HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN'S NOON BRIEFING
BY MARIE OKABE
DEPUTY
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
UN HEADQUARTERS,
NEW YORK
Monday, February 27, 2006
ANNAN URGES
ACTION THIS WEEK ON ESTABLISHING HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Asked whether
Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s position on the Human Rights Council has
changed following a statement from U.S. Ambassador John Bolton that the United
States would vote against the proposed text, the Spokeswoman said that the
Secretary-General’s position has not changed.
She noted that,
speaking to reporters in
Geneva, the Secretary-General had said that, if we get into line-by-line
negotiations, it will lead to major delays and cause serious problems. He
appealed to Member States to understand that this is not a perfect world.
Okabe said that the
Secretary-General, speaking as the person who put forward the proposals on the
Human Rights Commission, told reporters there are enough positive elements in
the text to move forward. He expressed his hope that the General Assembly
would act on the text sometime this week.
She noted, in response to a
question about whether the United States would accept the proposal, that the
Secretary-General had said that he hopes the Americans will “join the vast
majority of governments who seem ready to accept the Chairman’s proposals.”
Asked whether the
Secretary-General had spoken to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
recently, the Spokeswoman said he had done so yesterday; she later confirmed
that Rice had initiated the call, in which they discussed human rights.
ANNAN LAUDS
GABON AND EQUATORIAL GUINEA
FOR AGREEING TO NEGOTIATE BORDER DISPUTE
Starting Monday morning, the Secretary-General met in
Geneva with the Presidents of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, for a summit in
which the three took stock of the mediation aimed at arriving at a negotiated
solution to the two countries’ territorial dispute.
The Secretary-General thanked the two Presidents for
their support for his mediation efforts, facilitated by his Special Adviser,
Yves Fortier, and he emphasized that the accomplishments to date demonstrated
that the two states can work together to settle their dispute in a peaceful
manner.
The parties decided to embark immediately on negotiating
the final delimitation of their maritime and land borders. They agreed that a
meeting of experts would be held in Geneva on March 15.
The Secretary-General left Geneva for Paris in the early
evening.
WIDENING GAP BETWEEN ISLAM AND WEST MUST
BE ADDRESSED
On Saturday in Qatar, the Secretary-General met with the
Secretaries-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and of the
Arab League, as well as the Foreign Ministers of Turkey, Spain and Qatar, and
they issued a
joint statement on the issue of the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The members of
the group called for restraint and for an immediate end to the present
atmosphere, which “threatens to sow deep discord between communities,
societies and countries.” While reaffirming the universal right to freedom of
expression, they appealed to everyone to exercise that right responsibly, and
not to use it as a pretext for incitement to hatred or to insult the deeply
held belief of any community.
Asked afterward if the communiqué would become “law” at
the United Nations, the Secretary-General
said he would bring the text to the attention of the General Assembly and
the Security Council, and it would then be up to Member States to decide what
to do next with it.
On Sunday morning, prior to leaving
Qatar for Geneva, the Secretary-General delivered
opening remarks at the second meeting of the High Level Panel of the
Alliance of Civilizations.
He told the members
of the High Level Panel, and other invited guests, that the
passions aroused by the recent publication of the cartoons, and the reaction
to it, illustrate only too clearly
the need to address the widening gap of understanding between Islamic and
Western societies.
He underscored the
need for moderate voices to be heard, as “those who shout the loudest” are not
necessarily representative of the community they claim to speak for.
BOSNIA ACCUSES SERBIA OF GENOCIDE IN
WORLD COURT
Today in The Hague, a public hearing is opening at the
International Court of Justice, in which Bosnia and Herzegovina has
accused Serbia and Montenegro of violations of the 1948 Genocide
Convention.
Today’s hearings, which are to last until May 9, are the
result of an application that Bosnia filed in 1993 against what was then the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
IRAQ: UNITED NATIONS OFFERS HELP RESTORE
BOMBED SHIITE SHRINE
Ashraf Qazi, the Secretary-General’s Special
Representative for Iraq,
said over the weekend that the United Nations is prepared to support
measures to calm the situation following the destruction of the Shrine of the
Two Imams in Samarra.
In particular, he said, the United Nations would be
prepared, with the support of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), to establish urgently a special reconstruction fund,
supported by the international community, to restore the damaged Shrine and
other mosques that were subsequently damaged to their original dignity.
The United Nations would also encourage and assist
projects, including a national compact for the protection of human rights,
that are designed to strengthen the bonds of mutual respect, understanding and
harmony among all the communities of Iraq, Qazi said.
Asked whether UNESCO has
begun to assess the damage to the shrine and mosques, the Spokeswoman noted
that the announcement of UN assistance was only just made. She added, in
response to a further question, that reconstruction in post-war conflicts is
one of the UN’s activities.
U.N. ENVOY URGES SUDANESE PARTIES TO
ENSURE PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan
Jan Pronk over the weekend traveled to South Darfur. In response to the tense
security situation, Pronk urged the parties to exercise restraint and to put
in place joint mechanisms at the local level to ensure civilian protection.
Meanwhile, clashes between the Sudan Armed Forces and
rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) continue in North Darfur, according to the
UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).
Reports indicate that since fighting erupted a week ago, a large number of
villages have been attacked and burned and markets looted and people
displaced.
Asked whether the
Secretary-General had discussed while in Qatar the state of planning for a
possible UN force in Darfur, Sudan, the Spokeswoman said that planning on the
UN side for such a force was one of the Secretary-General’s priorities and he
has been bringing the parties up to date on such planning.
Also on Sudan, the Security Council held consultations
this morning and heard a briefing by the Chair of the Council Sanctions
Committee for Sudan, Greek Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis.
Asked about the leaking of
the names of people in Sudan who would face Security Council sanctions, the
Spokeswoman said that the leaking of documents is a recurring problem. She
noted that the independent panel of experts who prepared those names, while
appointed by the Secretary-General, reported to the Security Council sanctions
committee.
PARLIAMENT MEETING A “TURNING POINT IN
THE HISTORY OF SOMALIA”
Yesterday,
Francois Lonseny Fall, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for
Somalia, attended the first session of the Somali Parliament in Baidoa,
calling the meeting “a turning point in the history of Somalia.”
For the first time, he said, Somalia’s parliament was
meeting inside the country, giving hope to the Somali people that “this is the
day when they can start to rebuild their nation.” He assured them of the UN’s
support.
NO
DEVELOPMENT TOOL BETTER THAN WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT
The
Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) starts its
50th Session today, and its focus will be on equal participation of women
and men in decision-making processes.
Over 50 high-level
government officials and more than 3,000 representatives from non-governmental
organizations are expected to attend the session, which ends on 10 March.
Speaking at the opening today, the Deputy
Secretary-General,
Louise Fréchette, said that she thought the world is starting to grasp
that there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of
women and girls.
PEACEKEEPING
CAPACITY MUST BE A CORE U.N. FUNCTION
The Under-Secretary-General
for Peacekeeping Operations,
Jean-Marie Guéhenno, today addressed today the Special Committee on
Peacekeeping Operations, also known as the C34.
In his speech, he highlighted the need to acknowledge UN
peacekeeping as a permanent rather than transitory feature of the UN system.
He also spelled out the case for building an
institutionalized, professional and responsive UN peacekeeping capacity as a
core and integrated function of the Organization.
To implement this central reform, Guéhenno stressed
priorities such as finding and retaining well-trained, effective and
responsible people, and working with sufficient guidance and resources, in a
responsive, transparent organization that cooperates efficiently with a whole
range of peacekeeping partners to successfully provide security and support to
post-conflict countries.
U.N. AGENCY DELIVERS FOOD TO BOLIVIAN
FLOOD SURVIVORS
Following the recent floods in Bolivia, the UN Disaster
Assessment and Coordination Team, together with the Bolivian Government, has
decided to focus on several pressing areas of concern, such as improving
water quality and sanitation and extending psycho-social care to camp
dwellers.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the
Bolivian Red Cross have distributed food and relief items to 1800 families.
They’ll extend their operations as soon as additional funds become available.
WORLD NEEDS TO PAY MORE ATTENTION TO
D.R. CONGO
The heads of the UN’s three largest humanitarian agencies
continued their visit to the Great Lakes Region of Africa today as part of
a joint effort to focus world attention on the plight of the millions of
refugees and displaced persons in that area.
Speaking for his colleagues from the World Food Programme
and the UN Children’s Fund, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres
called on the international community to provide greater support to the
Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) transition to full democracy for the
first time in 45 years.
He said “The scale of the problem, the complexity of the
problem, and the nature of the problem are such that all our resources
combined together won't easily solve it.”
Guterres said that it has largely escaped the world’s
attention that a six-year war cost 4 million lives in the DRC. A further 1,200
are still dying needlessly every day. More than 3.4 million have been
displaced from their homes, and 17 million do not have a steady supply of
food.
TSUNAMI OFFICIAL “GENUINELY IMPRESSED”
BY RECOVERY PROGRESS
Deputy Special Envoy for
Tsunami Recovery Eric Schwartz ended his 10-day assessment mission to
Indonesia and India today. He met with government and UN officials, as well as
representatives from civil society, the affected communities and the private
sector, to discuss both progress achieved and ongoing challenges in the
recovery effort.
Schwartz said he was “genuinely impressed” with progress since his visit last
December. His next order of business is a trip to Geneva, to meet with the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour.
U.N. AGENCY
FIGHTS BIRD FLU IN NIGER
Regarding reports about the
bird flu spreading to Niger, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has
said that its regional coordinator for bird flu emergency projects in West
Africa will arrive in Niger today.
The coordinator will review surveillance and preparedness plans and advise
Niger’s Government on how best to control the spread of the virus.
FAO will soon also provide protective equipment for the technical staff and
veterinarians involved in the control efforts.
PROCUREMENT
AND SEX EXPLOITATION CONCERNS
ADDRESSED IN SECURITY COUNCIL
Asked about
critical comments made about the United Nations over the weekend by U.S.
Ambassador John Bolton, the Spokeswoman said that she had seen media reports
about those comments.
She noted that
the Security Council last week took up the issues he raised, concerning
procurement
and
sexual exploitation allegations involving UN peacekeeping. The
Secretary-General, she said, had the top UN officials in those fields explain
to the Security Council the work the United Nations has been doing to address
those problems and the work ahead.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
DETERIORATING HUMANITARIAN SITUATION REPORTED IN
ETHIOPIA: According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA), the humanitarian situation in
southeastern parts of Ethiopia continues to
deteriorate, with increasing livestock deaths, serious shortage of water and
high levels of malnutrition as the dry season advances. Large-scale migration
from Kenya and Somalia has been observed, and large population movements from
rural to urban areas are also reportedly taking place. Also, a significant
number of malnourished children have been admitted into the therapeutic feeding
centers in neighboring Mandera town, in Kenya.
UNITED NATIONS URGES MORE
LIMITS ON FISHERIES:
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today
told participants at an international fisheries conference that more
vigorous efforts to limit access to fishing are necessary. Ichiro Nomura, FAO
Assistant Director General for Fisheries told the Sharing the Fish Conference in
Fremantle, "It has been clear for some time that the world's fisheries are
finite and that our catches have to be similarly finite. It's also clear that
not everybody can participate in fisheries -- access to capture fisheries must
be limited.”
UNITED NATIONS CHAIRS DISCUSSION ON FUTURE ARRANGEMENTS
FOR KOSOVO: The
UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) today
reports that
Søren Jessen-Petersen, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in
Kosovo, chaired a meeting of the informal Steering
Group on future international arrangements for Kosovo in Vienna. UNMIK and its
partners, including the European Union, NATO and the Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), discussed the possible needs in Kosovo as
well as the respective roles of relevant organisations following the settlement
of Kosovo’s status without pre-judging the outcome of the status process.
ANNAN TO USE DUBAI PRIZE MONEY FOR CHARITY: Asked
whether there was a conflict of interest in the Secretary-General’s acceptance
of the recent International Prize for the Environment awarded in Dubai, the
Spokeswoman said that the Secretary-General made it clear that he would use the
prize money to set up a foundation on agriculture and girl’s education in
Africa. The foundation, she said, would have a transparent board so that you can
see how the money is spent. She added that, as Paul Volcker’s reports show, the
Secretary-General has given all his prize money to charity.
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