GOVERNING COUNCIL OF UNEP TO BEGIN TWO-WEEK NINETEENTH SESSION IN NAIROBI STARTING MONDAY, 27 JANUARY
Press Release
HE/944
GOVERNING COUNCIL OF UNEP TO BEGIN TWO-WEEK NINETEENTH SESSION IN NAIROBI STARTING MONDAY, 27 JANUARY
19970124 Background Release (Delayed in transmission.)NAIROBI, 15 January (UNEP) -- The nineteenth session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) -- perhaps the most important in the organization's 25 year history -- opens on Monday, 27 January, at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi. Ministers and high-level government representatives from over 100 countries are expected to attend the two-week meeting which culminates with a "high-level" segment, to be held from 5 to 7 February.
"When the Governing Council meets at its nineteenth session, governments will not only have the occasion to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of UNEP, they will also have the opportunity and responsibility to set UNEP on a clear path for the next millennium", said UNEP Executive Director Elizabeth Dowdeswell. "After all, the Governing Council is the only forum that environment ministers and leaders have to put in place the programme, funding and governance that will ensure that UNEP evolves into a global organization that acts clearly and unambiguously as the world's environmental agency."
For all matters related to the environment, 1997 is a milestone year. In June 1997, a special session of the General Assembly will be held for the sole purpose of reviewing and appraising the progress on implementation of Agenda 21, the programme of action adopted by the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit. The special session represents a pivotal point in the future of many organizations which are critical in the implementation of sustainable development, including UNEP.
With the June meeting in mind, the "high-level" segment of the Governing Council will be opened on 5 February by the President of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail (Malaysia). During the segment, the focus will be on two central policy issues. First, ministers will be asked to define the nature and substance of UNEP's participation at the June special session. That will require a thoughtful review and articulation of UNEP's role and mandate. Second, ministers will review the governing structures of UNEP and determine
what changes to those structures might be necessary as the organization moves towards the twenty-first century.
To assist ministers in their deliberations several documents have been developed, including the following: an appraisal of UNEP's efforts to implement Agenda 21; the first edition of the biennial world-wide environmental assessment report, Global Environment Outlook; and a paper on the future of UNEP, in which the option of radically redesigning, reorienting and refocusing UNEP is outlined.
"In one way or another, assessment of the environment, analysis, evaluation and the development of policy instruments, and building consensus among governments have always been regarded as UNEP's mandate", said Ms. Dowdeswell, "but they should be redefined, restructured, refocused, given new vitality and pursued with new vigour. Notwithstanding an impressive slate of achievements, it was clear that far-reaching reform was needed in UNEP, she added.
"In Rio, and Stockholm before it, UNEP was given an almost impossible task", she said. "My hope is that governments attending the Governing Council will embark on bold reform that will result in a strong and comprehensive environmental organization. The UNEP needs to be given the tools to become the strong and vibrant organization governments agree the world needs."
The first week of the Governing Council will be devoted to work in two integrated committees that will consider administrative and budgetary matters, and also new substantive programmatic issues, including the chemicals agenda, environmental law and the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities.
Another key issue will be adequate and predictable financing of UNEP. The Programme is witnessing shrinking financial resources at a time when its workload is increasing as a response to serious environmental problems worldwide and to countries' demands. A "pledging session" will be held on the evening of 5 February whereby governments will be invited to announce their pledges for 1997 and for the coming biennium, 1998-1999.
Also attending the meeting as observers will be representatives of UNEP National Committees, other United Nations organizations and accredited non-governmental organizations. As a complement to the formal agenda of the Governing Council, a special panel discussion on "Global Environmental Citizenship: UNEP's Special Contribution to Agenda 21" will be held on 4 February. Bella Abzug, Chair of the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), and Tom Spencer, President of GLOBE International, will participate and speak about the partnerships that UNEP has fostered in order
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to deliver on Agenda 21. Exhibitions profiling the work of UNEP will also be prominent at the session.
Background on UNEP
Located in Nairobi, UNEP is headed by an Executive Director, Elizabeth Dowdeswell. Its Governing Council, the members of which are elected by the General Assembly for a four-year term, assesses the state of the world environment, establishes UNEP's programme priorities and approves its budget. The Governing Council is composed of 58 members selected on the following basis: 16 seats for African States; 13 seats for Asian States; 6 seats for Eastern European States; 13 seats for Western Europe and Other States; and 10 seats for Latin American and the Caribbean States.
The UNEP is built on a heritage of service to the environment. As one of the productive consequences of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, 1972), UNEP provides an integrative and interactive mechanism through which a large number of separate efforts by intergovernmental, non-governmental, national and regional bodies in the service of the environment are reinforced and interrelated.
The UNEP was established as the environmental conscience of the United Nations system, and has been creating a foundation for comprehensive consideration and coordinated action within the United Nations on the problems of the human environment. From the very beginning, UNEP recognized that the environment could not be compartmentalized. The environment is a system of interacting relationships that extends through all sectors of activity, and to manage those relationships requires an integrated approach. Recognizing that environment and development must be mutually supportive, UNEP advocated a concept of environmentally sound development, which later led to the adoption of the "sustainable development" concept in the Brundtland Commission Report and the United Nations Environmental Perspective Document for the Year 2000 and Beyond. That concept was embodied in an action programme called Agenda 21, which was adopted by UNCED.
The UNEP's uniqueness lies in its advocacy of environmental concerns within the international system. In that, it makes a particular effort to nurture partnerships with other United Nations bodies possessing complementary skills and delivery capabilities as well as enhancing the participation of the private sector, the scientific community, non-governmental organizations, youth, women and sports organizations in the achievement of sustainable development.
One of the most important functions of UNEP is the promotion of environmental science and information. The United Nations system-wide research and synthesis of environmental information, promoted and coordinated
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by UNEP, has generated a variety of state-of-the-environment reports and created world-wide awareness on emerging environmental problems -- some of which triggered international negotiations of several international environmental conventions.
The UNEP's programmes are financed by the Environment Fund, which is made up of voluntary contributions, and by trust funds, counterpart contributions and the United Nations regular budget. Budgetary appropriations for the Environment Fund for financing UNEP's programme activities for the biennium 1996-1997 were approved by the eighteenth session of the Governing Council at $90-105 million.
For further information, contact Jim Sniffen, UNEP Regional Office, New York, tel. (212) 963-8094, fax (212) 963-7341, e-mail: sniffenj@un.org.
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