RESPONSIBILITY OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IS TO SAVE LIVES, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL IS TOLD

19 July 1996

Press Release
ECOSOC/5675

RESPONSIBILITY OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IS TO SAVE LIVES, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL IS TOLD

19960719 Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Says Contemporary Humanitarian Crises Originate in Lack of Development

Reacting to a perception that resources were directed to emergency relief at the cost of development, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs told the Economic and Social Council this morning that the foremost responsibility of the international community was to save lives.

Introducing the Secretary-General's report on strengthening coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, Yasushi Akashi said a weak international response at the outset of disasters would not only cause human suffering but would also lead to destruction of infrastructure. Contemporary crises owed their origin to lack of development, he emphasized. Mr. Akashi also presented oral reports on assistance to Madagascar and Somalia.

Also this morning, the Deputy Director of the Office to Combat Desertification and Drought (UNSO) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), reported orally on assistance to drought-stricken areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. She said her organization faced significant challenges in the area of resource mobilization, as funding was primarily dedicated to emergency response and humanitarian assistance, with relatively little left for contingency planning and mitigation.

The Council also heard the introduction of the Secretary-General's report on reconstruction and development of Lebanon. Introducing the report and also making an oral presentation on assistance to Yemen, the Chief of Country Programmes Division I, Regional Bureau for Arab States of the UNDP, said in the aftermath of the 1994 military conflict, Yemen continued to receive assistance in mine-clearance from the Department of Humanitarian Affairs. Its water supply and sanitation systems had been rehabilitated by the UNDP, and the World Health Organization (WHO) continued to provide technical and financial assistance to its Ministry of Public Health.

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The report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was introduced by the Acting Director of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who also presented an oral report on refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees in Africa. He said the situation in the Great Lakes region continued to be disturbing as some 1.7 million Rwandan and another 200,000 Burundian refugees still populated the border camps. Expressing concern at fatigue in asylum and donor countries, he said the UNHCR's activities in refugee camps in both the countries were under- funded.

The representative of Ireland, on behalf of the European Union and associated States, expressed concern that only 25 per cent of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs resources came from the United Nations regular budget. He voiced support for allocation of greater resources to the Department from the regular budget in the next biennium. Statements were also made by the representatives of Lebanon, Canada, Azerbaijan, Nicaragua and Armenia.

The Council will meet again at 3 p.m. to continue its general segment.

Council Work Programme

The Economic and Social Council met this morning to continue its general segment, focusing on social, humanitarian and human rights questions. The Council has before it reports concerning special economic, humanitarian and disaster relief assistance; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); advancement of women; and social development questions.

"Humanitarian action is at a crossroads", states the Secretary-General's report on the coordination of United Nations humanitarian emergency assistance (document A/51/172-E/1996/77). The escalation of conflicts and displacement has caused a quantum leap in the need for an international response. Complex crises, rather than being aberrations, have deep roots in the ways in which societies are structured. Humanitarian assistance is provided in a political context which all too frequently constitutes the only effective response of the international community when political will and resources are lacking to tackle the root causes of crises.

In a world situation characterized by increasing needs and shrinking resources for international assistance, the aid community is faced with difficult choices between silent and high-profile emergencies and between immediate relief and long-term reconstruction and development, states the report. While it is generally agreed that prevention is better than cure, there are minimal resources to address conditions leading to disasters or long-term solutions. "The fact is that resources are more readily available for emergency cure than prevention. With every major crisis comes the sad recognition that there is no common understanding of what constitutes an acceptable level of contingency planning and of the funds required to attain such a level."

The report states that there is widespread agreement that coordination is a must, but perceptions may often vary of what it implies in practice. The international community must refine its understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of specific coordination agreements.

Another concern is the availability of the necessary resources for the Department of Humanitarian Affairs to carry out its activities, the report continues. "There is a clear need to address the vulnerability of the Department resulting from the imbalance between its regular and extrabudgetary resources."

Improvements are also needed in the area of accountability, the report goes on. The proliferation of actors providing assistance in complex emergencies, and the fact that, given the magnitude and diversity of crises, even the most established organizations are greatly over-stretched, have made the task of monitoring, performance assessment and evaluation particularly

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difficult, but all the more essential. Dedicated resources are needed for "lessons learned" studies and evaluations. Humanitarian organizations must be equipped with the means to monitor the impact of their activities on communities to ensure that they do not erode self-reliance there.

The report concludes by paying tribute to the memory of the dedicated, competent and often young relief workers who give their best to victims of conflict and disaster. "Their courage in the face of danger and hardship must be acknowledged here. The memory of those who have fallen in the line of duty, a growing and unacceptable roll-call each year, must not be forgotten."

Another document before the Council is the Secretary-General's report on assistance for the reconstruction and development of Lebanon (document E/1996/65). It states that the underlying reasons preventing the realization of the country's potential have not disappeared. The full implementation of the Taif Agreement remains to be achieved and the country has yet to complete the difficult issue of Middle East peace negotiations. Structural problems continue to affect the performance and recovery of the economy.

While stating that the reconstruction and development of Lebanon would involve national capital resources and increasingly draw on international market finance, the report stresses that the contribution of the international community through development cooperation would remain essential for the next several years. The Secretary-General calls upon the international community to support a planned consultative group, to be led by the Lebanese Government, which would work to mobilize $5 billion over a five-year period to meet urgent reconstruction requirements, including damage caused by the April violence.

The report says that the United Nations continued to play a satisfactory role, but adds that if resource constraints are not overcome, certain cooperation programmes could not be continued or considered.

Also before the Council is the report of the UNHCR (document E/1996/52 and Corr.1). It states that in the absence of massive new refugee influxes on the scale experienced in recent years, the UNHCR's work was focused on previous large-scale emergencies. At the end of 1995, the population of concern to the Office worldwide stood at some 24 million, of which 14.2 million, or some 60 per cent, were refugees. Some 3.2 internally displaced persons as well as some 3.5 million others of humanitarian concern and 2.8 million returnees made up the balance. Overall, the number fell by some 3.5 million in the course of 1995, mostly in internally displaced and returnee categories.

A durable solution to the plight of the 2 million Bosnian refugees and displaced persons appeared within reach following the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in late 1995. The UNHCR had presented its operational plan

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for durable solutions to the problems of displacement in the former Yugoslavia in March. Durable solutions proved more elusive in the Great Lakes region of Africa -- host to some 2 million refugees since 1994. None the less, by the end of 1995, nearly a quarter of a million Rwandans had opted to repatriate.

In south-east Asia the winding up of the Comprehensive Plan of Action for Indo-Chinese Refugees marked the closing of a chapter on a situation that originated in the 1970s, the report continues. Attention has also been devoted to the problems of refugees, returnees, displaced persons and migrants in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and neighbouring States.

According to the report, the UNHCR has given particular attention to the coordination of its activities with other United Nations agencies, notably within the context of Council resolution 1995/56 on the strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations. Among the initiatives taken, the Department of Humanitarian Affairs has been invited to regularly address inter-sessional meetings of UNHCR's Executive Committee. In attempting to achieve a better interface between relief, rehabilitation and development, UNHCR has continued to reinforce its community-based approach to reintegration assistance and has endeavoured to bolster its partnerships with other United Nations agencies. Discussions were initiated with several financial institutions on reinforcing mutual interests in post-conflict reconstruction.

The Office has continued to give special emphasis to policy issues identified as priority areas by the Executive Committee and the Council, the report states. The special needs of refugee women and children, as well as environmental issues raised by the large-scale presence of refugees in countries of asylum, are now better integrated into UNHCR planning and reporting.

In 1995, UNHCR received a total of $1.3 billion in voluntary contributions towards its General and Special Programmes, the report continues. By the end of this March, a total of $229 million had been received for General and Special Programmes requirements amounting to an estimated $ 1.4 billion.

For its consideration of advancement of women, the Council has seven reports before it.

Among those documents is the report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (document A/51/38) on its fifteenth session, held in New York from 15 January to 2 February. The Committee heard initial and second periodic reports from Cyprus, Iceland and Paraguay, and initial, second and third periodic reports from Ethiopia. Belgium presented its second periodic report, while Cuba presented its second and third periodic reports. The Committee also considered the third periodic reports of Hungary and Ukraine and a report on an exceptional basis from Rwanda.

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Also before the Council is the report of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) on the proposed system-wide medium-term plan for the advancement of women, 1996-2001 (document E/1996/16). It states that once adopted, the medium-term plan would serve as a monitoring and coordination tool at all levels for system-wide progress in implementing actions under each critical area of concern in the Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995). Commenting on the institutional and financial arrangements for implementing the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, it states that the Secretary-General has designated a senior official in his office to serve as an adviser on gender issues.

The proposed system-wide medium-term plan was discussed by the ACC at the first part of its thirty-sixth session (New York, 3 to 28 June), and its report is also before the Council (document A/51/16 (Part I)). The Committee expressed its support for the system-wide mainstreaming of a gender perspective and stressed that responsibility for mainstreaming was incumbent upon all United Nations machinery.

Also before the Council is the report of the fortieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (New York, 11-22 March) (document E/1996/26). It contains two draft resolutions and two draft decisions for action.

Draft resolution I, on Palestinian women, would have the Council demand that Israel, the occupying Power, comply with the provisions and principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Hague Conventions and the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in order to protect the rights of Palestinian women and their families. It would also call on Israel to facilitate the return of all refugees and displaced Palestinian women and children to their homes and properties in the occupied Palestinian territory, in compliance with relevant United Nations resolutions.

The Council would urge Member States, international financial organizations of the United Nations system, non-governmental organizations and other institutions to intensify financial and technical assistance for projects which responded to the needs of Palestinian women, especially during the transition period. It would ask the Commission to monitor and act on the implementation of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, particularly paragraph 260 on Palestinian women and children and the Beijing Platform.

Draft resolution II, concerning the follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995), deals, in five parts, with: a framework for the Commission's functioning; terms of reference; documentation; the Commission's work programme; and the regional aspect.

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Under its terms, the Council would decide that the Commission should have a catalytic role in mainstreaming a gender perspective in policies and programmes. It would decide that in view of the traditional importance of non-governmental organizations in the advancement of women, such organizations should be encouraged to participate in the work of the Commission. The Secretary-General would be requested to make arrangements to ensure full utilization of existing channels of communication with non-governmental organizations.

Concerning terms of reference, the Council would decide, among others, that the Commission should identify new issues affecting the situation of women that require urgent consideration, and make recommendations on them. Regarding documentation, it would decide that requests for reports of the Secretary-General should be limited to the minimum strictly necessary. A proposed multi-year work programme is contained in the draft, which would enable the Commission to consider each of the critical areas of concern identified in the Platform for Action by the year 2000, beginning in 1997 with consideration of: education and training of women; women and the economy; women in power and decision-making; and women in the environment. The final section of the draft deals with the role of regional follow-up in monitoring the Platform's implementation.

Draft decision I would have the Council renew the mandate of the open- ended working group on the elaboration of a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It would authorize, within existing resources, the working group to meet in parallel with the Commission's forty-first session.

By draft decision II, the Council would take note of the Commission's report and approve the provisional agenda for its next session.

The report of the Board of Trustees of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women on its sixteenth session (document E/1996/56) is also before the Council. Among the Board's recommendations is that the collaboration among the Institute, the regional commissions and the Division for the Advancement of Women should be strengthened. It also unanimously and strongly recommended that the Acting Director of the Institute be appointed Director at D-2 level and the functions of the Deputy Director be reinstated at D-1 level. Also emphasized was the Institute's urgent need to make a strong fund-raising effort.

Another report before the Council concerns violence against women migrant workers (document E/1996/71). It states that concrete indicators are essential to determining the situation of women migrant workers and for understanding the phenomenon of violence against those women. The report recommends that data be collected on economic exploitation; social,

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psychological, physical and sexual violence and violence resulting from the operation of the legal system.

According to the report, indicators should be developed on the recruitment of women and their transfer abroad without appropriate valid documentation, recruitment of under-age girls, and recruitment by unlicensed and unaccredited agents; and on denial of access to representatives of migrants' country of origin. It states that receiving countries often have no clear governmental or international regulations or guidelines on the hiring of women migrant workers. Returning women migrant workers often have no access to services designed to assist with their reintegration.

Governments of both sending and receiving countries should inform women of the laws, culture and working conditions in receiving States and should be held accountable in accordance with the "due diligence principle", states the report. National labour standards should be applied to women migrant workers and governments should recognize the status of non-documented women migrant workers -- a group particularly vulnerable to violence. Governments must prosecute illicit traffic in human beings for purposes of commercial sex or forced labour, states the report.

The Secretary-General's report on ways and means to enhance the capacity of the United Nations system to support the ongoing follow-up to the Beijing Conference (document E/1996/82), also before the Council, reviews the efforts of various United Nations bodies in the area of the advancement of women. Among those are the establishment by the ACC of an inter-agency committee on women, with the responsibility of addressing on a comprehensive system-wide basis all aspects of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and gender-related recommendations emanating from other recent international conferences.

Also before the Council is the report of the special session of the Commission for Social Development (New York, 21-31 May) (document E/1996/29). It contains one draft resolution and two draft decisions for action by the Council.

The eight-part draft resolution concerns the follow-up to the World Summit for Social Development and the Commission's future role.

In the draft's first part, the Council would decide that the Commission should have the primary responsibility for the follow-up to and review of the implementation of the Social Summit outcome. The Council would also decide that non-governmental organizations should be encouraged to participate in the Commission's work and in the monitoring and implementation process related to the Summit to the maximum extent possible.

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Part two of the text, which deals with the Commission's terms of reference, would have the Council decide that the Commission should assist the Council in monitoring, reviewing and appraising the progress achieved and problems encountered in the implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action. It would also decide that the Commission should identify emerging issues affecting social development that require urgent consideration, and make recommendations regarding social development.

The third part of the draft, which deals with the Commission's work programme and the structure of its agenda, would have the Council decide that the substantive items of the Commission's agenda for future sessions would consist of consideration of subjects identified in its multi-year programme of work, which covers the Commission's work until the year 2000.

Part four of the draft, concerning membership, frequency and duration of the Commission's sessions, would have the Council decide that the Commission should be composed of 46 members elected from among the States Members of the United Nations or members of the specialized agencies according to the following pattern: 12 for African States; 10 for Asian States; nine for Latin American and Caribbean States; five for Eastern European States; and 10 for Western European and Other States. The Council would also decide that the Commission should meet annually, beginning in 1997, for a period of eight working days in New York.

Part five of the text, which deals with documentation, would have the Council decide, among other things, that requests for reports of the Secretary-General should be limited to the minimum strictly necessary, and the Secretariat should use information and data already provided by governments to the maximum extent possible.

Part six of the draft dealing with the Commission's methods of work would have the Council recognize that the practice of inviting experts was expected to deal effectively with the priority subjects addressed in the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action.

The seventh part of the draft, concerning the Commission's secretariat, would have the Council request the Secretary-General to ensure an effectively functioning secretariat within which clear responsibility would be assigned to assist in the implementation of the follow-up to the Summit.

Part eight of the draft, which deals with regional dimension, would have the Council invite regional commissions to consider convening, on a biennial basis, a meeting at a high political level to review progress made towards implementing the outcome of the Summit.

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Draft decision I would have the Council establish an ad hoc informal open-ended support group to assist the Commission in preparations for the International Year of Older Persons (1999).

Draft decision II would have the Council take note of the Commission's report on its special session and approve the provisional agenda and documentation for its thirty-fifth session.

Statements on Economic, Humanitarian Assistance

YASUSHI AKASHI, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, introduced the Secretary-General's report on strengthening coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations. He also reported on Council resolution 1995/43, on assistance to Madagascar, and Assembly resolution 50/58 G, regarding assistance to Somalia.

The world today was fraught with conflicts, he said. The overwhelming majority of victims were civilians, mostly women and children. Today there were 50 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in 50 crises around the world. Even where conflicts had ceased, an estimated 110 million land- mines had continued to maim and kill. Last year $6 billion had been spent by the international community to address those problems.

Natural disasters, too, continued to plague mankind, he said. The effects of those were particularly severe in developing countries. He stressed the importance of timely and coordinated humanitarian action, but said humanitarian action could not be a substitute for political action. Emphasizing that coordination at Headquarters level had improved in the past four years, he said more goodwill of partners was needed for effective field- level coordination. He also stressed that the Department of Humanitarian Affairs had developed significant capacities in humanitarian advocacy, resource mobilization, early warning, disaster preparation, mitigation and reduction and demining.

Last year, the Department had provided 55 Member States with assistance in combating natural disasters and had launched 28 appeals for disaster- affected countries, he said. However, 75 per cent of its core activities had been funded from extrabudgetary resources, while all of its field activities had been extrabudgetary. Commenting on the perception that far too many resources were being directed at emergency relief and not enough at development, he said the foremost responsibility of the international community was to save lives. If response to disasters was weak at the outset, in addition to human suffering, infrastructure could be destroyed. Moreover, contemporary crises owed their origin to lack of development.

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Addressing the situation in Somalia, he said the country remained fragile and a continuation of the humanitarian programme there was needed. On the reconstruction of Madagascar following the natural disasters of 1994, he said the Department had continued its efforts towards strengthening of national emergency capacity and reconstruction there.

AWNI S. AL-ANI, Chief, Country Programmes Division I, Regional Bureau for Arab States, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), introduced the report of the Secretary-General on assistance for the reconstruction and development of Lebanon.

Presenting an oral report on the provision of assistance for the repair of war damage in Yemen, he said that in the aftermath of the 1994 military conflict, the Department of Humanitarian Affairs had continued providing mine- clearance assistance to that country. The UNDP had rehabilitated water supply and sanitation systems in affected areas and had assisted with the establishment of a National Authority for Disaster Preparedness and Management. The World Food Programme (WFP) was assisting in the health sector and in support to 7,000 Somali refugees in the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) was providing technical and financial assistance to Yemen's Ministry of Public Health, he continued. Health promotion and disease prevention activities were covering health education, vaccination, maternal and child health and improvements in the environmental sector. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was working with the Government in the areas of health and nutrition, basic education, area development, information and emergency assistance. The UNICEF was also providing emergency assistance in the rehabilitation of health, education and water infrastructure.

He said the UNHCR was assisting some 53,000 Somali, Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees in Yemen, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was focusing on conservation and management of land and water and on agricultural production and marketing. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) was operationalizing the national population policy and was working with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sana'a to promote research and the delivery of family planning services to remote areas.

The impact of United Nations agencies' assistance to Yemen would be strengthened by the initiation by the Resident Coordinator of preparations for the undertaking of a common country assessment by United Nations agencies.

LEONARD0 FRANCO, Acting Director of the Office of the UNHCR, introduced the agency's report. He also presented an oral report of UNHCR's work with refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees in Africa.

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Since November last year, Africa had continued to host a larger number of persons of concern to the UNHCR than any other region, he said. While the situation had generated deep concern, UNHCR had been heartened by the repatriation of 1.7 million Mozambicans and by ongoing repatriations of Togolese, Malians and Angolans. But the situation in the Great Lakes region was disturbing.

Some 1.7 million Rwandan and another 200,000 Burundian refugees continued to populate the border camps, he said. In addition, there were an equal if not greater number of internally displaced people. He expressed concern at fatigue in asylum and donor countries. The UNHCR's activities in refugee camps in both those countries were under-funded. The renewed violence in Liberia had dashed the hopes for return of refugees to that country. In addition, violence threatened the 120,000 Sierra Leonean refugees there.

In December 1995, UNHCR had assisted in the voluntary repatriation of 20,000 Ethiopian refugees from Sudan, he said. It had also greatly strengthened its ties with the non-governmental community and continued to collaborate closely with the Department of Humanitarian Affairs. It had also been reinforcing its operational linkages with agencies and partners who had the competence and capacity to address the needs of countries into which the refugees were reintegrating.

SISSEL EKAAS, Deputy Director, UNDP Office to Combat Desertification and Drought (UNSO), reporting on assistance to drought-stricken areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda, said that her agency was providing assistance through national country offices as well as through special units. Assistance was being provided in the area of drought mitigation and desertification and was concentrated on national policy formulation and implementation, capacity-building and the strengthening of early-warning systems.

She said UNSO was preparing national action plans within the framework of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Also, it was supporting environment and information systems in Eritrea, and establishing national desertification funds to channel resources in Eritrea, Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya. The UNSO faced significant challenges in the area of resource mobilization. That funding was being primarily dedicated to emergency response and humanitarian assistance, with relatively little being dedicated to contingency planning and mitigation.

JOHN CAMPBELL (Ireland), speaking on behalf of the European Union and of Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Iceland and Liechtenstein, said much progress had been made in strengthening the coordination of emergency

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humanitarian assistance since the Department of Humanitarian Affairs had been established.

Through such mechanisms as the central emergency revolving fund, the consolidate inter-agency appeals process and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, the United Nations had been able to respond more quickly to humanitarian emergencies. He noted some problems with the timely replenishment of the revolving fund and urged agencies to redress the situation. The European Union remained concerned about the Department's precarious financial situation. Only 25 per cent of its resources came from the United Nations regular budget. He strongly supported the allocation of greater resources from the regular budget to the Department in the next biennium.

HICHAM HAMDAN (Lebanon) said that his Government had benefited from United Nations activities for development. Anyone could appreciate the devastating impact of war in Lebanon and the difficulty faced by the country in its redevelopment. The destruction had caused a considerable "brain drain" in the country; up to one third of the population had left. As side effects to the war, Lebanon had endured a rise in criminality and drug abuse, but the country was "coming out of the tunnel" and the situation in the country had been normalized. Much of the redevelopment had been funded by the Lebanese themselves, although international aid was being coordinated by a new international consultative committee on assistance to Lebanon.

Lebanon appreciated efforts to ensure transparency in the Department of Humanitarian Affairs and continuing dialogue among its partners, he continued. His Government had closely followed the appeals made by the Department regarding the emergency situation in Yemen. Those humanitarian activities deserved broad support. Regarding the UNHCR report, he said that his Government understood the complex and difficult situations faced by the agency around the world. Political bodies of the United Nations, particularly the Security Council, should redouble their efforts regarding the situation of refugees around the world. The ultimate solution for all refugees was to return to their homes.

MARINA B. LAKER (Canada) said that the experience in Rwanda had made clear the need for an integrated response to humanitarian emergencies. That situation had revealed that assistance must include political accord; simple humanitarian aid was not sufficient. Her Government was pleased that a coordinated approach was being pursued by the Department of Humanitarian Affairs. She saw merit in the idea that, in situations of displaced persons and complex emergencies, lead agencies should be designated. Canada had been disappointed that the report of the Secretary-General had not recognized concerns related to the capacity and willingness of the Department to set priorities in the absence of secure funding.

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The Department was already occasionally making use of the central emergency revolving fund, she went on. An amendment to the eligibility criteria in order to routinely include protracted emergencies would overwhelm its resources and its original purpose, that was to provide up-front funds to permit organizations to respond in the critical first days of an emergency. Donors quite rightly questioned the approval process for some of those advances. Canada did not believe that it was necessary to top up the revolving fund. With $43 million available, the fund was healthy.

ELDAR G. KOULIEV (Azerbaijan) said that the armed aggression by Armenia against his country and its occupation of 20 per cent of Azerbaijan's territory had generated some 1 million refugees, most of whom were living in tents. Tens of thousands of homes, cultural buildings and businesses had been destroyed. Azerbaijan greatly appreciated the efforts of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs to assist it. The President of Azerbaijan had recently established a State Committee for territories of the country occupied by the aggressors. Recovery assistance was needed in several areas so that displaced persons could return to their homes. Azerbaijan also faced natural disasters. The water level of the Caspian Sea had risen by two meters since 1977, flooding land along its banks. His Government had requested the international community not to reduce humanitarian assistance to it. In March, Azerbaijan had formally made that request to donors and to the Department of Humanitarian Affairs.

GRETHEL VARGAS (Nicaragua) said that her country had suffered an earthquake in 1972; an extended military conflict between 1977 and 1990; a hurricane disaster in 1988; another hurricane and floods in 1991; the eruption of a volcano and an offshore, level-7 earthquake in 1992; and floods throughout the country and an outbreak of haemorrhagic fever in 1995. Those natural and military disasters had been repeatedly met by United Nations and its specialized agencies. Coordinating United Nations humanitarian assistance around the world was a great challenge; she hoped that governments would find the political will to maintain necessary levels of contributions. There was a danger that humanitarian assistance would only focus on those countries in which political and military conflicts generated the most publicity.

MOVSES ABELIAN (Armenia) said that the humanitarian crisis in his country had been directly caused by aggression, a de facto blockade, conflict in Nagorny Karabakh, instability in the region and the continuing effects of the devastating 1988 earthquake. International agencies could help Armenia build a bridge between emergency assistance and long-term development.

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