Published Weekly by the United Nations Information Centre New Delhi

55 Lodhi Estate, New Delhi 110003

4 December, 2004
 

Table Of Contents

 

High-Level Panel Proposes Far-Reaching Changes To Bolster UN 1

A panel of eminent persons has recommended far-reaching changes to boost the ability of the United Nations to deal effectively with future threats caused by poverty and environmental degradation, terrorism, civil war, conflict between states, weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and organized crime.

The recommendations, contained in the report entitled "A more secure world: Our shared responsibility" of the 16-member High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, were produced after a year of deliberations following its appointment in November 2003 by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who formally received the document on 2 December at UN Headquarters in New York.

Mr. Annan had appointed the 16-member panel of prominent politicians, diplomats and development experts in November 2003 to assess the current threats facing the international community, evaluate the UN's ability to address those challenges, and recommend policy and institutional changes to deal with them.

The Secretary-General will transmit the report, along with a cover letter, to the General Assembly for review.

The report contains 101 recommendations for dealing with the six areas identified by the Panel as being the greatest threats to worldwide security in the twenty-first century: continued poverty and environmental degradation, terrorism, civil war, conflict between states, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and organized crime.

The report affirms the right of States to defend themselves, including pre-emptively when an attack is truly imminent, and says that, in cases involving terrorists and WMDs, the Security Council may have to act earlier, more pro-actively and more decisively than in the past.

The Panel also endorses the idea of a collective responsibility to protect civilians from genocide, ethnic cleansing and comparable atrocities, saying that the wider international community should intervene - acting preventively where possible - when countries are unwilling or unable to fulfill their responsibility to their citizens.

The Panel says, however, that if force is needed, it should be used as a last resort and authorized by the Security Council. Experts identify five criteria to guide the Council in its decisions over whether to authorize force: the seriousness of the threat, proper purpose, whether it is a last resort, whether proportional means are used, and whether military action is likely to have better or worse results than inaction.

It also urges the creation of a Peacebuilding Commission under the Security Council to identify countries at risk of violent conflicts, organize prevention efforts and sustain international peacebuilding efforts.

The report notes that major changes are needed in UN bodies to make them more effective, efficient and equitable, including universal membership for the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights. Such a move would underscore the commitment of all members to the promotion of human rights, and might help focus attention back on the substantive issues rather than the politicking currently engulfing the Commission.

Another way to improve the United Nations, the Panel says, is to carry out a one-time review and replacement of personnel, including through early retirement, to ensure that the UN Secretariat is staffed with the right people to undertake the tasks at hand.

Also included in the report's 101 recommendations are proposals to strengthen development efforts, public health capacity and the current nuclear non-proliferation regime, which the Panel says is not as effective a constraint as it was previously because of the lack of compliance, threats to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a changing security environment and the diffusion of technology.

The Panel's other recommendations include adopting a definition of terrorism, something the General Assembly's legal committee has not been able to do after years of discussion; rebuilding the global public health system; revitalizing the nuclear non-proliferation regime; and reforming each of the principal organs of the United Nations.

The Panel's Chair, former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun of Thailand, says the 95-page report "puts forward a new vision of collective security, one that addresses all of the major threats to international peace and security felt around the world."

 

Secretary-General Endorses Panel's Recommendations 2

Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 2 December gave his strong support to the findings of a high-level panel that looked at how the international community could address new and evolving security threats, including its recommendations for reforming the United Nations.

"I wholly endorse its core arguments for a broader, more comprehensive system of collective security: one that tackles both new and old threats, and addresses the security concerns of all States - rich and poor, weak and strong," Mr. Annan said in a letter transmitting the report to the UN General Assembly for review.

"The report offers the United Nations a unique opportunity to refashion and renew our institutions," he adds, promising to quickly consider and implement specific recommendations that fall within his purview.

Panel chair, former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun of Thailand, said it was important to focus on the interconnectedness of those threats in today's world. "A threat to one is a threat to all," he said at the press briefing to launch the report.

Joining him was Panel member Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former Prime Minister of Norway and former Director-General of the UN World Health Organization (WHO). She stressed that collective security must be built around effective, responsible states since they are at the front line of defence against all of the challenges the Panel describes.

"Because the threats cross boundaries states must work together; that is obvious. But first of all we have to have working states, functioning states. And that illustrates our main point: that development has to be the first line of response for collective security," she said.

In his letter to the Assembly, the Secretary-General echoes that view, saying that eradication of poverty and disease is an essential part of the effort to achieve a safer world. "If we are to succeed in better protecting the security of our citizens, it is essential that due attention and necessary resources are devoted to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," he writes.

The Goals, adopted at a UN summit in 2000, aim to halve extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal education and promote gender equality. They also seek to reduce infant and maternal mortality, fight HIV/AIDS and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development - all by 2015.

In March 2005 the Secretary-General will submit a comprehensive report that includes a review of the progress made on achieving the MDGs, taking into account some of the Panel's findings. That paper will also help set the agenda for a planned summit of world leaders to review the 2000 Millennium Declaration ahead of the General Assembly session in September 2005, which coincides with the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations.

 

Sec-Gen Calls For Universal Participation In Chemical Weapons Treaty 3

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 29 November called on all countries that have not yet done so to ratify or accede to a global treaty against chemical weapons.

Expanding membership in the Chemical Weapons Convention is vital for strengthening international security and for promoting the peaceful use of chemistry, he said in a message to the Ninth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Convention delivered by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the UN Office in Geneva.

"It is a source of encouragement that steady progress has been made in the destruction of declared chemical arsenals," he said. "Nevertheless, a great deal more remains to be done. I urge the concerned States to meet their obligations under the Convention, and call upon the international community to continue to support these efforts."

He noted that in the seven years since the Convention entered into force, it now includes 167 States Parties _ covering some 90 per cent of the world's chemical industry _ but a number of key States remain outside its purview, particularly in some areas of concern.

"Multilateral action offers a platform for the international community to fight the scourge of chemical weapons, promote confidence-building and to significantly reduce the possibility of terrorists acquiring chemical agents for nefarious purposes," he said. "It is crucial for States Parties to also implement effective national legislation to give substance to their commitments under the Convention."

 

Landmark UN Tobacco-Control Treaty Reaches Ratification Goal To Become Law 4

The United Nations landmark global treaty to curb tobacco use, which now claims almost 5 million lives a year and causes an estimated annual net loss of $200 billion in treatment and lost productivity, will enter into force in 90 days now that 40 countries have ratified it, the UN health agency announced on 30 November.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) requires treaty parties to restrict tobacco advertising, sponsorship and promotion, set new labelling and clean indoor air controls, and strengthens laws clamping down on tobacco smuggling in the war on the world's leading cause of preventable deaths.

"The momentum growing around the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control seems unstoppable," the agency's Director-General, Lee Jong-wook, said. "It demonstrates the importance placed by the international community on saving many of the millions of lives now lost to tobacco."

If current trends are not reversed, tobacco will prematurely end the lives of 10 million people a year by 2020. It is the only legal product that causes the death of one half of its regular users. This means that of the current 1.3 billion smokers, 650 million people will die prematurely due to tobacco.

Following the ratification by Peru - the 40th country to do so - the treaty will become the first international legally binding public health pact under the agency's auspices on 28 February. It has become one of the most rapidly embraced UN conventions, with 167 WHO Member States and the European Community (EC) having already signed it.

 

Additional Troops From India, Pakistan To Bolster UN Peacekeeping Force In DR Of Congo 5

Thousands of soldiers from India and Pakistan are heading to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to bolster the United Nations peacekeeping operation there.

UN officials told the UN News Service on 29 November that each of the South Asian countries is supplying a brigade of up to 3,000 troops to the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC). They will be deployed in the Kivus, located near the troubled eastern border area.

The contributions include both motorized infantry battalions and mechanized battalions that use armoured personnel carriers (APCs).

India is also providing four attack helicopters, six utility helicopters and four observation helicopters for use by the mission, according to the officials.

The first battalions from India started moving in by air on 20 November. India's deployment is expected to be completed that week itself, while Pakistan will finish deploying in January.

Originally set up five years ago, MONUC is mandated to monitor implementation of a ceasefire agreement signed in 1999 by the DRC along with Angola, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Most recently, the Council asked MONUC to undertake a number of other tasks, including maintaining a presence in the "key areas of potential volatility in order to promote the re-establishment of confidence, to discourage violence, in particular by deterring the use of force to threaten the political process, and to allow UN personnel to operate freely, particularly in the eastern part of the DRC."

 

S-G: Myanmar: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi And Other Prisoners Should Be Freed 6

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 30 November urged the authorities in Myanmar to seize the momentum created by recent announcements that some 9,000 prisoners will be released to also free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and others jailed for expressing their political beliefs.

The Secretary-General "reiterates his belief," which is shared by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the countries of the region, "that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's continued detention is not in the interest of the process of national reconciliation and democratization in Myanmar," said a statement issued by Mr. Annan's spokesman. 

Over the past several years Mr. Annan has been pushing the Government of the South Asian country to include opposition parties such as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) in a democratic transition, and most recently has been urging it to allow his Special Envoy, Razali Ismail, to visit again as soon as possible.

 

IAEA Calls For Assurances From Iran About Undeclared Activities 7

The United Nations agency entrusted with preventing the spread of nuclear weapons on 29 November welcomed Iran's decision to suspend all uranium enrichment activities and called on it to grant the access needed to provide "credible assurances" that it has not engaged in any undeclared nuclear activities.

The resolution adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors in Vienna was the latest act in the saga that began last year when it became clear that Iran had for many years concealed its nuclear activities in breach of its legal obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei has said the Agency has no proof that Iran's activities are linked to a nuclear weapons programme and Tehran consistently denies any such intent. But he said last week at the start of the Board's meeting that the Agency "is not yet in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran."

The vote on 29 November came after Mr. ElBaradei informed the Board that a last stumbling block had been removed with Iran's withdrawal of a request to use up to 20 sets of centrifuge components for research and development. Uranium enriched by use of centrifuges can be used in making nuclear weapons, as well as for producing energy.

He said he had received a letter from Tehran permitting the IAEA to place the 20 sets under Agency surveillance and pledging not to conduct any testing of them, and Agency inspectors had put surveillance cameras in place to monitor them.

Stressing the need for effective safeguards to prevent nuclear material being used for prohibited purposes, the resolution reasserted the IAEA's strong concern that Iran's policy of concealment up to October 2003 had led to many breaches of its obligations to comply with its NPT Safeguards Agreement, but noted that good progress had been made since then to correct those violations.

It welcomed Mr. ElBaradei's intention to pursue his investigations "with a view to providing credible assurances regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran" and "underlines the continuing importance of Iran extending full and prompt cooperation to the Director-General in the above pursuit."

 

2004 World Economic and Social Survey Calls For Global Approach To Deal With Migration Issues 8

A United Nations study released on 29 November stresses the need for better management and cooperation among nations to address the economic, social and security issues caused by global migration.

The 2004 World Economic and Social Survey deals with the consequences of the 175 million people around the world living away from their home countries. It points out that an orderly and controlled population movement across borders could prove to be beneficial for both the sending as well as the receiving nation, but adds that such an outcome requires a new global approach.

"Beyond existing conventions and protocols, the international community lacks a comprehensive international framework that addresses the wide range of issues pertaining to global migration," the survey says. "Migration is a transnational phenomenon involving various parties with different perspectives and interests."

The authors find that fears in receiving countries that migrants will take away jobs or bring down wages are highly ingrained, and contribute to a restrictive political and policy outlook. The share of governments with policies to lower immigration grew to just 34 per cent in 2003, from 7 per cent in 1976, according to the survey.

But the studies of the economic impact of migration indicate "no significant" reduction in wages and employment rates among natives. Researchers say the incoming migrants expand the demand for goods and services, add to gross national production, and contribute more to government coffers than they take out.

"If we want to reduce those flows, we have to raise standards of living at home countries," said Ian Kinniburgh, Director of the Office for Development Policy and Planning in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), at a news conference in New York. "It is very important to see migration from the development perspective."

Mr. Kinniburgh and others see that international migration can serve as an agent for global interchanges of skill and knowledge as well as economic dynamism and efficiency.

"The challenge is how to make it a win-win situation, rather than a lose-lose situation" Joseph Chamie, Director of DESA's Population Division, told the briefing. "The bottom line is how to better manage the migration."

The study comes ahead of the 2005 report of the Global Commission on International Migration and a high-level dialogue on development and migration due to take place in the General Assembly in 2006.

 

UN Marks Day Of Solidarity With Palestinian People 9

On 29 November, the United Nations observed the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, with Secretary-General Kofi Annan urging the international community to renew its commitment to work for a "reinvigorated peace process" in the Middle East.

"Today, throughout the world, people hope that a new chance for peace may be around the corner," said Mr. Annan in remarks to a solemn meeting of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. "That opportunity must not be let pass."

Noting that over the past four years, bloodshed and chaos in the Middle East continued without respite, the Secretary-General said the Palestinians have endured a "dismal existence of grinding poverty and dispossession."

"But they have not been good years for Israelis either. They too have borne great loss. They too need security," he added.

Voicing his belief that the Road Map "still embodies a path to peace," Mr. Annan said he was hopeful that Israel's disengagement plan would help renew peace efforts leading to the end of the occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as the Gaza Strip, and paving the way for "a sovereign, democratic and contiguous Palestinian state, living side by side in peace with Israel."

He said the memory of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, who died earlier this month, should serve as an inspiration to unite and strengthen the Palestinian people in their efforts to realize their national aspirations to statehood and self-determination through peaceful means.

Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Permanent Observer for Palestine, read a message from Mahmoud Abbas, newly-appointed Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which stated that while the Palestinian people had experienced widespread sadness at the passing of Mr. Arafat, they and their leadership had responded to their tragic loss in a civilized, orderly manner with a smooth and peaceful transition of power.

The Committee's Chairman, Ambassador Paul Badji of Senegal, noted that although the State of Israel had been proclaimed without delay following the termination of the mandate for Palestine, the Arab State meant for the Palestinians had yet to come into existence. The Palestinian people had endured long years of warfare, expulsion and occupation, and it was President Arafat who had given them an identity that the world could no longer ignore.

The Committee also heard from General Assembly President Jean Ping of Gabon and the Security Council President for November, Ambassador John Danforth of the United States.

 

Messages of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan 10

International Volunteer Day, 5 December 2004

If the world is to make progress in implementing the Millennium Declaration and move decisively towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, it will need people everywhere to be involved. Volunteerism continues to be a powerful and productive channel for that engagement.

Volunteering on the ground in communities, or online at home, enables ordinary people to perform extraordinary tasks. Such contributions are vital, whether one is working to eradicate poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy, or struggling to protect the global environment and safeguard women against discrimination and violence.

The strength of volunteerism is its universality — the countless acts of solidarity and assistance that take place every day, in developed and developing countries alike. There is no right or wrong way to volunteer. 

All that is needed is a willingness to share time, a skill or a good idea.

On this International Volunteer Day, I call on governments and civil society to create more opportunities for peope to volunteer. And let us all recognize the integral role of volunteers in the development process, and the tremendous contributions that the power of volunteerism makes to building a safer, more sustainable future.

 

Human Rights Day, 10 December 2004 11

Every year, International Human Rights Day reminds us of persisting human rights problems in our communities and in the world, and of the enormous efforts still required to make human rights a reality for all.

Human rights education is a vital part of such efforts, designed to equip new generations with the knowledge of their inalienable rights, and the means to exercise and defend them. These rights include rights to health, to education, to food, to housing, to marry and found a family, to participate in public life, to be free from torture, arbitrary arrest and detention — in short, the rights needed to be free from want and fear.

Today, the General Assembly marks the conclusion of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004) with a plenary session, in which the recommendation to proclaim a World Programme for Human Rights Education will be considered. The first three years of such a Programme, from 2005 to 2007, would focus on primary and secondary education, through integrating human rights issues into curricula, changing educational processes and teaching methods and, most importantly, improving the environment in which education takes place.

Human rights education is much more than a lesson in schools or a theme for a day; it is a process to equip people with the tools they need to live lives of security and dignity. On this International Human Rights Day, let us continue to work together to develop and nurture in future generations a culture of human rights, to promote freedom, security and peace in all nations.

 

Human Rights Day 2004: A Tribute To Human Rights Educators 12

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNESCO are dedicating Human Rights Day 2004 on 10 December to human rights education and encouraging other agencies and programmes of the United Nations System and relevant governmental and non-governmental actors to do the same.

This year's observance will help highlight deliberations in the United Nations General Assembly, which is devoting a special plenary session on Human Rights Day to human rights education, High Commissioner Louise Arbour and UNESCO 

Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura said. The special meeting will mark the end of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004) and discuss possible future initiatives for the enhancement of human rights education worldwide. The Assembly is expected to proclaim a World Programme for Human Rights Education. The first phase of the Programme, to run from 2005 to 2007, is to be devoted to human rights education in the primary and secondary school systems.

Announcing the 10 December observance, Mrs. Arbour said: "Every year, Human Rights Day reminds us of persisting human rights problems in our communities and in the world, and of the huge effort still needed, on the part of each and everyone of us, to make human rights a reality for all".

The High Commissioner and the Director-General called on all actors to take the opportunity provided by Human Rights Day to organize educational activities at all levels and in all sectors, disseminate good practices and launch future initiatives in this area, "in a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect among all those involved".

 

WHO Reinstates Two De-Listed AIDS Antiretroviral Drugs 13

The United Nations health agency is reinstating two generic AIDS antiretroviral drugs it de-listed earlier this year after the Indian manufacturer carried out new studies to confirm that the medicines, widely used in developing countries, are as effective as their brand-name counterparts.

"This is good news for patients and another important step forward in our progress towards the 3 by 5 target," World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Lee Jong-wook said on 30 November, referring to the agency's initiative to get 3 million people living with HIV/AIDS in developing and middle-income countries on antiretroviral treatment (ART) by the end of 2005.

The two medicines - Lamivudine 150mg tablet from Cipla Ltd, Kurkumbh and Lamivudine 150mg plus Zidovudine 300mg tablet from Cipla Ltd, Vikhroli _ were removed from the international list of medicines available to developing countries because the manufacturer had not ensured they were equivalent to the original medicines they were supposed to copy.

The manufacturer carried out new bioequivalence studies, and further WHO scientific assessment and inspections have validated the compliance of these new studies. In such tests, volunteers take the generic medicines and their blood is tested after a certain time to determine whether the concentration of the generics in their blood is similar to that of the brand-name medicines in other volunteers.

"This shows that generic manufacturers are reacting responsibly to recent de-listings," said Vladimir Lepakhin, WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals. "The prequalification process does work. As well as a list of validated products, it is also a much-needed capacity building effort to promote quality and safety of medicines in developing countries."

A number of new antiretrovirals - including fixed-dose combinations - are currently in the pipeline for WHO assessment.

 

Parties To UN-Backed Treaty Take Further Steps To Protect World's Vital Ozone Layer 14

In a further effort to protect the world's ozone layer, which filters out ultraviolet solar rays that cause skin cancer and other ills, parties to a United Nations-sponsored environmental treaty have agreed to carry out a survey on the use of a key ozone-damaging pesticide in food shipments.

The quantities of methyl bromide used by farmers for fumigating soils is well known, but the precise levels used to treat shipments of big commodity crops such as rice and maize and consignments in wooden pallets is unclear.

The survey is aimed at resolving these uncertainties and may be a first step towards controlling the levels of methyl bromide used in quarantine and pre-shipment. It will be carried out by scientific and technical experts to the Montreal Protocol, the 17- year-old international agreement set up under the auspices of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to protect the ozone layer from chemical attack. 

Experts estimate that in 2002 the quantities in such use were around 11,000 tons, growing to 18,000 tons in 2004, but it is thought the levels are an underestimate since not all countries are supplying full and accurate figures.

The survey was among several key decisions made at the 16th meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol which ended at the weekend in Prague, Czech Republic.

These included requests for so called "critical use exemptions" for methyl bromide for farmers in the developed world, including Australia, Europe and the United States, who claim that the current alternatives in some places and for certain crops, such as strawberries and tomatoes, are not sufficiently effective.

Under an agreement made in the mid-1990s, the chemical is scheduled for a full phase out in developed world agriculture next year. In 1991 consumption of methyl bromide was around 63,800 tons.

The Parties in Prague agreed to exemptions totaling just over 2,600 tons for 2005 in addition to just over 12,150 tons agreed to at a special meeting in March this year. Based on recommendations by the scientific and technical panels to the Protocol, it was agreed to grant developed world farmers a total of just over 11,700 tons-worth of exemptions in 2006.

"The Montreal Protocol is without doubt one of the most successful, global, environment treaties and has been strengthened by the political commitment shown here in Prague," said Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP, which hosts the Ozone Secretariat at its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. "Indeed, I was pleased to note that throughout our discussions all Governments stated clearly that they had every intention to phase out methyl bromide and that these critical use exemptions are temporary measures."