the ration-card
system by which the United Nations provided food to Iraqis, which had
reached virtually every Iraqi family.
Asked how the electoral workers
could go about their activities given the damage to Iraqi infrastructure,
Eckhard said the UN workers were providing advice to Iraq’s Independent Electoral Commission. In the
UN’s view, technical preparations for elections are on track.
In response to another question,
the Spokesman said that the United Nations is not in a position to comment
on the security situation in Iraq
as whole, since it does not have a substantial
number of staff, and those who are there are primarily based in Baghdad’s
International Zone.
UNITED NATIONS TO HELP COORDINATE OBSERVERS FOR PALESTINIAN
ELECTIONS
UN
electoral personnel will be opening two offices, one in Ramallah and one
in Gaza,
as part of the UN’s involvement
in the Palestinian Presidential elections.
The United
Nations has been
asked by the Palestinian Authority to coordinate the hundreds of
international observers who are expected to participate in the process.
The UN will
certify and accredit organizations that want to observe the elections and
will also draft a code of conduct for them.
Each of these
organizations will issue their own separate statements based on their
observation. Since the UN is heavily involved in the organization of the
presidential ballot, it will not be fielding any observers.
The senior
international advisor to the Palestinian Central Electoral Commission is UN
electoral expert Pascal Soto.
U.N.
MISSION
IN SUDAN RECEIVES MORE REPORTS OF FIGHTING IN
NORTH DARFUR
The Secretary-General’s
Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, today expressed his concern at
the escalation of violence in Darfur, which is in direct violation of the
N’Djamena Ceasefire Agreement and the Abuja Protocols on humanitarian and
security issues. Pronk said he is also
concerned about the possible negative impact of the fighting on the upcoming
Abuja
talks.
The UN
Mission in Sudan says that, according to the African Union, fighting
took place between Government forces and the rebel Sudan Liberation
Movement/Army on Wednesday in the town of Thabit, 50 kilometers southwest of El Fasher in
North Darfur.
The mission says unconfirmed
reports indicate that Government helicopter gunships bombed the area. No
information is available yet on casualties.
Also Wednesday, there were
unconfirmed reports that Government helicopters attacked a village located
70 kilometers southeast of El Fasher.
Meanwhile, UNICEF’s
reports that the population in villages around
Tawilla, which has previously been the scene of fighting. is scared of new
attacks and is ready to leave at any time.
In South Darfur, the UN Mission says, the African Union confirmed
renewed fighting between Government forces and the rebel SLA
and Justice and Equality Movement yesterday in
two villages 50 kilometers southeast of Nyala. No further information is
available.
The Secretary-General,
in his latest report on Sudan, warns that chaos is looming as order is
collapsing in
Darfur. He calls on the parties to abide by their commitments,
by urgently providing the African Union with information on the exact
location of their troops and, by exercising full control over their troops,
to put an end to civilian suffering.
Asked whether the
Secretary-General has a new initiative to deal with Sudan, the Spokesman said that the Secretary-General
has consistently believed that, if the parties can complete the Naivasha
peace talks between the North and the South, then that could give impetus to
peace efforts throughout the country. At the same time, he said, media
reports show the situation to be getting worse. He noted that members of the
Security Council had said they had tried “everything from carrots to
sticks,” with little result.
SECURITY COUNCIL BRIEFED ON
NON-PROLIFERATION OF WEAPONS OF MASS
DESTRUCTION
The
Security
Council held an open meeting this morning on the non-proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction. Briefing the Council was Romanian Ambassador Mihnea
Motoc in his capacity as Chairman of the so-called 1540
Committee.
The Committee was established by Security Council
resolution 1540 by which it decided that all States shall refrain from
supporting by any means non-State actors that attempt to acquire, use or
transfer nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their delivery systems.
U.N. ENVOY FOR
COTE
D’IVOIRE TO ATTEND SECURITY COUNCIL
CONSULTATIONS
The Secretary-General’s Special
Representative for Cote d’Ivoire, Albert
Tevoedjre, has left Abidjan
for New York
to attend scheduled Security Council
consultations on that country on Monday.
The Special Representative travelled yesterday to Bouake
where he met the Secretary-General of Forces Nouvelles, Guillaume Soro. They had a broad exchange of views on the current
situation, including legislative reform and the disarmament of combatants.
SPOKESMAN: U.N.-U.S.
RELATIONS HAVE BEEN GOOD
Asked how important it would be
for the United Nations to receive a “voice of confidence” from a U.S. official, the Spokesman noted that the US
Government had not officially expressed any lack of confidence in the United
Nations. Recent criticism, he said, had come from some members of Congress
and some media outlets.
He added that any
Secretary-General
needs the confidence of all Member States, and
especially of the Security Council’s five permanent members. Despite a
rocky period, Eckhard said, the Secretary-General feels that he has had a
good relationship with the United States
and hopes to continue to do so.
Asked whether the
Secretary-General has been in regular contact with U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell, the Spokesman said they had talked by phone once in the past
week, which is about average. There has been no noticeable change in the
Secretary-General’s relationship with the principal US
officials with whom he is in contact.
GOVERNMENTS HAVE FAILED TO LIVE UP TO STANDARDS ON CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
Childhood is a brutal experience for half the world's
children, with crucial years being destroyed by poverty, conflict, and AIDS,
according to UNICEF’s
tenth annual report on the State of the World’s Children. The report – entitled “Childhood
Under Threat” – was launched today in London by UNICEF’s Executive Director, Carol
Bellamy.
It says that, despite the Convention
on the Rights of the Child being the world’s most widely adopted human
rights treaty, governments have failed to live up to the Convention’s
standards. The report also notes that 640 million children do not
have adequate shelter, 400 million have no means of getting safe water, and
270 million do not have access to health care services.
NEW INITIATIVE TO AID GOVERNMENTS OF
KENYA
AND NIGERIA
RECOVER STOLEN ASSETS
Today is
the first anniversary of the signing
conference of the UN
Convention against Corruption.
To mark
the occasion, the UN Office
on Drugs and Crime launched
a new initiative aimed at assisting the Governments of Kenya and Nigeria
recover assets stolen by corrupt officials. The
project involves technical assistance, which will help those countries’
legal institutions overcome obstacles to recovering assets.
SPORTS OFFICIALS DETERMINED TO OVERCOME DIFFERENCES
FOR ANTI-DOPING
TREATY FOR SPORT
UNESCO
reports that top sports officials from 89 countries have reaffirmed
the will to overcome the last remaining differences over a draft
international convention against doping in sport.
The officials had been meeting in Athens, at an international conference on sports which ended today, and the
finalized draft convention is to be submitted for adoption by UNESCO in
2005. UNESCO says that progress made in the drafting – and
the political will of member states backing it – give hope that this new
legal instrument could even be ratified in time for the Winter Olympics of
2006 in Turin,
Italy.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
MORE COMPENSATION
AWARDED TO VICTIMS OF IRAQI INVASION OF KUWAIT: Today in
Geneva, the UN Compensation Commission for
Iraq concluded its 54th session. The Commission’s Governing
Council approved a new batch of awards for compensation. The Commission's
Governing council is made up of all 15 members of the Security Council and is
presided by the Permanent Representative of Germany
to the UN Offices in Geneva, Michael Steiner.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO PROCLAIM A WORLD
PROGRAM FOR HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION: Friday
is Human Rights Day, and the General Assembly
will use the occasion to proclaim a World Program for Human Rights Education.
The Assembly is devoting a plenary session to mark the end of the UN Decade for
Human Rights. Also on Friday, there will be two panel discussions on human rights
at UN Headquarters, at 1:15 p.m.
and then at 3:00 p.m., both in Conference Room One. Meanwhile, in the Visitor’s Lobby, there is a
new exhibit, “Lest We Forget: The Triumph over Slavery,” to mark the International
Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition.
SECRETARY-GENERAL
OFFICE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH STAFF PETITION: Asked
about whether people from the Secretary-General’s
office had backed a petition in support of him, the Spokesman said that a group
of some 70 people, including Georg Kell, who heads the Global Compact Office and
is on the Secretary-General’s staff, had come up with the petition and
requested that it be circulated on the UN internal e-mail system. He denied that
the Secretary-General’s Office had anything to do with the petition.
EXCHANGE
BETWEEN SECRETARY-GENERAL AND STAFF COUNCIL WAS RESPECTFUL:
Asked about the Wednesday meeting between the Secretary-General
and the UN Staff Council, the Spokesman said the
exchange was respectful, and called it a good beginning to revive the exchange
with staff, and particularly with the Staff Council. The Secretary-General had
acknowledged that more contact with the Staff Council is desirable, and
encouraged management and the Staff Council to resolve the problems they have
had in the past. Staff Council members criticized a new promotion and placement
system that places more responsibilities on managers and less on review bodies,
he added.
Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
United Nations, S-378
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-7162 -
press/media only
Fax. 212-963-7055
All other inquiries to be addressed to (212)
963-4475 or by e-mail to: inquiries@un.org
