United Nations Daily Highlights, 02-11-04

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

OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY FRED ECKHARD

SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS

UN

HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Monday, November 4, 2002

SECURITY COUNCIL APPROVES NOVEMBER WORK PROGRAMME

The Security Council, under the Chinese presidency, met in closed consultations this morning to discuss its programme of work for the month of November.

Sitting in as observer was Germany, which is scheduled to assume the Security Council presidency in February as one of the five new non-permanent members joining the Security Council in 2003.

At 1:00 p.m., the deputy Permanent Representative of China, Ambassador Zhang Yishan, briefed journalists on the program of work.

And at 3:30 p.m., the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee was to meet.

UN ENVOY: DR CONGO PARTIES AGREE ON BROAD PRINCIPLES OF TRANSITION

Moustapha Niasse, the Secretary-Generals Special Envoy, said over the weekend that the Congolese parties and components to the inter-Congolese dialogue, who had all been consulted during talks on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in Pretoria, South Africa, had agreed on the broad principles to underpin the transition period.

They will now work on preparing written submissions detailing their positions on power-sharing based on agreed upon principles. Those submissions would be handed over to the joint UN-South African mediation team, which would synthesize them into a working paper in time for the next round of negotiations, to begin on November 15, in Pretoria.

Niasse was hopeful that, should no new difficulties arise, it would be possible to complete that round of talks by November 21.

The Inter-Congolese Dialogue could then be reconvened under its Facilitator, Sir Ketumile Masire, to formally adopt and endorse the power-sharing agreement. Niasse said that he hoped the transitional institutions could be established in the DRC sometime in January 2003. The transition period would last between 24 and 30 months, leading to free, transparent and democratic elections in the DRC.

"All the parties understand that the war, which has gone on for four years now, must end," Niasse told a press conference in Pretoria on Saturday.

COTE DIVOIRE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION FRAGILE AND TENSE

The Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs says that the situation in Côte d'Ivoire remains fragile and tense.

In Abidjan, shantytowns continue to be demolished and their populations displaced.

The situation could deteriorate into a large-scale humanitarian crisis, resulting in massive displacement of people in the country and a possible outflow of migrant workers into neighboring countries. Cote dIvoire is host to some four million migrant workers.

WINTER OPERATION FOR VULNERABLE AFGHANS IS $12.5 MILLION

The UN Mission in Afghanistan over the weekend provided information about its winterization plan for this year, in which it intends assist some 1.7 million Afghans who are in need of food this winter, and also intends to provide non-food items, from blankets to tents to coal. The total financial requirement for the UN winter plan is $12.5 million.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Office for Project Services (UNOPS) have embarked on an effort to reconstruct Afghan schools, with the re-building of a girls high school in the province of Badghis. Some 800 students have joined that school already, and the demand for education in Badghis was so great that students began to come into the building while construction was only 80 percent complete.

ANNAN MEETS WITH HEADS OF PRINCIPLE UN ORGANS

The heads of the six principal organs of the United Nations -- the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice and the Secretariat -- met Friday. A statement issued Friday evening said that the five Presidents and Secretary-General Kofi Annan had an informal exchange of views on current international trends from the perspectives of their respective Principal Organs, including the on-going reform process of the Organization, which began in 1997.

The Secretary-General further briefed the meeting on developments in Africa, the Middle East and Iraq while the Deputy Secretary-General discussed progress achieved in the area of HIV/AIDS.

Asked for more background on these meetings, the Spokesman said these annual meeting were an innovation brought by the current Secretary-General, who felt it the integration of the UN system as a whole would benefit from these meetings.

UN RUNNER FINISHES IN TOP 200 OF NY MARATHON

Twenty one runners from the UN Athletic Committee participated in Sundays New York Marathon.

The best UN time was clocked by Kevin Shelton-Smith of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations Air Transport unit. Kevin finished the race at 2:48 his best time ever for a NY Marathon.

With that time, Kevin was the 195th runner to cross the finish out of more than 31,000.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

The International Narcotics Control Board began a two-week session in Vienna today, which will focus, among other things, on the impact of illicit drugs on economic development. The President of the Board, Philip Emato, noted that only one percent of the money spent on illicit drugs is generated as income by farmers in developing countries, with the remaining 99 percent earned by drug trafficking groups.

A revised 'International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides' should significantly reduce the threats posed by agro-chemicals in developing countries, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a press release issued today.

The Code is the globally accepted standard for pesticide management, FAO said. "If all parties concerned applied the Code, many lives would be saved, environmental damage would be avoided and agricultural production would become more sustainable," according to a senior FAO official.

This morning, the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States headed by High Representative Anwarul Karim Chowdhury -- officially launched a website containing information about the work the office does. This is the first comprehensive web site to deal with the problems facing those three vulnerable groups of countries.

Two more nations completed their full payment to the UN regular budget today, with Burkina Faso finishing its payment of more than $22,000 dollars and Lebanon having paid up more than $133,000,000. One hundred and thirteen Member States have now paid their regular budget dues in full for this year.

This Wednesday, from 1:30 to 2:45 in the Economic and Social Council Chamber, the Secretary-General will host the second in a series of lectures dealing with issues of the day that are outside the normal range of UN topics with the lecture, this time, concerning Genetically Modified Crops for Developing Countries. The lecturers for Wednesdays session will be Professors Jennifer Thomson of the University of Cape Town in South Africa and Daphne Preuss of the University of Chicago.