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10 July, 2004
 

Table Of Contents

Secretary-General Warns African Union On Darfur Crisis,Urges Democracy Across Continent 1

Pledging United Nations aid to help Africans resolve the crises of strife and displacement on their continent, Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 6 July warned that the "the horrific situation" in Darfur in Western Sudan "could be a prelude to even greater humanitarian catastrophe" potentially destabilizing the region.

"The vision that you are working so hard to achieve is imperilled by the persistence of deadly conflict in Africa," Mr. Annan told an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, referring in particular to Darfur, where more than a million black Africans have been displaced, often by government-backed Arab militias, in what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

He welcomed an agreement he reached with the Sudanese Government last week for them to clamp down on the militias as well as steps Khartoum has already taken to remove obstacles to relief operations in Darfur.

"The agreed moratorium on restrictions for all humanitarian work must be observed," he declared. "The climate of impunity that has prevailed for far too long must end now."

UN officials have accused the Government of sponsoring, arming and recruiting the militias following fighting with two Darfur rebel groups demanding greater development for the region's people.

Mr. Annan also expressed concern over the recent upsurge in violence and human rights abuses in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), continued instability in Côte d'Ivoire and continued tension between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

"We must not let the achievements of recent years be rubbed out by a return to an Africa in which millions are plagued by terrible violence," he declared. "We must work together to end the terrible conflicts that are disfiguring our continent."

The Secretary-General also noted that more African countries than ever before have democratically-elected governments. "This new spirit of democratic empowerment in Africa must find a home in every African country," he added.

Turning to HIV/AIDS, he welcomed the leadership that "more and more of you are showing" in fighting the pandemic. "The worst thing we can do is to be silent about this terrible disease. Silence equals death," he warned the assembled African leaders.

"As some African countries have proved, HIV/AIDS need not be a death sentence for whole societies. It takes vocal leadership from the President's office down to the schoolyard," he declared. "It demands prevention and treatment strategies backed up by investment in health and education _ particularly girls' education. It requires policies to reduce stigma and discrimination."

 

At End Of S-G's Trip, Sudanese Government Pledges To End Darfur Conflict 2

The United Nations and Sudan have agreed to a series of measures to improve the dire situation in the Darfur region _ widely considered the site of the world's worst humanitarian crisis _ including the disarming of government-sponsored militias that have been attacking civilians.

In a joint communiqué issued on 3 July at the end of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's official visit to Sudan, the Government and the UN warned that "catastrophic levels" of suffering could ensue if present conditions persist, and set up a high-level Joint Implementation Mechanism to report on progress.

The Government agreed to resume political talks in Darfur "in the shortest possible time" to reach a comprehensive settlement. It undertook to deploy a "strong, credible and respected police force" in areas where internally displaced persons (IDPs) have fled attacks, and in other high-risk locations, and said it would "immediately start to disarm the Janjaweed and other armed outlaw groups."

On human rights, Khartoum committed itself to "concrete measures" aimed at ending impunity and the immediate investigation of all abuses, with perpetrators brought to justice.

In May, two UN human rights reports found that the Janjaweed, bands of Arab fighters recruited or armed by the Sudanese Government as part of its fight against two rebel groups, committed murders, rapes and other crimes against Darfur's black African population.

The Government further pledged to allow the deployment of human rights monitors and to establish a "fair system, respectful of local tradition that will allow abused women to bring charges against alleged perpetrators."

By the agreement, the Government said it would suspend all restrictions for aid workers and permit freedom of movement throughout Darfur, while ending limits on "the importation and use of all humanitarian assistance materials, transport vehicles, aircraft and communications equipment."

For its part, the UN said it would help implement Sudan's peace accords, aid the country's IDPs as well as refugees in Chad and assist in the deployment of African Union (AU) ceasefire monitors.

 

S-G Urges Security Council To Adopt Resolution On Darfur Crisis 3

Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 7 July urged the Security Council to adopt a resolution as soon as possible to help bring an end to the deadly violence and ethnic displacement wracking Sudan's Darfur region, while the top United Nations humanitarian official described the relief effort as "a logistical nightmare."

In a private briefing by satellite link from Nairobi, Kenya, where he is continuing the African leg of an official trip, Mr. Annan informed the Council about what he observed during his visit last week to Sudan and neighbouring Chad.

He described the situation in Chad as "totally intolerable," according to UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, who accompanied Mr. Annan to Sudan and Chad, and briefed the Council separately in New York on 7 July.

The Secretary-General told the Council's 15 members that he wants a resolution as soon as possible _ and with as much as concrete detail as possible _ to help ensure that armed, government-allied Janjaweed militias stop attacking villages and killing and raping civilians, Mr. Egeland told reporters.

The Emergency Relief Coordinator also warned of a potentially massive death toll if Khartoum does not take steps to end the fighting with two rebel groups and to disarm and demobilize the mainly Arab militias.

"It is so vulnerable now that if there is an outbreak of renewed fighting, the whole programme of our humanitarian lifeline will fold immediately, and hundreds of thousands of people may die," he said.

 

Security Council Says It Will Step Up Pressure On Sudanese Government 4

The United Nations Security Council on 7 July called for "sustained pressure" on the Sudanese Government to find a solution to the humanitarian crisis engulfing the Darfur region and reserved the right to take tougher action if Khartoum does not match its commitments to end the human rights abuses and restrictions on aid workers.

The Council's 15 members also said they would consider adopting a resolution on Sudan "in the coming days" after receiving a briefing on the situation by Secretary-General Kofi Annan _ by satellite link from Kenya _ and other senior UN officials. 

In remarks to reporters, the Council's President for July, Ambassador Mihnea Ioan Motoc of Romania, said it wanted to pressure the Sudanese Government to try "to promote progress" in Darfur, where Government-allied Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, have driven more than a million people from their home villages since last year in a wave of ethnic displacement.

He said the Council was disturbed by the reports emerging from Darfur, an impoverished region in Sudan's west that is the size of France.

Civilians have told UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that the Janjaweed have burned their homes, killed or raped their relatives and driven them away in attacks targeting the region's black African inhabitants.

But Ambassador Motoc hailed the 3 July pledge by Khartoum, which followed Mr. Annan's three-day visit to Sudan and Chad and talks with Sudanese officials, to take action to lift all restrictions on humanitarian access and to punish those who have violated human rights.

Ambassador Motoc said the Council is currently studying a draft resolution and could vote on it within days. He said further action depended on whether the Sudanese Government was meeting the targets and promises it made on 3 July.

 

New UN Anti-Terrorism Official Outlines Plans To Tackle Scourge 5

The new head of the United Nations Counter-terrorism Committee's (CTC) Executive Directorate on 2 July outlined plans to tackle the scourge by working with allies in the fight and operating with maximum efficiency.

"I'll try and do my utmost to fulfill my tasks at the end of the day to produce something which would be considered by the world at large to have been a successful counter-terrorism activity," Javier Ruperez told reporters at his first news conference in New York.

The CTC draws its mandate from Security Council resolution 1373 _ adopted in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks against the United States _ which compels countries to report regularly on their efforts to combat terrorism.

Mr. Ruperez hailed progress since the measure's passage. The sensitivity concerning terrorism has been changed around the world "precisely because of the existence of that resolution," he said.

Asked about the current situation in Iraq, he said, "What we are watching right now in Iraq has all the appearance of terrorist acts, and those people who are using violence for the purpose of achieving political goals and on the way killing civilians, innocent people, and using this indiscriminate violence to me are terrorists," he said.

"Terrorism is trying to eat up our own reasons for being," he observed. "It is the fight against reason, it is the fight against the principles of the United Nations."

A national of Spain, Mr. Ruperez said terrorism has sadly been a part of both his national and personal life. "I was kidnapped by the Basque terrorists in 1979," he recalled.

Spain had been able to assert its power as a democratic State. "I think that we were able to build up a very strong sense of what we wanted to achieve against the terrorists," he said. "Even if it does take place, the world will continue, and democracy will continue, and freedom will continue. "We know that the fight will be a bit longer, but at the end of the day we will prevail," he said.

 

UNAIDS Calls For New Approaches To Fighting HIV/AIDS 6

Despite an increase in funding to fight the worldwide spread of HIV/AIDS, last year's infection rate was the highest ever and radical and innovative approaches must be devised to reverse the expansion of the disease while the epidemic is at a crossroads, a new United Nations report says.

The "2004 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic" from the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says it is time "to embark boldly upon the `Next Agenda' _ an agenda for future action that adopts the essential, radical and innovative approaches needed for countries to reverse the course of the epidemic."

If the world continues responding to the epidemic in "its well-meaning, but haphazard and ineffectual fashion, then the global epidemic will continue to outpace the response," it says.

In 2003, an estimated 4.8 million people _ within a range of 4.2 million to 6.3 million _ became newly infected with HIV. "This is more than any one year before," it says.

Some 37.8 million people are now living with AIDS and 20 million have died since the first cases of AIDS were identified in 1981, it says. 

The world was spending an estimated $4.7 billion on combating the epidemic in 2003, but that figure was less than half of what would be needed by 2005 and only a quarter of what would be needed by 2007 to mount a comprehensive response to AIDS in low- and middle-income countries, the report says.

"An unprecedented level of financial resources is now available to tackle the disease, but it is still half of what is really needed," and the money appropriated is not being used in an effective, coordinated manner, it says.

Efforts to prevent the spread of HIV need to focus on both risky individual behaviour and on broad underlying structural factors in society, it says.

Part of the problem is that, in some instances, AIDS funding is blocked in government bank accounts, or is stalled under rules put in place by international donors, UNAIDS says.

Meanwhile, whereas those affected by the epidemic were once predominantly male, at least half are now women worldwide. Among southern Africans infected women outnumber infected males by as much as two to one in some age groups.

In other ways, women are affected by being the ones burdened with taking care of the sick and are the most likely to have to sacrifice jobs and schooling, a situation which the report highlights by including gender sections in each chapter.

Noting the factors that make women more vulnerable, it says adolescent girls must have access to information and services, violence against women must not be tolerated, women must have property rights and access to prevention options, including an eventual microbicide.

"Addressing vulnerability at the structural level includes reforming discriminatory laws and policies, monitoring practices and providing legal protections for people living with HIV," the UNAIDS report says.

Half of all new HIV infections are now found in the 15- to 24-year-old age group, with more than 6,000 contracting the virus every day, the report says. People in the same age group will be responsible for fighting the epidemic in future, so they should now play an integral part in responding to the epidemic.

 

Global Tobacco-Control Treaty On Track To Become Law By End Of Year 7

The United Nations global treaty to curb tobacco use, which now claims almost 5 million lives every year and causes an estimated annual net loss of $200 billion in treatment and lost productivity, is on track to become binding international law by the end of the year, the UN health agency reported on 2 July.

With the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) closing for signature this week, nearly 90 per cent of the world's countries have signed the treaty, which requires them to restrict tobacco advertising, sponsorship and promotion, set new labelling and clean indoor air controls and strengthen laws clamping down on tobacco smuggling.

The FCTC has become one of the most rapidly embraced UN conventions, with 167 WHO Member States and the European Community (EC) signing, and 23 countries ratifying, accepting, approving or acceding _ thus making it law _ just one year after the pact opened for signature in Geneva. More than half the required 40 ratifications are now in hand.

"Although we have good reason to be confident, a relentless effort will still be needed for the foreseeable future," WHO Director-General Dr Lee Jong-wook said. "Current projections show a rise of 31 per cent in tobacco-related deaths during the next 22 years, which will double the current death toll, bringing it to almost 10 million a year."

WHO urges countries that have signed to ratify the Treaty as soon as possible. "The sooner the 40 ratifications are in place, the sooner effective and coordinated actions within the Framework Convention at country level can begin," said Catherine Le Galès-Camus, Assistant Director-General, Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health.

The treaty, adopted unanimously by all 192 Member States in May last year, is the first public health treaty negotiated under the auspices of WHO. It was designed to become a tool to manage what has become the single biggest preventable cause of death. There are currently an estimated 1.3 billion smokers worldwide. Half of them, some 650 million people, are expected to die prematurely of a tobacco-related disease.

 

WIPO: Start-Up Businesses Need Intellectual Property Help 8

Facilities designed to assist businesses must have expertise in copyrights, patents and other intellectual property issues, the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said on 2 July.

WIPO was reporting on its three-day seminar, also sponsored by the International Association of Science Park, held last week for the management of these parks as well as `business incubators' _ which help technology-based companies.

The seminar included training on licensing and technology transfer, practical advice on conducting licensing negotiations and a session on how to cull technical, legal and commercial information from patent databases, WIPO said.

"Science parks are much more than real estate operations," said WIPO's Guriqbal Singh Jaiya. "They are increasingly key providers of business development services to their clients and tenants and IP is one of the most crucial areas in which technology-based businesses and R&D (research and development) institutions will need professional support."

"In today's knowledge economy, it is important for the management of science parks and incubators to have a good understanding of intellectual property in order to provide tenants with a solid front-line support to meet their most urgent business needs," he added.

A science park stimulates and manages the flow of knowledge among universities, R&D institutions, companies and markets. It facilitates the creation and growth of innovation-based companies through incubation and spin-off processes, while a business incubator produces successful and financially viable businesses.

 

UNEP Announces New Project To Clean Up Pollution In Western Indian Ocean 9

Environment ministers meeting in Madagascar last week have agreed to an $11 million project to cut pollution in the Western Indian Ocean through strengthening pollution laws, regulations and regional and national cooperation, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said on 6 July.

The three-year project, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Government of Norway, will help eight East African countries devise action plans to curb sewage, chemicals and other pollutants coming from the land into the region's rivers and coastal waters.

The Western Indian Ocean _ one of the most wildlife-rich in the world with important mangrove forests, seagrass beds, lagoons and coral reefs _ is thought to hold more than 11,000 species of plants and animals including such creatures as the dugong, a marine mammal believed to be the inspiration for sea-farers' tales of mermaids; the coelacanth, a fossil fish; and more than a fifth of the world's tropical inshore fish species.

According to UNEP, some 30 million people in the five mainland countries of Kenya, Mozambique, Somalia, South Africa and Tanzania and on the islands of the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion and Seychelles, depend upon the area's marine and coastal resources for food, livelihoods and recreation.

The project was announced at the Fourth Conference of the Parties to the Nairobi Convention for the protection, management and development of the marine and coastal environment of the eastern African region. The meeting took place in the Madagascan capital of Antananarivo.

The treaty is a regional mechanism established by UNEP through which global treaties and agreements, including the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from land-based activities (UNEP/GPA) and those relating to the UN's International Maritime Organization (IMO), can be implemented.

The GEF is a multi-billion-dollar fund that invests in projects in developing countries. UNEP, along with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank, play key roles in managing the Fund's projects on the ground.

 

UN Backs First International Meeting On Organic Seeds 10

The seed industry and organic producers on 5 July met for the first time to discuss the importance of organic seeds for international markets, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reported.

The three-day First World Conference on Organic Seed was jointly organized by FAO and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements.

Around 300 representatives from private companies, non-governmental and farmers' organizations, scientific institutions and government agencies participated.

Although certified organic agriculture represents less than two per cent of agricultural land worldwide, the sector is constantly growing, according to FAO. Last year, global organic food retail sales grew by 8 per cent in Europe and 12 per cent in the US. Over 100 developing countries are exporting certified organic products.

Higher consumer demand, an increasing interest by supermarkets and government programmes stimulating organic production are the driving forces behind the growth of the organic sector, FAO said.

But the agency warned that organic producers are facing problems because conventional varieties and seeds often perform poorly under the conditions of organic agriculture, resulting in low yields. The seed industry offers only a very limited range of seed varieties suitable for organic production.

New requirements by the European Union to use organically produced seed in organic production are difficult for poor countries to meet.

The conference aimed to provide a discussion forum for knowledge and information exchange between farmers, individuals operating throughout the organic supply chain, scientists, the seed industry and policy makers.