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Heritage club maps Abu Dhabi's marine and coastal habitats
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- UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE
Heritage club maps Abu Dhabi's marine and coastal habitatsEmirates Heritage Club (EHC) has completed the documentation of marine wildlife and coastal habitats of Abu Dhabi Emirate to help in environment protection efforts. The document in the form of an atlas aims to help protect marine environment and facilitate sustainable coastal development in Abu Dhabi, according to a presentation of the EHC at the international conference on the State of the Gulf Ecosystem here in Al Ain. The department of environmental research at the club undertook the project with the help of international research scientists holding extensive field work, said Ronald A. Loughland, A.M. Darwish, S.S. Fadel, and A.A. Al Ali from the EHC in the joint presentation.
The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has issued, in his capacity as Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Law Number 6 for 2006 on regulation of drilling of water wells. Article Three of the law stipulates that a licence must be obtained from the Environment Agency, Abu Dhabi (EAD) before carrying out any works such as drilling a new well, deepening an existing well, increasing well’s diameter, boosting water recovery by using a pump, replacing an old well, transporting or selling well’s water. Article Four specifies provisions for obtaining the licence for well drilling and the licence for practising well drilling works. According to Article Five, drilling licence application must be submitted by the well owner who shall enclose all required documents along with the application. Article Six states that approval or rejection of the application shall be sent in a written and registered notification to the applicant. The applicant possesses the right to appeal the decision to the EAD secretary-general within 30 days of notification.
A Unesco representative has warned that coastal areas in the Arab world are increasingly faced with environmental degradation due to economic growth factors and rise in population. Dr Mohammed Al Awa was here to attend the conference on 'Satellite technologies and remote sensing in the development of coastal zones'. He told Khaleej Times that ''assessment of environmental impact should be thoroughly studied before the launch of any development project in coastal zones in order to avoid harmful effects on these areas". He also stressed the need for an intensive follow up after implementation of tourist development projects to contain any negative consequences. ''At a time when artificial trees are being planted in the Gulf region, an onslaught on the natural environment is being perpetrated,'' he underlined. He drew the attention of the gathering to the vital need for conducting detailed studies on the environmental impact on the region with assistance of modern technology. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/Displayarticle.asp?section=theuae&xfile=data/theuae/2006/march/theuae_march198.xml Gulf conference discusses threats facing environment On its second day, the Conference on Gulf Ecosystems discussed the economic valuation of mangrove forests in Iran in a talk presented by Dr Esmaeili from Shiraz University, Iran. Results showed that Iran is the only country in the region in which mangroves are decreasing. Results also indicated that the forest is very valuable and has a significant effect on shrimp fishery in Iran. Dr Butayban from the Environment Public Authority, Kuwait, spoke about Kuwait’s efforts in monitoring the marine environment. Kuwait has experienced several major crises in the past decades, including wars and oil spills that may have contributed to the recent, massive fish kills. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/Displayarticle.asp?section=theuae&xfile=data/theuae/2006/march/theuae_march196.xml UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICEDAILY NEWSUN DAILY NEWS from the UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE 6 March, 2006 ==================================================================== ANNAN CHAIRS FIRST MEETING TO START WORK OF THE UN DEMOCRACY FUND The United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), established in July 2005 to promote and consolidate new and restored democracies with financial and technical help, began its first day of practical work today when Secretary-General Kofi Annan chaired a meeting of the Fund’s Advisory Board.
programme framework for the Fund, a body which was welcomed by Member States during last September’s 2005 World Summit and which has already received pledges for more than $41 million from 17 countries from various regions of the world.
for advancing the UN democracy agenda. UNDEF will support projects aimed at consolidating and strengthening democratic institutions and processes such as the drafting of constitutions and the development of pluralistic media,” Mr. Annan’s spokesman said today.
the rule of law, increase popular participation and ensure that people are able to exercise their democratic rights. Its comparative advantage is expected to be its capacity to help build the enabling environment necessary for democratic institutions to function more effectively.”
Jan Eliasson expressed appreciation for the Secretary-General’s initiative in setting up the Fund and wished the Board success in its work.
process, and that one clear example of the use of the Fund will be in the work of the Peacebuilding Commission,” Mr. Eliasson’s spokesperson said today.
representatives from the largest Member State contributors to the Fund, those from Member States selected by Mr. Annan to reflect diverse geographical representation, and also representatives from civil society and personal representatives of the Secretary-General. * * *
COUNCIL
support for the proposed Human Rights Council from five Nobel Peace Prize laureates and is continuing “intensive consultations” to get agreement over the body put forward to replace the much-criticized Human Rights Commission, his spokesperson said today. In an Op-Ed piece published in The New York Times newspaper on Sunday, the laureates wrote that there were “many positive elements” in the draft proposal for the Council put forward by Mr. Eliasson, noting also that it was supported by the vast majority of Member States. “Some have asserted that the proposal is just a weak compromise. We challenge this claim,” added former presidents Jimmy Carter of the United States, Kim Dae-Jung of the Republic of Korea and Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, as well as South African Bishop Desmond Tutu and Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi.
show of support and that he was “continuing intensive consultations with Member States, including the United States” in an effort to gain agreement on the Council. “He is still aiming for action this week….There is unity among Member States that the text should not be renegotiated at this point, and there is growing consensus that the President himself should not make adjustments to the text,” the spokesperson said. The laureates echoed this point, calling the draft “a very significant and meaningful improvement over the existing commission,” and warning that “to reopen negotiations would put at risk these gains and give those who would prefer a weaker system another opportunity to do mischief.” The laureates also praised Mr. Eliasson for having found a way forward that can bring everyone on board. “Nearly 60 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he has finally brought us to where we can begin to put principles over politics for the betterment of all.” This latest show of support for the proposed Council, which the European Union (EU) is also backing, comes after both Mr. Eliasson and Secretary-General Kofi Annan have made repeated calls for Member States to agree to the body, which is seen as having higher status and greater accountability than the Commission that meets yearly in Geneva. * * *
The head of the United Nations agency entrusted with curbing the spread of nuclear weapons said today he did not expect any “breakthrough” or “positive agreement” on Iran’s nuclear programme at the current meeting of the atomic watchdog’s Board of Governors now under way in Vienna. “Unfortunately the picture is still hazy as to the scope and nature of Iran's nuclear programme,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters before formally presenting his latest report to the Board. He said IAEA had not seen indications of diversion of nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices during its inspections. But he warned that there were still a number of “important uncertainties” that need to be clarified about the programme, which has been a matter of international concern ever since the discovery in 2003 that Iran had concealed its nuclear activities for 18 years in breach of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
unless there is a breakthrough and unless there is a positive agreement,” Mr. ElBaradei said. “As things stand I do not expect the Board to adopt a resolution.” He added that as requested by the Board in February he would transmit his latest report to the Security Council, which has the power to impose economic sanctions. “There is universal recognition that this is an issue of serious implication to international peace and security,” he stressed. “The whole Middle East security is very much at stake.”
United States and other countries insist that it is clandestinely seeking to produce nuclear weapons. In August Iran rescinded its voluntary suspension of nuclear fuel conversion, which can produce the enriched uranium necessary either for nuclear power generation or for nuclear weapons.
on Iran to provide “maximum transparency,” urging it to again freeze its research and development activities until a solution is found. “Regrettably, however, after three years of intensive verification, there remain uncertainties with regard to both the scope and the nature of Iran's nuclear programme,” he said in formally presenting the report to the Board.
give rise to questions about the past and current direction of Iran's nuclear programme. For confidence to be built in the peaceful nature of Iran's programme, Iran should do its utmost to provide maximum transparency and build confidence.”
comprehensive agreement that covers the nuclear issue, the security issue, the economic issue and political issue,” he told reporters. “Confrontation could be counterproductive. It would not provide us with a durable solution.
better for everybody. Meantime I call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint in their public statements.”
FALL
development goals, delegates from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean have agreed on plans for an unprecedented world summit of youth leaders at United Nations Headquarters in New York in October, 2006.
faces and wings to seek imaginative solutions to those challenges,” UN General Assembly President Jan Eliasson told the youth delegates as they assembled last week to plan their support for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the internationally agreed-upon set of targets to reduce poverty and other ills by 2015. “You also need passion to mobilize your generation in support of the MDGs and the search for peace and compassion for those suffering from poverty and injustice,” he added, volunteering to facilitate an inter-generational dialogue between global leaders and youth at the Summit. Two representatives aged 18 to 30, one man and one woman, from each of the 191 Member States of the UN will be nominated to attend the summit by their UN country offices, according to the UN New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace, which organized the planning meeting along with the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a New York-based NGO.
are expected to use the themes of sport, culture and peace as entry points to reach out to youth worldwide about the goals, the Sport and Development Office said. According to that Office, the Summit has received a strong pledge of support from private sector sponsors, including Mohan Lal Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Ispat Group of Companies of India, John Gage, Vice President and Chief Researcher of Sun Microsystems and Hiroshi Matsumoto, President of Inner Trip Reiyukai International (ITRI), a Japanese foundation. The three sponsors have agreed to form a Council of Mentors that will bring together prominent international leaders to advise the youth leaders on Summit preparations and implementation of activities decided on at the event.
UN SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR WEST AFRICA WELCOMES PEACEFUL ELECTIONS IN BENIN
conduct of Benin’s weekend elections while voicing hope that the constitutional process will bear fruit in the planned transfer of power next month.
Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, congratulated the people of Benin “for their orderly and disciplined behaviour since the beginning of the process” and said their conduct testifies to the country’s important status “in the march towards democracy in Africa.”
exemplary behaviour of the people of Benin during the Sunday polls will accompany the process until its ultimate ending, with the peaceful and constitutional handing over of power on 6 April 2006.” He also hailed the current leadership, saying President Mathieu Kerekou’s expertise “will surely continue to be valuable to the African continent, beyond his well accomplished mission as Head of State.”
death of a former Croatian Serb leader who had been sentenced to 13 years in jail by a United Nations tribunal for his role in what it called a savage ethnic cleansing campaign in the early 1990s. Milan Babic, who had testified in former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s case in 2002, was found dead in his cell yesterday afternoon in the UN Detention Unit in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, where he was preparing to testify in the trial of another Serb leader, Milan Martic, a UN spokesperson said today.
former Yugoslavia (ICTY), sitting in The Hague, sentenced Mr. Babic to even more time than the 11 years prosecutors requested following a plea bargain because of what they called the gravity of the crimes that had occurred in the Krajina region of Croatia from 1991 to 1992.
co-perpetrator in a joint criminal enterprise to forcibly and permanently remove Croats and other non-Serbs during his stint as president of the self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK). Presiding Judge Alphons Orie of the Netherlands said Mr. Babic participated in a campaign of persecution that “involved the murder of more than 200 civilians, including women and elderly persons, the confinement and imprisonment of several hundred civilians in inhumane conditions, the forcible transfer or deportation of thousands of civilians, and the destruction of homes and public or private property.” He added: “The crime, which was characterized by ruthlessness and savagery and was committed with the intent to discriminate against non-Serb civilians, strongly impacted on victims and their relatives. Their suffering is still significant.” The Tribunal President, Judge Fausto Pocar, has ordered an internal inquiry into Mr. Babic’s death. * * * AGENDA OF UN OUTER SPACE PANEL: BOOSTING MEDICINE AND AVERTING CATACLYSM Reducing risks from space debris or near-Earth objects such as meteors, space-based disaster management through satellites, and space-based telemedicine for monitoring diseases such as bird flu or malaria figured high on the agenda of a two-week United Nations scientific meeting that has just ended.
Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), held in Vienna from 20 February to 3 March, also considered the use of nuclear power sources in outer space and reviewed implementation of the recommendations of the Third UN Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
by satellites, including applications for developing countries and monitoring of Earth’s environment.
draft space debris mitigation guidelines to be circulated at the national level for consent for approval at the 44th session next year. The guidelines, should they be adopted, would be implemented voluntarily and through national mechanisms, and would not be legally binding under international law. On disaster management the Subcommittee held a workshop involving communication and meteorological satellite operators. It also considered the use of nuclear power sources in outer space under a multi-year work plan, including a potential technical safety framework. On Telemedicine it heard presentations on bilateral or multilateral projects to develop further space-based applications to monitor outbreaks of avian flu, Chagas’ disease, malaria and yellow fever, among others. The Subcommittee urged Member States to continue to cooperative in developing countries in order to bring them better health-care services.
precision of asteroids and meteors that may cross Earth’s orbit were the most effective tools for avoiding a collision, noting that any mitigating measures would require coordinated international efforts. COPUOS was set up by the General Assembly in 1959 to review the scope of international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, to devise programmes to be undertaken under UN auspices, to encourage continued research and the dissemination of information and to study legal problems arising from the exploration of outer space.
WATCHDOG
reactor safety, facilities still exist where safety assistance needs to be made a priority even as expectations for atomic power as an energy source are rising measurably, the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency warned today.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei told a Board of Governors meeting at its Vienna headquarters in his latest report, noting that growing global needs and rising oil and gas prices have fuelled new interest in atomic energy. “But equally important has been the sustained strong performance, in terms of safety and productivity, of existing nuclear plants,” he said. “While the strong, steady safety performance of recent years is reassuring, events of concern continue to take place, even in countries with extensive operating experience and strong regulatory oversight.
the establishment of a strong safety culture for both operators and regulators, must always be viewed as a ‘work in progress,’” he said.
particularly vital that we work harder to fix the so-called ‘weak links’ in the nuclear safety chain,” he added, listing less than optimal design safety features, the lack of strong, independent regulatory oversight, and poor coordination among the international organizations providing safety assistance. For such facilities, the international community should move expeditiously, with coordination between all relevant organizations, to clarify the actions needed, the expected costs, and a strategy and schedule for proceeding, Mr. ElBaradei warned. “I am pleased to note that these focused efforts have recently been taking place at some facilities,” he said.
in national regulatory approaches, to ensure high quality, independent oversight for nuclear activities, as evidenced by the International Conference on Effective Nuclear Regulatory Systems held in Moscow last week – the first effort to bring together all senior regulators with oversight in nuclear safety, radiation safety and nuclear security. The conference made a number of recommendations, including wider participation by all countries in international conventions and other instruments, and renewed emphasis on international cooperation in developing a comprehensive body of international safety standards. * * * UN DEPLORES ‘COWARDLY’ MURDER OF AFGHAN AID WORKER The United Nations today expressed shock at the “cowardly” murder of an Afghan national contracted by the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN HABITAT), who was dragged from the car he was travelling in and shot dead on Saturday. Mohammad Hashim, the latest in a series of aid officials murdered in the war-torn country, was undertaking a monitoring visit to National Solidarity Programme communities and project sites in Bala Buluk district of Farah province when six armed men stopped his vehicle. Community Council members travelling with him tried to intervene, but were unsuccessful.
the United Nations family here,” Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative Tom Koenigs said in a statement. “The death of such a treasured colleague will be a matter of enormous sadness to those who knew him, and to all who care about Afghanistan’s rebuilding.”
condemned the murder. “Mr. Hashim was a dear Muslim brother serving the communities in Afghanistan and assisting in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of villages in Bala Buluk District. We urge the people and the local authorities in Bala Buluk to join forces to find the perpetrators of this horrific act and bring them to justice,” they said in a joint statement.
other aid agencies from reaching the far flung communities, promoting national solidarity and advancing the process of rural development in Afghanistan.” * * * UN COMMANDER OF ETHIOPIA-ERITREA FORCE VOICES HOPE FOR PEACE PROCESS BREAKTHROUGH With the situation between the formerly warring countries of Ethiopia and Eritrea still deadlocked, the top United Nations force commander in the region has voiced hope for a breakthrough in the peace process.
Kenya, on Saturday, Major General Rajender Singh, who heads the peacekeeping troops serving with the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), said the international community is working to forge a lasting solution to settle the conflict.
border war, UNMEE was deployed to monitor a Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) separating the two Horn of Africa countries. Eritrea has been critical of the UN for not forcing Ethiopia to accept the border delineated in 2002, awarding Badme – the town that triggered the conflict – to Eritrea.
commission charged with setting a permanent border and to abide by its decisions.
brought together military leaders from both sides, and cited other initiatives aimed at fostering a breakthrough. “We remain hopeful that with the support of the international community, these initiatives will indeed be the watershed in the peace process,” he said.
noted that there had not been any significant changes in recent months, but voiced concern about the continued presence of groups of Eritrean armed personnel in certain areas within the TSZ. He also spoke about constraints faced by UNMEE as a result of Eritrea’s restrictions, including helicopter flight ban, which continues to impede the rapid evacuation of sick or injured peacekeepers while reducing the mission’s monitoring capability. Last week, an UNMEE peacekeeper, Lance Corporal Kamble Ramesh Annappa, died of cardiac arrest after Eritrea refused the mission’s request for a medevac. General Singh also voiced concern about the number of mine incidents registered in the last two months – six in all on both sides of the border. “These have not only resulted in fatal and serious casualties to civilians, but have also emerged as a major threat to the peacekeepers on both sides of the southern boundary of the TSZ,” he pointed out, urging both parties to address the menace. Also speaking at the meeting, Brigadier General Otisitswe Tiroyamodimo of the African Union (AU) appealed to Eritrea to remove the flight restrictions against UNMEE.
his Government’s commitment to the cause of peace and promised full cooperation with UNMEE. “UNMEE is an instrument of peace and stability between Ethiopia and Eritrea,” he said, urging the international community to take the necessary steps to restore the mission to its full operating capacity. Eritrea’s delegate, Colonel Zecarias Ogbagaber, said his country was committed to the peace agreement but stressed that it was “up to Ethiopia to abide by the decision of the Boundary Commission.” He said the flight ban and other restrictions were only expressions of Eritrea’s frustrations. “UNMEE is here to facilitate demarcation; not to manage an indefinite stalemate,” he said. “Eritrea has the right to resort to whatever measure it deems necessary to assert its territorial rights.”
OVERLOOKED Amid findings released today showing that aid donors are overlooking Asia in favour of Africa, the head of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) told high-level delegates at a London conference that the region should get “a better deal.” The findings, supported by funding from the Asian Development Bank are contained in a report entitled “Achieving the MDGs in Asia: a Case for More Aid?” which shows that Asia has received far less aid than other regions of the world in comparison to the size of the population, the level of income and the number of poor it hosts.
report at the two-day “Asia 2015 Conference Promoting Growth, Ending Poverty.” The report found Asia accounts for the lion’s share of people lacking access to sanitation, underweight children, malnourished people, those living on less than a dollar a day, and tuberculosis (TB) cases in the world. It also found that three quarters of all Asians in rural areas lacking access to sanitation live in China and India. In absolute terms, India is home to 38 per cent of the world total of underweight children below the age of five, more than one and a half times the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. India also has more than double the amount of illiterate 15 to 24 year old women than in any other sub-region of the world, including sub Saharan Africa.
the ages 15 and 49, of which 5.1 million in India alone, compared to 23.8 million in Sub-Saharan Africa — is, however, far from insignificant. HIV/AIDS is also rapidly spreading in some parts of Asia, in particular the CIS countries and India. Asia as a whole accounts for more than two thirds of the world’s TB cases and deaths,” the report states. The report analyzes aid to sub-regions in the world on a needs basis calculated on percentage share of underweight children and other Millennium Development Goal indicators, finding that Asia is being ignored in favour of Africa. It says most sub-regions in Asia are receiving relatively “small shares of the global aid total” and
Millennium Summit in 2000 which seek to deal with a host of socio-economic ills such as extreme poverty and hunger, maternal and infant mortality and lack of access to education and health care, all by 2015. * * * AFGHAN OPIUM PRODUCTION LIKELY TO INCREASE THIS YEAR, UN WARNS After decreasing by 21 per cent in 2005, the cultivated area of opium in Afghanistan, the world’s largest supplier of the drug from which heroin is produced, looks likely to rise this year, a United Nations spokesman said today.
pointed to economic factors - poverty being their explanation in many cases,” UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) spokesman Adrian Edwards said of a rapid assessment survey recently conducted by the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). “Whether in fact that is the cause we don’t know; there are other causes mentioned - pressure from people in the drugs business, all kind of other pressures,” he told a news briefing in Kabul, the capital.
Survey, published in the autumn each year. The survey, carried out in December and January, shows an increasing trend in poppy cultivation in 13 provinces, a stable trend in 16 and a decrease in three. “It’s worth bearing in mind that the indications of an increase in cultivation are coming from some provinces only - 13 provinces,” Mr. Edwards said. “I don’t want to downplay the problem, but the vast majority of land in Afghanistan under cultivation for agriculture remains for licit crops, not illegal ones.”
in the country could remain severe because of renewed insecurity, continued corruption and free opium seed distribution by traffickers. UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said in November that these factors posed “a risk that opium cultivation may not decline any further in 2006.”
WAY
Afghanistan from Pakistan, expected to reach 400,000 this year, has begun amid some uncertainty and indecision among refugees. A total of 77 Afghans were repatriated in the first three days of the operation that began last Wednesday in the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) final year of voluntary repatriation under the current tripartite agreement with the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The operation had been suspended over winter, when the number of people returning to Afghanistan typically dwindles. “As in previous years, repatriation starts slowly in March. Parts of Afghanistan are still too cold to return to at this time of the year. The pace peaks in May, June and July,” UNHCR repatriation officer Robert Friedman said. The Tripartite Agreement was set to expire in March but was extended till December and UNHCR is negotiating with the two governments on new return arrangements beyond 2006, possibly shifting from individual travel assistance to area-based reintegration assistance. The result of negotiations will have a direct impact on undecided Afghans.
UNHCR's assisted repatriation operation since 2002. With some 450,000 returning last year, 2.6 million are believed to remain in the country.
Afghans have repatriated. Some 900,000 Afghans are still estimated to be in Iran.
could rise in the coming months unless donations to head off a disaster arrive soon, the head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned, stressing that the agency still needs $189 million for its year-long emergency operation.
El Wak in northeastern Kenya on the border with Somalia,” WFP Executive Director James Morris said on his return to Nairobi, the capital, after a visit to the epicentre of the Horn of Africa drought. “They have lost their animals, and with them, their means of survival. They are forced to share the food aid they receive with new arrivals who are showing up each day. So far the human death toll is fairly limited.
they receive food, but we fear that any break in food supply to the most vulnerable people will lead to suffering and death on a much larger scale,” he added. Mr. Morris also expressed deep concern about the regional nature of the drought and its impact on neighbouring war-torn Somalia, where WFP requires $34 million for its emergency operations for the rest of 2006 and access to 1.4 million people in need of food aid in the south is difficult due to insecurity.
and other humanitarian agencies in southern Somalia face the enormous challenge of reaching drought victims in remote and insecure areas,” he said. “We urge leaders and rival militia to set aside their differences and guarantee safe passage to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.”
routes for food aid by sea. Overland relief convoys regularly face insecurity. WFP is using a combination of the slower and more costly land routes and limited shipping to increase food deliveries to meet growing needs. It has contingency plans for air drops, which are more costly thanthe land transport in case of flooding when the rains come.
contract for humanitarian emergencies with the signing of an agreement with the AXA Re company for $7 million in contingency funding in a pilot scheme to provide coverage in the case of an extreme drought during Ethiopia’s 2006 agricultural season.
gathered from 26 weather stations across Ethiopia, takes advantage of financial and technical innovations in the weather risk market. Payment will be triggered when data gathered over a period from March to October indicates that rainfall is significantly below historic averages, pointing to the likelihood of widespread crop failure. While the experimental pilot transaction only provides a small amount of contingency funding, the model has been designed on the basis of the potential losses that 17 million poor Ethiopian farmers risk should an extreme drought arise. “The humanitarian emergency insurance contract might, in the future, offer us a way of insuring against these massive losses before they spell destitution for millions of families,” Mr. Morris said.
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICES OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL AND THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT 6 March 2006 =============================================================== The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Pragati Pascale, Spokesperson for the General Assembly President.
Good afternoon. Happy Monday to all of us. **Secretary-General on UN Democracy Fund I’ll start off with a statement on the new UN Democracy Fund: “The Secretary-General is pleased that the Advisory Board of the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) is meeting today to review its governance and programme arrangements. The Board’s decisions today will set the basis for the Fund to become operational. “The Secretary-General established UNDEF in July 2005. It was welcomed by Heads of State and Government at the September 2005 World Summit, at which they reaffirmed that democracy is a universal value and that there is no single model of democracy. And it has now received pledges for more than $41 million from 17 countries from various regions of the world. “The Secretary-General sees UNDEF as an innovative and flexible mechanism for advancing the United Nations democracy agenda. The UNDEF will support projects aimed at consolidating and strengthening democratic institutions and processes such as the drafting of constitutions and the development of pluralistic media. It will also fund projects designed to empower civil society, strengthen the rule of law, increase popular participation and ensure that people are able to exercise their democratic rights. Its comparative advantage is expected to be its capacity to help build the enabling environment necessary for democratic institutions to function more effectively.” **Security Council Turning to the Security Council, the Council is today holding consultations on the work of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq [UNMOVIC]. Demetrius Perricos, the acting Executive Chairman of that Commission, is briefing the Council on the latest report on its work, which came out last week. ** Afghanistan From Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, who heads the UN Assistance Mission in that country, today expressed his sadness at the murder over the weekend of Mohammed Hashim, an Afghan engineer who had worked for UN-HABITAT in the province of Farah. Hashim was dragged from his car by six armed men and shot dead on Saturday. UN-HABITAT and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, in a joint statement, urged the authorities to bring the perpetrators of this murder to justice. We have a press release upstairs, as well as today’s Kabul briefing notes, which also mentions Koenigs first trip to northern Afghanistan. ** Sudan Meanwhile, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Sudan, Jan Pronk, visited Abuja, Nigeria, which, as you know, is the site of the Darfur peace talks, and there he met the different stakeholders in that peace process. He stressed the importance of reaching a ceasefire agreement that can be implemented, in order to put an end to the violence on the ground. He urged the mediation to call for an emergency meeting of the Joint Commission, on the basis of the N’Djamena Ceasefire Agreement. The security situation in Darfur, meanwhile, remains tense, with intense fighting reported in at least one location, according to the UN Mission. **IAEA Chief on Iran ’s Nuclear Programme From Vienna, Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the Agency’s Governing Board today that, during its investigations on Iran, the Agency has not seen indications of diversion of nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. Regrettably, however, he added, that after three years of intensive verification, there remains uncertainties with regard to both the scope and the nature of Iran's nuclear programme. ElBaradei said that Iran should do its utmost to provide maximum transparency and build confidence. And we have, upstairs, copies of Mr. ElBaradei’s speech to the Board of Governors, which began its meeting in Vienna earlier today. **World Food Programme The World Food Programme (WFP) today announced an innovative deal that it has struck with an insurance company, designed to speed up relief in case of a drought emergency this year in Ethiopia. Under terms of the agreement, if the rainfall in Ethiopia falls below a certain level, the insurance company, AXA Re, will immediately provide the WFP with $7 million in contingency funding, which can rapidly be put to relief work. The agency said the arrangement will markedly shorten response time, as it eliminates some of the need for assessments and other studies, usually required before money can be released. And WFP said the agreement is a test case that would be an entirely new way to finance disaster relief. We have more details in a press release upstairs. And in a related development, WFP also said it is running out of food for 3.5 million Kenyans in need of emergency assistance. James Morris, who, as you know, heads WFP, said the death toll in the area could rise in the coming months without additional donations to head off a disaster. And we have more information on that as well. **International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Yesterday afternoon, Milan Babic, a detained witness at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), was found dead in his cell at the United Nations Detention Centre, outside The Hague. After conducting an investigation, the Dutch authorities confirmed that the cause of death was suicide, and Babic’s family was duly notified. The Tribunal President, Judge Fausto Pocar, has also ordered an internal inquiry. And Babic, who was already serving a 13-year sentence of his own, was also to be a witness in the trial of another Serb, Milan Martic. In 2002, he had already testified in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic. **Press Conferences/Upcoming Events A couple of things to flag for you this afternoon and tomorrow; at 2 this afternoon, the Permanent Mission of Norway is sponsoring a press conference by the Women’s Environment and Development Organization and the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership, and there is an open letter from women’s non-governmental organizations to the Secretary-General and Member States regarding UN reform. And at 10:30 tomorrow, Rachel Mayanja, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, and others will hold a press conference on International Women’s Day; “Women in Decision-making: From Politics to the Private Sector.” At 3 p.m., Djibril Diallo, Director of the New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace, will introduce the “Dunk for Malaria” event, taking place at the New York Knicks v. Atlanta Hawks basketball game at Madison Square Garden -- anything to help the Knicks would be good -- and he will be joined by Knicks player Allan Houston and Lance Laifer of the Hedge Fund vs. Malaria. The other big event besides the Knicks, tomorrow is that, at 11 a.m., the Secretary-General will present his management report to the General Assembly in the General Assembly hall. A senior UN official will then be in this room at 11:30 to give you a background briefing on the report. The Secretary-General will have a town hall meeting with his staff at 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. That event will be closed to the media; you will not be physically able to enter the room, but you will be able to watch the proceedings on television, if that is of interest to you. That is it for me. Are there any questions before we turn to Pragati? **Questions and Answers Question: On the management report that is coming out tomorrow, there have been news wire reports that the Secretary-General is proposing the creation of multiple posts, more priorities for the Deputy-Secretary-General, and he also intends to propose outsourcing of many departments, like translation, payroll and printing. Now, that has basically caused a lot of unrest among employees -- the outsourcing. But with the creation of multiple posts, the United States, which has been saying over and over again that it wants to cut down on expenses and so on and so forth -- the creation of almost… it looks like three or four Under-Secretary-General posts to coordinate between departments, what would they do? Spokesman: A couple of things Masood: the report will come out tomorrow, so I’m not going to discuss the details that may have leaked out to the media. What I will say is that, first of all, the staff will be closely consulted on the implementation of the report, once approved by the Member States. And I think this is a report that we know will create a stronger and more effective United Nations, and I think everyone has a stake in that. Question: One of the things that Mr. Bolton has been saying is that the staff of the United Nations should be cut down and that was one of the reasons for bloated bureaucracy. Instead, what the report is doing is proposing to increase posts, while outsourcing many departments. How do you think it’s going to… Spokesman: I think you will have to wait until tomorrow. Question: Mr. Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party [of Lebanon], is arriving in New York and will meet with the Secretary-General. Can you tell us if the Secretary-General will be able to talk to the press after the meeting? Spokesman: If the Secretary-General will speak to you? Question: Yes. And second, what’s the purpose of the meeting? Who arranged it? And third, what about the timing of the meeting, coming before two reports, the Brammertz report and the other by Nicolas Michel? Spokesman: Well, first of all Mr. Jumblatt requested the meeting. We agreed to see him. He is obviously a major political force in Lebanon, and the Secretary-General would very much be interested in his views on the situation. The timing has more to do, I believe, with Mr. Jumblatt’s travel plans than with anything else. And third of all, I don’t know if the Secretary-General will speak afterwards, but I can check for you. Question: When is that meeting going to be? Spokesman: On Wednesday. I believe in the morning, but I’ll have to check for the exact time. Question: And when is the Russian Foreign Minister meeting him? Spokesman: On Wednesday, as well. Question: The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa highly praised the elections, this weekend in Benin, and the President, for his attitude towards those elections. Yet, President Kerekou strongly criticized the elections and, in particular, their lack of transparency. He criticized the press and the observers for not revealing certain things. Has the Secretary-General been apprised of the negative attitude of the President? Spokesman: I have no guidance on these elections, but I will get something after the briefing for you. Question: Is James Wolfensohn going to be visiting the Occupied Palestinian Territories on Thursday? Would you know that? And also, is he going to be talking about the budget, or their financial situation? And is he going to talk about Olmert’s call for a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank? Spokesman: The answer to all of those is: “I don’t know.” We will check with his office, as to what his travel plans are and what he plans to discuss. Question: I was wondering if we could have an update on the fighting that’s been going on in the Congo. There seems to be pretty active stuff going on in the eastern Congo and it would be nice if you guys could keep us updated on all of that. Spokesman: We’ll see if we can get somebody from DPKO to come down here. Question: There was a controversial document signed here in New York on February 22nd by the Prime Minister of Haiti and the Chief of MINUSTAH, Juan Valdes, regarding control of Haiti’s national police. Now, on the radio Saturday, the Haitian Prime Minister said that this agreement is not valid, and he was taking steps to have the UN or the Security Council eliminate it. What is the UN’s position regarding this? Spokesman: I was told this morning that Mr. Valdes is about to, or already has had, discussions with Mr. Préval on this very issue, and we will see what comes out of those. Question: Do we have the document here at the United Nations? Spokesman: I don’t believe so, but we can check. Question: Were you able to follow through on the question that I put forth on last Friday? Spokesman: I’m sorry. I believed that one of my colleagues had gotten back to you. But if they haven’t, let’s walk upstairs and we’ll get you the answer. Pragati, you’re up. Thank you. Spokesperson for General Assembly President Good afternoon. On the Human Rights Council, General Assembly President Jan Eliasson is encouraged by the support he received from five Nobel Peace Prize laureates -- that’s Jimmy Carter, Oscar Arias, Kim Dae Jung, Shirin Ebadi and Desmond Tutu -- in the op-ed piece that appeared in the New York Times on Sunday. This week, the President is continuing intensive consultations with Member States, including the United States. He is still aiming for action this week, in order to have clarity before the Commission on Human Rights begins its annual session on March 13th. There is unity among Member States that the text should not be renegotiated at this point, and there is growing consensus that the President himself should not make adjustments to the text. This morning, at the first meeting of the Advisory Board of the UN Democracy Fund, President Eliasson expressed appreciation for the Secretary-General’s initiative in establishing the Fund, and wished the Board success in its work. He remarked that democracy has an important place in the UN reform process, and that one clear example of the use of the Fund, will be in the work of the Peacebuilding Commission. **Questions and Answers Question: From what you just said, the only option being left open is a vote. Is that what the President seems to be leaning towards? Spokesperson: He was quoted in the New York Times on Saturday that he definitely does not want to have an isolation process, vis-à-vis the US. He said that this is the country of Eleanor Roosevelt and the Bill of Rights. The US belongs on this Council, and he wants the US on board. I don’t think he is pursuing the option of a vote at this point. He’s still hoping for a consensus decision. Question: Is he holding any talks with the United States at all? Spokesperson: Yes. Over the weekend I can confirm that he spoke with the Secretary-General, Secretary Rice, and with other officials at the US Mission. He is going to continue those talks this week. Question: Is there anything coming out of those talks? Spokesperson: I don’t think he can elaborate on them right now. Question: You said that there is unity that the text should not be renegotiated. So the US has said that it no longer wants the text to be renegotiated? Spokesperson: I think that you need to ask the US that. Question: No. You just said there was “unity”. So does that mean unity or that, actually, there may still be some countries that want to renegotiate the text? Spokesperson: The President is not pursuing the option of renegotiation, because he has gotten very strong responses from Member States… Question: Yes, I understand, but when you said there was “unity”, what does that mean? Spokesperson: I think the consensus among Member States is that it should not be renegotiated. Question: That, therefore, means that the US doesn’t want it to be renegotiated? Spokesperson: I think that’s the response he’s getting, yes. Comment: John Bolton this morning reiterated that the US does want the text renegotiated. They stand by their position. Question: Has the General Assembly President been invited to a Congressional hearing in Washington on reform? Spokesperson: Not that I’m aware of, no. Question: You mention, in the same breath, the Democracy Fund with the Peacebuilding Commission. Do you have any update on the funding for the Peacebuilding Commission? Do you know if that’s going to be discussed tomorrow? Spokesperson: I’ll have to check on that, I’m not sure. I know discussions on the elections are still taking place, but I’m not sure where the funding issue stands. Question: The question now is: will the President keep extending the negotiating process -- the United States is suggesting that the process continue into June -- or will he call for a vote soon? Spokesperson: Well, he will make a decision on the way forward by Thursday. He is aware of the grave responsibilities and choices that he has to make, and he is consulting intensively on that. Question: You have indicated that the President was asked not to make changes to the text. How many countries have asked him to do that? What are the implications if changes are made? Would the changes be made in the General Assembly itself, or not at all? Spokesperson: I can’t put a number on it. He said there was a growing consensus. The text is a “President’s text”, so, as the President, he could change the document he presented, but he is not planning to do that. And the consensus is that he should not do it. Thank you very much. * *** * C  ommunications and Public Information, P.O. Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya
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