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United Nations Daily Highlights, 96-12-05United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSThursday, 5 December 1996This document is prepared by the Central News Section of the Department of Public Information and is updated every week-day at approximately 6:00 PM. HEADLINES
The Security Council has decided to extend, for the final time, the mandate of the UN Support Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH) for a further period of six months until 31 May 1997. Unanimously adopting resolution 1086 (1996), the Council noted the improvement in recent months in the security situation in Haiti and the capacity of the Haitian National Police to confront existing challenges. The Council recognised that economic rehabilitation and reconstruction constituted the major tasks facing the Haitian Government and people, and stressed the importance that the Government of Haiti and the international financial institutions should continue their close collaboration to enable the provision of additional financial support. It requested all States to make voluntary contributions to the Trust Fund established last year for the support of the Haitian National Police. The trust fund was to ensure that the police were adequately trained and fully operational. UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali says that in a world where the search for peace, justice and prosperity required ever- widening cooperation, volunteers would be increasingly vital to human progress. In a statement on the occasion of International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development, Thursday, Dr. Boutros-Ghali called on world leaders to support the spirit of volunteerism. He said volunteers helped elections take place in Cambodia, Mozambique and South Africa, adding that UN Volunteers were the backbone of the Human Rights Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA). "They are not only living symbols of the Organisation's enduring commitment to peace, development and democratisation; they are proof that progress towards our great objectives is being made", the Secretary- General said. The President of the General Assembly, Ambassador Razali Ismail of Malaysia has urged Member States to respond generously to the appeal to help UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in its efforts to change the situation on the ground for the "long suffering Palestinian refugees". Addressing the Pledging Conference for UNRWA, the Assembly President commended the Agency for its work. He, however, warned that UNRWA was now confronted by a serious financial crisis, and called on the international community to urgently address the structural deficit in the regular budget of UNRWA. That, he said, would prevent the Agency from undergoing, again, the austerity drive of earlier this year which affected its programmes and services. The General Assembly has urged all parties to the Middle East peace process to fulfil their obligations and to implement concluded agreements, by the terms of one of seven resolutions adopted by the Assembly. By a vote of 159 in favour and 3 against (Iran, Lebanon and Syria), with 2 abstentions (Libya and Sudan), the Assembly called for the immediate acceleration of negotiations on the agreed basis, while stressing the need for rapid progress on all tracks of the Arab-Israeli negotiations. Member States were also called upon to extend economic, financial and technical assistance to parties in the region and to render support for the peace process. The representative of Syria, explaining his delegation's vote against that draft, said it should have reflected the deterioration of the peace process because of the non-compliance of the Israeli Government with agreements. Supporting the draft, the representative of the United States said it was a clear endorsement of the efforts the parties had made to keep moving forward in their quest for peace. The United Nations should consider the creation of a UN Trust Fund which would collect voluntary payments from the transnational private sector as a supplementary form of financing, especially for humanitarian and development support activities, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) was told. Suggesting the establishment of the Fund, the representative of Poland said that the Fund could collect tax-free and unconditional donations which would be controlled and allocated by Member States. Transnational corporations and their host Governments should set incentives such as tax cuts to encourage private sector contributions, he noted. The representative of Qatar said that financial reforms in the United Nations should start with the scale of assessments, which should be made more flexible, transparent and fair. While United Nations reforms should improve services, the downsizing of the Secretariat should not harm its efficiency or the implementation of programmes, especially those related to development, he said. After witnessing a world-wide three-fold increase in the number of countries reporting rising abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants over the past 10 years and a ten-fold increase in seizures between 1978 and 1994, a United Nations meeting which was held in Shanghai, China, has mapped out a global strategy aimed at reversing what many are calling a trend more dangerous than heroin and cocaine. The International Expert Meeting on Stimulants, organised by the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) in cooperation with the Chinese Government, recommended that governments combat the spread of such substances as "ecstacy" and "speed" by taking multifaceted action at the national and international levels. The Executive Director of UNDCP, Giorgio Giacomelli told the meeting that on average, nearly 1 per cent of the world population above the age of 15 today had abused stimulants. He said the number of emergency visits due to that group of drugs in the United States alone had tripled between 1990 and 1994, adding that in Japan, nearly 90 per cent of drug-related convictions in recent years involved methamphetamine. Representatives from 150 Governments will meet in Geneva next week to prepare for the final phase of talks on how developed countries would cut their greenhouse gas emissions after the year 2000, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As the work on analysing the various possible options draws to a close, negotiators would start discussing the specific elements to be included in a future "protocol or another legal instrument" under the Climate Change Convention. For information purposes only - - not an official record From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgUnited Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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