United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-03-03

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Tuesday, 3 March 1998

HEADLINES

• Technical team of oil experts will arrive in Baghdad this week to assess Iraq's capacity to export petroleum.
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expresses concern about escalating violence in Kosovo.
• United Nations seeks over $11 million to meet Sierra Leone's humanitarian needs for next three months.
• UN World Food Programme makes first overland food delivery to Sierra Leone since last year's coup.
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calls for global support to women working to secure their rights.
• Representatives of five non-governmental organizations stress need to protect women's rights.
• Luciano Pavarotti proclaimed "United Nations Messenger of Peace".
• Major-General Timothy Ford of Australia named to head UN Truce Supervision Organization in Middle East.

Eric Falt told reporters on Tuesday that the team will examine requirements for repairs and rehabilitation of Iraqi oil facilities, in consultation with national authorities.

The Security Council requested the expert mission to go to Iraq when it adopted resolution 1153 (1998), which expanded the "oil-for-food" programme, allowing Iraq to sell up to $5.2 billion worth of oil every six months -- up from $2 billion under previous arrangements.

Prior to the resolution's adoption, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, had informed the Council that his country could export a maximum of $4 billion worth of petroleum.

Resolution 1153 (1998) requests a report on Iraq's production and transportation capacity. It also expresses the Council's readiness to take a decision regarding the "authorization of the export of the necessary equipment" that would enable Iraq to export more oil.

According to the Office of the High Commissioner, armed incidents have claimed the lives of 20 persons in the area of Drenica over the past four days. More armed incidents were also reported in villages near Decani and Pec. Many were injured in demonstrations called by the Coordinating Committee of Albanian Parties in Kosovo, which were held on Monday in Pristina.

"While respecting the complexity of the situation in Kosovo, I would ask the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to honour its obligations to protect the right to life and the security of all persons," said Mrs. Robinson. She also asked the federal and local authorities, as well as the leaders of other groups, to take all possible measures to avoid violence. "The problems of Kosovo will not be resolved through the force of arms or recourse to violence but through a willingness to negotiate differences and full respect for the human rights of all," the High Commissioner stressed.

The appeal was prepared after two United Nations missions returned from the country last month and determined that the current humanitarian situation in Sierra Leone remains serious. The primary health care system has been devastated by a lack of supplies, looting and the exodus of medical personnel. Widespread neglect of water and sanitation facilities has increased the exposure of hundreds of thousands to disease.

The missions also found that normal distribution of food to vulnerable groups has been disrupted, affecting children in particular. Many children have also been exposed to acts of violence after being sent into battle as combatants. The public education system has collapsed; all schools have been closed since the coup d'etat last May. The number of internally displaced people has increased, and the welfare of some 14,000 Liberian refugees remains a matter of concern.

The United Nations appeal seeks funds for priority intervention to support agriculture, re-establish basic health and education services, ensure the resumption of food aid distributions and to provide protection and assistance to the most vulnerable groups affected by the current conflict.

Two convoys of 15 trucks, carrying enough food to feed 40,000 people for one month, arrived in the town of Kambia in northern Sierra Leone. The food will be distributed in Kambia as well as in the neighbouring districts of Loko and Makeni.

Most of the food will be distributed to severely malnourished children at feeding centres operated by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the relief organization Medicins sans Frontieres.

WFP has built up a regional stockpile of 3,200 tons of emergency food supplies in neighbouring Guinea. These supplies will be transported to other parts of Sierra Leone as soon as the security situation permits.

"Our next targets are the areas around the towns of Bo and Kenema where there are more than 100,000 people at risk," said Paul Ares, WFP's Regional Manager for West Africa. "As soon as we receive clearance from the peacekeeping forces that our personnel will not be put in danger, we will begin to move food to those people."

According to WFP, food supplies in the country reached dangerously low levels after recent fighting and the widespread looting which followed.

"Two days ago in Tehran I was raising with the Government of Iran the importance of signing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the reason for doing so was particularly accentuated by a meeting I had with women NGOs who asked me to press for the signing," said High Commissioner Mary Robinson in an address to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The Commission began its two-week session in New York on Monday.

Mrs. Robinson's speech focused on the need to move women's status from equality on paper to equality in practice. "I believe that the greatest challenge we face is the move from existing standards to their effective implementation on the ground," she said, emphasizing that women themselves were the ones pushing for that goal. "In my experience as High Commissioner coming yesterday from Iran, having been in Cambodia, having been in Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa -- it is women who are doing the most to promote women's human rights in these countries. And they in particular deserve and must get our support."

The High Commissioner called for greater participation of women at every stage of peacekeeping. "It is women who pick up the pieces in conflicts," she said. "It is women who, in shattered societies, address the real issues that have to be addressed."

Mrs. Robinson laid great emphasis on the need to address the right to development as part of the effort to reverse the trend towards the feminization of poverty. "The feminization of poverty must be encountered with more resources or the reallocation of resources for programmes targeting women and girls: a move towards a 'feminization of budgets' is called for," she said.

The High Commissioner cited violence against women as a major obstacle to the full enjoyment of their human rights. "Domestic violence and sexual abuse within the family, female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices affecting the health of women and children, the commodification of women as objects of trade and forced birth control methods are only some examples of persistent violations of women's human rights for which the international community must take responsibility," she said.

"The UN must maintain and indeed develop further its place as the uncompromising guardian of women's human rights until the full implementation has become a reality," she emphasized.

The women were speaking at a press conference sponsored by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Introducing speakers, the Director of UNIFEM, Noeleen Heyzer, said that women must be allowed to live free from violence and from poverty.

Samya Burney of Human Rights Watch, said that despite lip service, governments had done little to combat violence against women. In Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, rape and sexual violence had been committed with impunity on a massive scale, she stressed.

Charlotte Bunch, Executive Director of the Centre for Women's Global Leadership, spoke on behalf of a global campaign for women's human rights. She said that over 200 organizations had joined the campaign, which was based on the recognition that women's rights were human rights. She called on the United Nations to designate 50 per cent of the $1 billion Turner Fund to addressing women's human rights and needs.

Atsango Chesoni of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, called on all governments that had not yet ratified the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women to do so. Those States with reservations should remove them, she added.

Sheila Dauer of Amnesty International, called on the United Nations and the international community to adopt gender-inclusive language.

For her part, Alda Facio, Women's Caucus for Gender Justice at the International Criminal Court (ICC), expressed concern that while governments had agreed to integrate a gender perspective in the negotiations for the creation of an international criminal court, they had not done so.

The citation, signed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, expressed admiration for Mr. Pavarotti's "devotion to the creation of a safer and more stable world, the fostering of human rights, and the liberation of the human spirit."

Mr. Annan expressed the hope that through Mr. Pavarotti's unique voice, "the message of peace will resound throughout the nations, eloquently extolling the virtue of universal harmony and human dignity."

Receiving the certificate from United Nations Deputy Secretary- General Louise Frechette, Mr. Pavarotti said that the citation was "definitely the best critique" in his life. He added that he was extremely proud to be able to use his voice for peace.

Mr. Pavarotti said he had already been involved the creation of a music centre for children in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that he was also going to be involved in another project in Liberia. "That is the way in which I am expressing myself," the maestro said, adding that under the guidance of the United Nations, he hoped that he would be able to do more.

UNTSO was the first peacekeeping operation established by the United Nations in the Middle East, initially to supervise the truce called for in Palestine by the Security Council in 1948. Its activities have been and still are spread over Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

The new Chief will take over the command from Major-General Rufus Modupe Kupolati of Nigeria, who will end his tour of duty on 31 March.

Major-General Ford, who has held his present rank since 1996, has served in a variety of posts in the Australian armed forces, including Director Artillery, Director Plans-Army, Director-General Force Development and Chief of Staff at Land Headquarters. His present appointment is Commander, Headquarters 1st Division.

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

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