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United Nations Daily Highlights, 97-07-22United Nations Daily Highlights Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.orgDAILY HIGHLIGHTSTuesday, 22 July 1997This 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
In tribute to more than 1,500 individuals from 85 countries who have died in United Nations peace keeping operations, the Security Council on Tuesday established a medal named after Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary- General of the United Nations. The Dag Hammarskjold Medal recognizes the sacrifice of those who have lost their life as a result of service in peace- keeping operations under operational control of the United Nations. In a resolution adopted without a vote, the Council noted the essential role of UN peace-keeping operations in the maintenance of international peace and security, and requested the Secretary-General to establish, in consultation with the Council, criteria and procedures for bestowing and administering the medal. At the same time, the Council requested Member States to cooperate, as appropriate, with the presentation of the medal. In a statement to the Council, Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the resolution as "a clear, focused and sympathetic way to honor fully the memory of those men and women, military and civilian, including UN volunteers who have lost their lives in the service of peace, on United Nations peacekeeping operations". He said more than 750,000 women and men from 110 countries had taken part in United Nations peacekeeping over the years and that the Medal would honour the lives of all those who went to distant lands in search of peace and paid the ultimate price while serving under the United Nations flag. President of the Security Council Ambassador Peter Osvald of Sweden recalled that for nearly a half of a century, lives, security and future of countless individuals across the globe depended on United Nations peacekeeping efforts and on the peace-keepers participating in them. "As we honour those who have died in United Nations peace-keeping operations, we must never forget our own responsibility as members of the Security Council towards those participating in the operations whose mandates we establish", said Ambassador Osvald. The Council President urged the Council to continue to ensure the proper discharge of its mandates and take every possible measure to enhance the safety and security of all those serving United Nations in conflict situations. Warning that the scheduled withdrawal of the United Nations Support Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH) might well jeopardize the significant progress achieved by Haiti with the assistance of the international community, UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan has recommended that the Security Council establish a new mission for a period of four months. The new mission, to be known as the United Nations Transition Mission in Haiti (UNTMIH), would be charged with supporting the Haitian authorities in the further professionalization of the Haitian National Police (HNP), and will be composed of military and civilian police elements. In a just released report on the United Nations Support Mission in the Haiti, whose mandate expires on 31 July 1997, the Secretary-General recommends that the strength of the new Mission be substantially reduced, with a reduction of civilian police element from 300 to 250 officers and the military element from 500 personnel to a military headquarters staff of 50. The report notes that in view of the progress achieved so far by UNSMIH, the primary task of the military element would be to support the activities of the United Nations civilian police, and some of its earlier tasks would be gradually discontinued. The Secretary-General says that Haiti continues to face daunting political and economic challenges. In the long run, he points out, sustainable development will not be achieved without significant international assistance, based on a widely supported action plan. Violence against women and girls is a major obstacle to social and economic development in the world today, according to a new report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The report: "Progress of Nations 1997", which was launched in London on Tuesday, describes a shocking litany of violence and abuse against women and girls. It highlights incidents ranging from dowry killings in India and domestic violence in the United States to the hurling of acid in Bangladesh, to female infanticide and female genital mutilation. Arguing that crimes against women are vastly under-reported, the UNICEF report notes that social scientists are now discovering that the scope of violent acts against women and girls far exceeds earlier estimates. "The report challenges the denial and the passive acceptance that too often surrounds the subject of violence against women and girls", says Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF. She noted that the report, "using hard data and passionate words", explained why the key to ending gender violence and implementing women's rights is education for girls. "Girls education is a cause that UNICEF is vigorously promoting", said Carol Bellamy. The report "Progress of Nations", which is published annually, ranks nations according to their progress on key issues affecting the health, welfare and rights of children. It brings together statistics on each country's progress towards a set of goals for reaching basic human needs, and presents, among other things, data on HIV/AIDS, levels of overseas aid, educational achievement and youth unemployment. The United Nations refugee agency has called on the authorities in Bangladesh to stop the forced repatriation of Myanmar Muslims. The United Nations High Commissioner (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that it had sent a letter of protest to Bangladeshi authorities after they had forcibly repatriated 212 Myanmar Muslims from a camp called Kutupalong. According to UNHCR, the group, which had been repatriated on Tuesday morning included sick people and many women and children. They were indiscriminately rounded up, lodged in a common room overnight, and then loaded onto buses in the pouring rain before UNHCR field staff could do the usual check to ensure that the refugees were going back voluntarily and to do medical checks. The refugees were then forced across the border. UNHCR said that this was the second forced repatriation of Myanmar refugees since Sunday. During the first forced repatriation of more 180 Myanmar refugees from camps in the area, there were riots, with refugees throwing stones at those trying to force them back and police firing tear gas and rubber bullets which injured some of the refugees. Several police officers were also reported to have been injured in the clashes with the refugees. Recent heavy fighting in the Shomali Valley north of Kabul in Afghanistan has increased the total number of displaced people in the capital since the beginning of the year to over 200,000, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The latest sharp increase in the displacement has been caused by intense fighting which led to the Taliban losing the key town of Charikar over the weekend to fighters of the northern anti-Taliban alliance. The Shomali Valley -- an important agricultural region stretching from Kabul into the surrounding Hindu Kush mountains -- has been largely depopulated by continued fighting and forced displacement. UNHCR reports that while many of those who left the region did so to escape fighting, tens of thousands of them were ordered from their homes by the Taliban. A number of those who have fled Shomali have entered Pakistan and registered with UNHCR as refugees. The UN refugee agency says that there is a possibility that if the refugees remain cut off from their homes for much longer, more displaced people from the Shomali Valley may proceed from Kabul to Pakistan in search of assistance. A United Nations body charged with promoting the progressive development of international law and its codification has completed 10 weeks of meetings in which it continued to lay groundwork for the establishment of international legal norms on the nationality of individuals in cases of state succession. Closing its forty-ninth session, the Geneva-based International Law Commission adopted a set of 27 draft articles and a draft preamble based on the principle that every individual who, on the date of succession of States, had the nationality of the predecessor State has the right to the nationality of at least one of the States involved in the succession. The draft articles provide that States have the obligation to take all appropriate measures to prevent such persons from becoming stateless as a result of the succession. The 34-member Commission also continued work on a variety of issues, including reservations to treaties, State responsibility, international liability for injurious consequences arising out of acts not prohibited by international law, unilateral acts of States and diplomatic protection. 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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