HIGHLIGHTS OF SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN'S PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE UN REPORT "IN LARGER FREEDOM"

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Monday, 21 March, 2005

 

SECRETARY-GENERAL’S OPENING REMARKS AT PRESS CONFERENCE TO LAUNCH “IN GREATER FREEDOM” REPORT

• Good Morning, Ladies and Gentlemen.
   

• Let me first wish our Iranian and Kurdish friends a very Happy New Year – Nowrooz Mubarak!
   

• I expect you all heard my speech a few moments ago, and I hope you have also had a chance to read the report – in fact, I gather some of you got hold of it much sooner than we had intended.  I assure you that was not a deliberate leak on our part, but I am glad that the report has aroused so much interest.
   

• The only thing I want to do this morning, before taking your questions, is to explain briefly why I am issuing the report at this time.
   

• The General Assembly had asked me five-years ago to review progress on the Millennium Declaration, and had decided to meet and discuss at summit level in September.  But frankly, I don’t think a mere review would have done justice to the present world situation.  I feel strongly that there are decisions which urgently need taking, in the areas of development, security and human rights, and changes that need to be made in the structure of the UN itself, if we are to make the most of our opportunities in the next ten years, and save many millions of people from death and disaster.
   

• For instance, if governments take the decisions I’m suggesting in this report, I believe we have a much better chance of turning the tide against HIV/AIDS and malaria in the next ten years; a much better chance of containing the spread of any new infectious diseases, whether natural or man-made; a much better chance of averting an attack by terrorists using nuclear or radiological weapons; a much better chance of preventing countries like Haiti, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone from sliding back into chaos or crisis; a much better chance of reaching a common understanding on how to deal with recalcitrant regimes like that of Saddam Hussein; and a United Nations that is much better able to take effective action – through a strengthened Security Council and a new, authoritative Human Rights Council, both working closely with regional organizations – to put a stop to major crimes against innocent people, such as those we are witnessing in Darfur.
   

• This report is the programme of action I have been working towards over the past two years.  It is aimed at making sure that the commitments made to fight poverty are really carried out, in a way that brings results.  It is aimed at healing the wounds in the international community left by the Iraq war.  And it is aimed at restoring the credibility of the United Nations as a leader in the worldwide struggle for human rights.  By publishing it now, I am giving world leaders six months to consider and debate it with their peoples, in the hope that they will come here to New York in September ready to take decisions.  
   

• Thank you very much.  It’s now your turn.

 

SUMMARY OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

On Security Council reform

• The Secretary-General, asked about Security Council reform, said he hoped that discussions on reform could conclude this year. Everyone has agreed on the need for reform, he said, and now we need to come up with concrete proposals to do that.
   
• Asked about Brazil’s Security Council chances, he noted Brazil’s contributions to the work of the UN and said that he hoped that, beginning today, that question could be answered.
   
• Asked whether he believes Council reform could be resolved before September, he said it is possible, and noted intensive consultations among Member States. He hoped that they would come to a decision so that the Heads of State can bless it by September.
   
• Asked about the role of regional organizations in the Security Council, he said the Council already works closely with regional organizations, as with the African Union in African peacekeeping and with the Caribbean Community in Haiti. But he added that the proposal to have regional organizations get seats on the Council was a non-starter, with existing Council permanent members unlikely to give up their seats.
   
• Asked about the proposal for "Plan B," in which some Member States would sit on the Council on a semi-permanent basis, the Secretary-General said that would be up for discussion among Member States. He hoped there would be consensus, but added that a lack of consensus should not be used to avoid dealing with the issue.
   
• The package as it now stands, he added, was designed to reduce the imbalance currently in the Security Council, with most of the proposed new seats coming from developing nations. With the reform, he said, the Third World would be better off than it is today.
   
• Asked why the High-Level Panel had not proposed that new Security Council permanent members have veto powers, the Secretary-General said it was believed that the expansion of veto power would not be acceptable to Member States.
   
• Asked about one-sidedness in UN resolutions, the Secretary-General said that the reform will make the Organization more effective, but will not necessarily resolve that issue.

On terrorism

• Asked how countries could agree on a definition of terrorism, the Secretary-General said that 12 conventions on terrorism had already been passed, and that the High-Level Panel’s report offered a way forward: that whatever the cause, the killing and maiming of noncombatants is not acceptable and is terrorism. International law, he said, prescribes how states can use force; now, he hoped, states could agree that the deliberate targeting of civilians is not acceptable.
   
• Asked about unhappiness over his earlier remarks on a definition of terrorism, the Secretary-General said he was unaware of complaints, and reiterated his hope that states would agree on the definition by the panel.

On US reaction to the report

• Asked how the US administration might react to the report, the Secretary-General said that the United Nations and the United States have had constructive discussions, and he hopes those discussions will continue. He said he did not tailor the report to fit a region, a country or group of countries. When governments review the report, he hoped that they would see it in their interests, would approve the report and strengthen the UN.
   
• Asked what message the Secretary-General could give to the American people to convince them to support UN reform, the Secretary-General said that the threats the world states, from terrorism to environmental degradation to failed states, are so large that an effective and functioning UN is in the interests of all nations and their people.
   
• Asked about US unilateralism, the Secretary-General reiterated that the discussions with the US have been constructive, and noted that one American, Brent Scowcroft, had sat on the High-Level Panel. He hoped, at the end of the day, that there will be consensus on a majority of proposals, with countries realizing the reforms are in their self-interest.
   
• Asked about US efforts to push certain UN reforms, the Secretary-General said that he intended to meet the co-chair of one US panel on UN reforms and to work with that panel.
   
• The proposal to withhold US dues until reforms were implemented, he said, "would be very unfortunate. We’ve been there before." The Secretary-General said, "I really hope it wouldn’t happen," adding that it would make it more difficult for the UN to perform and to fulfill all its mandates.
   
• Asked how recent UN scandals have affected the Secretary-General ability to push the report, the Secretary-General said that, despite criticism, especially in the United States, the UN has carried on with its work. The genesis of these proposals go back many years, before the scandals, and the Secretary-General said it was in everyone’s interest that the UN be strengthened to handle the challenges of the day. As Secretary-General, he said, he would be extremely pleased to have something to do with strengthening the UN.

On human rights issues

• Asked about nations’ responsibility to protect, the Secretary-General said this was an issue that the Security Council would have to face. They will have to judge whether a country has lived up to its responsibility to protect its people. It was an issue it was dealing with now, on topics like Darfur.
   
• Asked about reform of the Human Rights Commission, the Secretary-General said it is no secret that the Commission has been ineffective, with groups forming among nations to get certain nations on the Commission; in that process, he warned, the rights of the individual get lost. He said that if members were elected to a Human Rights Council by a two-thirds majority of states, we could do better, and make UN human rights work more effective.
   
• The Secretary-General, in response to another question, said he believed that the UN needs to help countries that want assistance in becoming more democratic.
   
• Asked about development of democracies, the Secretary-General said the UN has a mandate to reform governments, aid their democratization and their human rights structures. Those efforts, he said, would continue.

On development issues

• Asked about the commitment in the report for developed states to provide development assistance, the Secretary-General said that we are moving in the right direction to meet the development assistance target. He urged all those who have the capacity to give and give generously, noting how much contribution was made following the tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
   
• The Secretary-General also urged the creation of a development facility, as recommended by Gordon Brown, to front-load the financing effort. "In helping to establish a safer world, we all can sleep better at night," he said.
   
• He noted, in response to a question, that many Member States have looked at ways to increase development assistance, and have looked toward innovative sources of development financing, including surcharges on air tickets.

On general reform issues

• Asked whether Member States could be expected to accept the report as a package, the Secretary-General said it would not be easy, and added, "It’s going to take lots of work." But as difficult as it is, he said, he believed the majority of Member States would come to conclude that what is on the table is in their long term interests.
   
• He said, in response to another question, that reform is not easy, but it is necessary.
   
• Asked about a one-time buyout for UN staff, he said he thought that some staff could be encouraged to leave, to bring in the young talent the United Nations needs.
   
• He said, in response to questions, that he was urging the General Assembly to adapt its procedures to focus on the important issues of the day. Right now, he said, they discuss work which often has no impact on the world outside.

On tribunals and the International Criminal Court

• Asked about the work of the tribunals, the Secretary-General said the UN tribunals have turned out to be expensive, and we have not always succeeded at having the main suspects arrested and brought to trial. He said that, come 2008, if the Yugoslav Tribunal were to complete its work without trying Gen. Ratko Mladic or Radovan Karadzic, people in the region would find it difficult to believe that its work had been accomplished.
   
• Asked whether the International Criminal Court should handle Sudan, he noted that ad hoc tribunals have turned out to be expensive and hard to set up, and he said that the ICC was now ready to handle that kind of work.
   
• He hoped that a way forward would be found, so that justice could be done. The United States has declared what is happening to be genocide, and having done that, he said, would be interested in preventing it. He said he would have lunch today with the Security Council to explore the Nigerian proposal for an African tribunal on Darfur.

On Iraq

• Asked whether the UN handled Saddam Hussein’s regime the right way, the Secretary-General said the matter had been debated extensively, and he saw no reason to re-open that debate.
   
• Asked about the report by Paul Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee, he said he expected it would come out by the end of the month.
   
• Asked whether the reforms he proposed could make the UN more capable of handling programs like oil-for-food, the Secretary-General acknowledged that oil-for-food had been a unique program to deal with the effects of sanctions on Iraq.

On the Middle East

• Asked about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, he said he had seen signs for optimism during his recent visit to the region, when he met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and others. He emphasized the importance of following up on the Summit held recently in Sharm El-Shaikh, Egypt, and congratulated Egypt and Jordan for their work in organizing that Summit.
   
• But while there is optimism, the Secretary-General added, all sides realize it is fragile, and that they need to take more steps, including progress on their commitments and the reform of Palestinian institutions.
   
• Asked what message he was sending to all Member States when, just last week, he had refused to visit the wall constructed by Israel, the Secretary-General said that the General Assembly decision on the International Court of Justice decision was clear, and they gave the UN a mandate to establish a register for damages caused by the barrier. He did not believe that any Member State felt he had abrogated his mandate by taking or not taking action.

On Syria and Lebanon

• Asked about Syria and Lebanon, the Secretary-General said, "We are making progress." Syria has committed to full withdrawal, he said, and the United Nations will work with them to ensure that it is done. Lebanon has to form a new government and then will have elections, he added, noting that we need to make sure that no security vacuum is created, and that Lebanese forces will move in promptly.
   
• Asked when the report by Peter Fitzgerald will be released, the Secretary-General said that he hoped to give the report to the Security Council this Thursday.

 

SECRETARY-GENERAL TO TRAVEL TO ALGIERS FOR ARAB SUMMIT

• The Secretary-General is travelling today to the Algerian capital, Algiers, for the Summit of the League of Arab States that begins on Tuesday.
   

• He will address the Summit on Wednesday and also meet with leaders attending the Summit bilaterally. He is scheduled to return to New York on Thursday.

 

ANNAN SADDENED OVER DEATH OF UN PEACEKEEPERS IN HAITI

• The Secretary-General was deeply saddened to learn of the death of two UN peacekeepers in Haiti yesterday, 20 March. One soldier from Sri Lanka and one from Nepal were killed while executing their duties in two separate incidents, while three other soldiers from Sri Lanka were wounded.
   

• In the early hours of Sunday morning, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) launched a jointly planned operation with the Haitian National Police in Petit Goâve (southwest of Port-au-Prince) in order to dislodge armed elements who had illegally occupied the local police station since last August.
   

• After sustained exchanges of fire, one Sri Lankan soldier was killed and three others wounded, while two armed elements were killed and 12 injured. MINUSTAH was able to gain control of the police station as a result of this operation.
   

• Later on 20 March, in a separate incident, while manning a checkpoint on the road between Mirebalais and Terre Rouge (in the center of Haiti), Nepalese military were fired on indiscriminately by armed groups using women and children as shields.
   

• One Nepalese soldier was killed. During a follow-up operation by MINUSTAH this morning, the Mission was able to also retake the police station in Terre Rouge, which, similarly, had also been illegally occupied by elements of armed elements for some time.
   

• The Secretary-General is outraged that armed groups are using civilians as human shields and by these the cowardly attacks on international peacekeeping personnel, who are mandated to ensure a secure and stable environment in Haiti in accordance with Resolution 1542 (2004). MINUSTAH remains fully committed to the implementation of its mandate to improve the security situation in furtherance of the constitutional political process.

 

UN ENVOY CONTINUES TALKS ON FORMING GOVERNMENT IN IRAQ

• The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, is continuing contacts with Iraqi political leaders for talks on progress in the political process mainly the formation of the Transitional Government and the role the United Nations could play in supporting the constitution making process. 
   

• On Sunday, Qazi held separate meetings with Interim President Ghazi Yawr, Interim Prime Minister Iyyad Allawi as well as the Interim Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh and President of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution Abdul Aziz Al Hakim.
   

• Earlier, and during an address to the inaugural session of the Transitional National Assembly, which was held on March 16, Qazi said that the UN will be willing to facilitate the sovereign and independent constitution making process in Iraq. He also noted that the UN Mission in Iraq has begun preparations to provide assistance in this regard within the framework of Security Council Resolution 1546.

 

UN HUMANITARIAN CHIEF ASKS DR CONGO TO ASSUME RESPONSIBILITIES

• Jan Egeland, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, has called on the Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to assume its responsibilities towards the Congolese people.
   

• Egeland expressed his deep concern at the deteriorating security situation in the east of the country, and the effect that this was having on the lives of ordinary Congolese people.
   

• “Over 88,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Ituri since the beginning of 2005,” Egeland said. “These people have been victims of rape, torture, kidnappings, lootings and other human rights exactions, committed in a general climate of impunity”.  
   

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that over 30,000 people continue to die each month of preventable causes in the DRC, despite the signing of a peace accord between the main rebel groups, and the installation of a Transitional Government in June 2003.

 

DR CONGO MISSION REPORTS ON ITURI DISARMAMENT

• The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) says that during the past week, it has noted that a growing and significant number of militiamen in the Ituri district, in the country’s north-east, have presented themselves spontaneously to UN peacekeepers in order to hand in their weapons.  
   

• In Ituri's Aru region, 400 fighters from the militia known as the Armed Forces of the Congolese People – also known by its French acronym FAPC – handed in their arms at a transit center on Sunday. MONUC says 310 individual weapons and twenty group-operated weapons were collected.
   

• As of today, a total of 500 FAPC militia members have voluntarily joined the disarmament and reintegration process in Ituri. MONUC estimates that there are around 2,000 FAPC members in Aru who want to take part in the process.
   

• In addition, 50 militiamen belonging to the National Integrationist Front – also known by its French acronym FNI – handed in their weapons as part of a voluntary disarmament operation carried out by UN peacekeepers in the village of Kodikoka , situated 15 kilometers northwest of the town of Mahagi.   
   

• As of today, more than 4,500 militiamen have joined the disarmament and community-based reintegration process in Ituri.  
   

• MONUC says the growing number of militia members giving in their weapons and joining the reintegration process indicates that the recent political and military efforts in the district are staring to bear fruit.
   

• The latest arms handovers come in the wake of recent MONUC military operations, as well as repeated calls aimed at encouraging armed groups to give in their weapons.  
   

• MONUC adds however that the recent developments in Ituri constitute the first promising steps of a process which is expected to be long and difficult. 

 

DONORS DISCUSS FIELD MISSIONS THROUGHOUT SUDAN

• International donors met in Khartoum on Sunday to share impressions they had gathered during the previous week, when seven teams representing donor countries fanned out across Sudan to see the complex situation on the ground.
   

• Manuel Aranda da Silva, the Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for Sudan, said that donors could now return to their headquarters fully apprised of the multiple challenges that Sudan faces.
   

• The donor teams reported that, although the humanitarian situation has stabilized in Darfur, it is precarious, and violations of protection continue at an unacceptable rate.
   

• Meanwhile, they found severe poverty conditions, including alarming malnutrition rates, in Eastern Sudan, and said that immediate action and funding is needed to assist those who will return before the rainy season begins in May.
   

• The UN Mission in Sudan, meanwhile, reports that areas around El Geneina, in West Darfur, are gradually being cleared for UN movement following security assessments on major roads.

 

SECRETARY-GENERAL DISTURBED BY BEIRUT CAR BOMBING

• The Secretary-General was deeply disturbed to learn of the explosion of a car bomb in Beirut in the early morning hours of 19 March, which left eleven people injured. He wishes those injured in the bombing a speedy recovery. 
   

• The Secretary-General is greatly concerned about the rising tension in Lebanon and appeals to all parties concerned to exert utmost efforts to safeguard the stability and national unity of the country.

 

ANNAN: WORLD MUST CONTINUE FIGHTING RACISM

• Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and the Secretary-General has issued a message, saying the international community must not give up either the struggle against racism or hope for victory.
   

• He added that, for its part, the UN would combat racism through its High Commissioner for Human Rights, Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Commission on Human Rights, and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
   

• He also said that no one could be neutral in the fight against such intolerance.

 

GLOBAL WATER DECADE TO BE LAUNCHED TOMORROW

• This year’s World Water Day, which will be observed tomorrow, March 22, marks the launch of the International Decade for Action: Water for Life 2005- 2015. The events represent an ongoing effort to promote access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
   

• In a statement issued today, the World Health Organization’s Director-General, Lee Jong-Wook said that clean drinking water and adequate sanitation will speed the achievement of all eight Millennium Development Goals.
   

• Meanwhile, noting that agriculture is the biggest water consumer, the Food and Agriculture Organization today said that appropriate policies and good governance practices are needed to encourage and guide farmers to make better use of water.

 

BIGGEST CONVOY OF LIBERIAN RETURNEES REACHES LOFA COUNTY

• More than 300 Liberian refugees returned yesterday from Sierra Leone to Lofa county, Liberia's largest area of return. It was the first and biggest convoy run by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to take that route.
   

• Most of the refugees in Sunday's convoy arrived in Sierra Leone between 2000 and 2002 amid brutal fighting in Liberia. 
   

• In all, 8,928 Liberian refugees in Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Sierra Leone have been helped to get home by UNHCR since last October.

 

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

AFGHAN ELECTIONS SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER: The UN Mission in Afghanistan reported that the country’s Joint Elections Management Body had announced that elections for the country’s legislative and provincial bodies would take place on 18 September.  

 

 

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