DAILY HIGHLIGHTS FOR: 8 December 1995
Press Release
DH/2039
DAILY HIGHLIGHTS FOR: 8 December 1995
19951208 * Peace Implementation Conference opens in London.* In Croatia, joint Croatian-Yugoslav Commission for missing persons begins work on cooperation in search for missing people.
* UNESCO Director-General appeals for peace in conflict ravaged countries.
* World conferences are cost-effective ways of tackling challenges of next century, Chile tells General Assembly.
* Only democracy can truly guarantee human rights, Secretary-General says in Human Rights Day message.
* Ebola case is confirmed in Cote d'Ivoire.
* UNDP is to support electoral process in Chad.
* World plays soccer on Saturday to observe United Nations fiftieth anniversary.
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The Security Council has extended the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) for four days expiring on Tuesday 12 December 1995.
Unanimously adopting resolution 1028 (1995) the Council recalled all its previous resolutions on the situation in Rwanda, in particular its resolution 997 (1995) of 9 June 1995.
The Council decided to remain seized of the matter.
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The Peace Implementation Conference on the former Yugoslavia has opened in London. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali is in London attending the Conference.
Earlier, in Geneva Mr. Boutros-Ghali had meetings with his senior aides to draw up a United Nations plan to effect the transition from United Nations peace-keepers to the multinational force deployed and commanded by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO.
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The United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation in Croatia, (UNCRO) has reported that the situation in its area of operations continued to improve with the level of incidents remaining very low.
Also in Croatia, the joint commission for missing persons established by Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began its work on cooperation in the search for missing people. The Croatian team was headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Kostovic, while Deputy Prime Minister Uros Klikovac, headed the team of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
A United Nations Radio report from Zagreb said after the first session of the joint commission, Mr. Kostovic and Mr. Klikovac told reporters that more concrete results could be expected after the next session which should be held in Belgrade by 1 January 1996. The joint commission issued a statement after its first session in which it confirmed it's respect for the principles of international humanitarian law, the report said. The Joint Commission encouraged cooperation between the Red Cross in both countries in search of missing people and agreed that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) may be allowed immediate access to all prisons in the two countries, and the ICRC reports may be available to the Commission.
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The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has appealed for peace and reconciliation in conflict-ravaged countries. In a statement, Director-General Federico Mayor said peace could not be brought about only through treaties, rather it must be constructed in the mind of every citizen. He said there was a growing momentum throughout the world to end war and build democracy, an opportunity which he said "we cannot afford to lose".
The UNESCO Director-General also pointed to recent historic peace agreements and democratic elections which had shown that more and more world leaders were willing to shoulder the responsibility of making peace, "an act of political courage far greater than leading soldiers into war."
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Conferences such as the World Summit for Social Development provided a unique and cost-effective way to tackle the challenges of the twenty-first century, the representative of Chile told the General Assembly as it reviewed implementation of the outcome of the Copenhagen Summit, held last March. Ambassador Juan Somavia said the message of the Social Summit was simple: stability required equality and respect for the environment. He said the Social Summit had fostered a political vision of a world peace, a possibility which was also a moral imperative. The Social Summit was akin to a starting point, but at the same time, it was very much part of a process, he concluded.
Other speakers told the Assembly that while national governments had the primary responsibility for giving meaning to human-centred development, international financial institutions, regional organizations, local authorities and representatives of civil society should assist the governments in achieving that goal.
The representative of Tanzania said deliberate measures were required to ensure that civil society was empowered to participate in the economic and social decision-making processes. Radhia Msuya stressed that one of the major commitments made in Copenhagen was the commitment to poverty eradication. In the context of her country, the imperative was to expand productive employment, which was the primary basis for the people to improve their living standards. At Copenhagen, she said due emphasis was given to the importance of the participation of women in civil society in the quest for social development.
Speaking on behalf of the European Union, the representative of Spain called for the full exploration of means to effectively mobilize financial resources for social development.
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Human Rights Day is Sunday 10 December. In a message marking the occasion, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali noted that since its inception, the United Nations had worked to extend its normative efforts, not only into the field of individual rights, but also into those of economic, social and cultural rights.
In his message Mr. Boutros-Ghali said it was his profound belief that only democracy both within States and within the community of States could truly guarantee human rights, a United Nations spokesman said. Democratization therefore must be a goal of the international community. The spokesman said the Secretary-General's message on Human Rights Day was that democracy was the political expression of our common heritage. Democracy was for everyone and like human rights, democracy had a universal dimension, so democracy and human rights were goals which were indissolubly linked and which must be pursued together.
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The United Nations shares the anguish of Human Rights Watch over man's continuing inhumanity to his fellow man, a United Nations spokesman has said, commenting on a report by Human Rights Watch critical of the United Nations human rights record.
History would be making its own judgement as to the United Nations's effectiveness in alleviating human misery. The spokesman said it was interesting that even as they unveiled their criticism of United Nations' performance on human rights, a poll of the United States public, conducted for the United Nations Association of the United States, found that 49 per cent of Americans thought that the United Nations had become more important or somewhat more important in dealing with problems around the world. The poll also found that 54 per cent thought that the United Nations was doing a good job in solving the problems it had to face.
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The World Health Organization, WHO has been informed of a suspected case of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Cote d'Ivoire. The patient is a 25-year-old man from a village in neighbouring Liberia. The diagnosis of Ebola infection was confirmed by serological tests carried out at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.
Within 24 hours a WHO team, including an expert from the Institut Pasteur, flew to Abidjan. They are now investigating the case on site and are working in close cooperation with Ministry of Health of Cote d'Ivoire, Medicins sans Frontieres (MSF), Epicentre (Paris) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
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The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has announced that it will support the electoral process in Chad. The central African country is to hold democratic elections next year for the first time since it won independence in 1960. An electoral census will be conducted ahead of the poll, with assistance from UNDP and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). UNDP is providing US$80,000 to help the government organize and prepare for the elections which are being planned for mid-year.
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Saturday will mark the day the whole world played soccer or football as it is known in most of the world -- to observe the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations. The governing body of world soccer, the International Federation of Football Associations, known by its French acronym FIFA, has invited all its 191 national associations worldwide to play at least one game
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in a designated time-frame to create a ribbon of football games around the globe.
"The Day the World Played Football is our sport's contribution to the half-century of the United Nations", said FIFA General Secretary Joseph S. Blatter in Zurich. Urging all his football associations to take part on 9 December, he said it was important "to show that there is no more effective way of bringing the world together than through football".
Over 120 countries have heeded his call and have agreed to host games. One or two countries in each of the 24 time zones have been specially selected to play a key part in assuring the continuity of the football chain. They include Norway, where the ribbon starts, in honour of Trygve Lie, the first United Nations Secretary-General, together with such countries as Morocco, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, Fiji, Guam, Uzbekistan, South Africa and France, where the ribbon ends, in Paris on Sunday, 10 December - 24 hours after kick-off.
Franz Beckenbauer, former captain of the German World Cup winning team, will kick off in Oslo and President Chirac of France will officiate at the end of the event in Paris. That city will be the site of the preliminary draw, on 12 December, for the 1998 World Cup.
In an effort to involve the youth of the world, the United Nations fiftieth anniversary Secretariat has made available to participants the "Passport to the Future" -- which encourages the active participation of young players and fans in accomplishing the goals of the United Nations.
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