United Nations Daily Highlights, 98-04-03

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

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Friday, 3 April, 1998

HEADLINES

• United Nations weapons inspectors conclude initial inspections of presidential sites in Iraq.
• In London, Secretary-General holds talks on East Timor to move process forward.
• Morning session of Preparatory Committee on International Criminal Court hears divergent views on informal meeting before Rome Conference.
• Paraguay brings case against United States before International Court of Justice concerning death sentence.
• UN Special Rapporteur calls on United States to halt executions pending assurances of fairness.

It took eight days to complete the "baseline inspections" of the presidential sites. The inspectors and diplomats, who flew in to Iraq specifically for that initial round of inspections, would leave the country in the morning of 4 April.

The report of the special group would be submitted by the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) to the Security Council through the Secretary-General. A United Nations spokesman predicted that was likely to happen sometime next week.

The Secretary-General and Vice-President Josuf Habibie of Indonesia focused their talks on the ongoing search for a negotiated solution in East Timor, and also touched on the subject of the Asian financial crisis.

During a meeting with the Prime Minister of Portugal, Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General discussed the situation in East Timor as well as the progress made in the Asia-European meeting currently taking place in London.

The status of the talks on East Timor was also a topic of discussion when the Secretary-General met with Robin Cook, British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. They also discussed the long-term prospects for the weapons inspection regime in Iraq and the Middle East peace process. In addition, they dealt with the objectives of an upcoming European conference on humanitarian assistance to Iraq, the situation in Kosovo and the Cyprus talks. In the afternoon, Secretary-General met with Sir David Hannay, the British Government Special Representative for Cyprus to discuss ongoing efforts to achieve a settlement in that country.

"I would hope that we would be able to move the process forward as a result of these talks," the Secretary-General told reporters in London. He noted that high-level talks would continue next month in New York.

After arriving in London from Beijing on Thursday, the Secretary- General met with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair. During their 40-minute meeting, the two had discussed the Memorandum of Understanding on weapons inspections in Iraq. They also talked in some detail about the situation in the Middle East in light of the Prime Minister's plan to travel to the region soon. Other issues touched upon included Libya and United Nations finances.

The Chairman, Adriaan Bos of the Netherlands, noting that the Committee, during the current session, had improved and cleaned the court's draft statute, stressed that the work of the Conference would not be easy, as several issues remained to be dealt with in a rather short period of time. In an attempt to facilitate the work in Rome, it had been suggested that the bureau members and all coordinators of consultations of different aspects of the draft text, together with the nominated President of the Conference and the nominated Chairman of its Drafting Committee, should meet informally prior to the Conference to discuss such matters in order to ensure a smooth transition from the Preparatory Committee to the Rome Conference.

The representatives of Lebanon and Syria asked whether the meeting could take place at Headquarters and be open to all other interested delegations. The Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel, Hans Corell, noted that the same secretariat that served the Committee would be involved in the International Law Commission session in Geneva for the next eight weeks.

The representative of Kenya sought information on the terms of reference of the work of the bureau after the conclusion the Preparatory Committee's work. Colombia's representative noted that according to the rules of procedure, the officers of the Conference should take care of its organizational issues.

The representative of Cuba added that from the procedural point of view, if the nominated President would be invited, all the nominated Vice-Presidents and the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole should also be invited. The representative of Lebanon said that he would not oppose the holding of a meeting in an informal setting, but wanted to know its legal basis, as the Preparatory Committee would cease to exist today. The representatives of Syria, Iraq and Cuba also wondered about the legal basis for the convening the proposed meeting.

Mr. Corell said the Committee's bureau had offered to extend its work to facilitate the work of the Conference, and the Secretariat welcomed that initiative.

The representative of the Philippines supported the convening of the meeting, but expressed concern that the initiative was not getting support, and would not be a very auspicious way of starting a very difficult process in Rome. The representative of Slovakia stressed that such a meeting would not take binding decisions. There was nothing that could prevent States from agreeing to hold that meeting, he said, adding that it was a matter of trust and confidence.

The United Kingdom's representative said that it appeared that there was indeed a lack of legal basis for convening the meeting, and that she understood the technical difficulties raised. She wondered whether the Chairman needed a mandate. The Committee decided to take up the issue later in the day.

Paraguay contends that Angel Francisco Breard was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to death without Virginia advising him of his right to assistance by the consular officers of Paraguay, as required by the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Both the United States and Paraguay are parties to that treaty.

Mr. Breard is scheduled to be put to death on 14 April. In view of the "extreme gravity and immediacy" of the case, Paraguay also filed an urgent request for interim measures of protection. It asked the Court to indicate that the United States should refrain from executing Mr. Breard before the ICJ could consider Paraguay's claims.

The case also maintains that Paraguayan consular officers were never notified by the United States of Mr. Breard's detention. According to Paraguay, its consular officers were notified by third parties more than two years after Mr. Breard's trial and sentencing.

The ICJ is being asked to declare that the United States has violated its international legal obligations that Paraguay is entitled to "restitution in kind" -- the re-establishment of the situation that existed before the United States failed to provide the required notification.

Under the Vienna Convention's Optional Protocol -- ratified by Paraguay and the United States -- "disputes arising out of the interpretation or application of the Convention shall lie within the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice."

The Court will hold a public hearing on the matter on Tuesday, 7 April.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Bacre Waly Ndiaye of Senegal, visited the United States from 21 September to 8 October 1997. He requested the visit after receiving reports which suggested that the guarantees and safeguards set forth in international instruments relating to fair trial procedures and specific restrictions on the death penalty were not being fully observed.

In the just-released report on his mission, the Special Rapporteur says the increased use of capital punishment in the United States runs counter to the international trend towards decreasing the number of offenses punishable by death. After his visit to Washington, D.C., New York, Florida and Texas, Mr. Ndiaye observed that the small percentage of defendants who receive a death sentence in the United States are not necessarily those who commit the most heinous crimes. Many factors other than the crime itself appear to influence the imposition of a death sentence, including race and economic status. Those who are able to afford expert legal representation have less of a chance of being sentenced to death than those who cannot.

The Special Rapporteur's report highlights what he sees as the politics influencing the use of the death penalty, particularly during election campaigns. He believes the system of electing judges to relatively short terms of office, and the practice of requesting financial contributions for election campaigns, could jeopardize the independence and impartiality of the elected members of the judiciary.

The Special Rapporteur expressed particularly concern about the current practice in the United States of imposing death sentences on juveniles in violation of international law. He is also concerned about the execution of mentally retarded and insane persons. In his report, he deplores these practices, which he characterizes as a "disturbing step backwards" in the promotion and protection of the right to life.

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

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