DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL SG/A/680-BIO/3157.)
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL SG/A/680-BIO/3157.)
19980513
The Secretary-General was pleased with today's election by the World Health Assembly of Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland to the post of Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), said Mr. Eckhard. As he had said at the time of her nomination, the Secretary-General admired her as a person of vision, with a strong commitment to the international system. He thought she would bring to the WHO leadership, strength and inspiration, and he looked forward to working closely with her. Dr. Brundtland would assume her five-year term on 21 July. A WHO press release, her bio and the text of her acceptance speech were available in room 378. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) had also issued a press release welcoming her election, and that, too, was available upstairs.
On the Turner Fund, the Spokesman said that today in Washington, D.C. Ted Turner had announced the composition of the Board of Directors of his United Nations Foundation -- the organization established to execute his $1 billion pledge in support of United Nations economic, environmental, social and humanitarian causes. Mr. Turner would chair the Board of Directors. Its members were Ruth Cardoso, Graca Machel, Emma Rothschild, Maurice Strong, Timothy Wirth, Andrew Young and Mohammad Yunus. Their biographies were available upstairs.
The Economic and Social Council was convening a three-day special meeting on the integrated and coordinated follow-up to the major United Nations conferences and summits from today until Friday, 15 May, said Mr. Eckhard.
On behalf of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), Mr. Eckhard announced that it would organize a round-table discussion on the "Implementation of the Habitat Agenda at the Local Level" on Friday, 15 May, the last day of the special meeting of the Economic and Social Council. The focus of the round-table would be the significance of the Habitat Agenda and Agenda 21 in addressing local priorities.
Dominik Langenbacher, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Somalia, was in New York and would come to the noon briefing tomorrow, the Spokesman said. Mr. Langenbacher was at the forefront of relief efforts against the terrible floods last year in Somalia. He would bring correspondents up-to-date on the current situation as the rainy season approached, and on its impact on United Nations humanitarian work in that country.
To mark the International Day of Families, on Friday, 15 May, a panel discussion on "Families: Educators and Providers of Human Rights", would take place in Conference room 4 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., he said. The keynote speaker would be Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Enrique ter Horst. For more information, correspondents should contact Elisabeth Ruzicka- Dempsey, at extension 3-1742.
On behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), Mr. Eckhard said that there would be a press conference at 4 p.m. today in the UNCA Club, by Pius Lustrilanang, prominent Indonesian activist and former coordinator of the People's Democratic Alliance of Indonesia. Tomorrow, at 3 p.m., also in the UNCA Club, the President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Thomas Mensah, would discuss Tribunal cases and judgements.
A correspondent asked how the Secretary-General felt about the two new nuclear tests that the Government of India had carried out. Mr. Eckhard replied that he would stand by the statement that he had read. He was not authorized to go beyond that.
Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko, read a statement on the nuclear tests carried out by the Government of India. "The President of the General Assembly has learned with dismay and disappointment of a series of nuclear tests conducted by India on Monday and Wednesday. Over the past years, there have been encouraging signs in the field of nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament. With the virtual cessation of nuclear testing and the landmark conclusion of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), the international community has sent an unambiguous message as to the future course of nuclear non-proliferation.
"Recognizing that there is a genuine need to de-emphasize the role of nuclear weapons, the General Assembly at its current session reaffirmed its commitment to the cause of creating a nuclear-weapon-free world and welcomed a number of recent steps -- unilateral, bilateral and multilateral -- taken by States towards promoting the regime of nuclear non-proliferation. Regrettably, the latest series of nuclear tests runs contrary to that positive trend. In that context, the President of the General Assembly would like to emphasize the need to maintain the momentum in international efforts to promote nuclear disarmament." The statement was attributable to the spokesman of the President of the General Assembly.
Concerning an announcement in the Journal today regarding an upcoming plenary meeting of the General Assembly on Friday, Mr. Taukatch said it was largely a "housekeeping" matter. The meeting was needed to appoint persons to fill unexpired portions of terms in office of a member of the Advisory
Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), and a member of the Committee on Coordination, who had resigned.
He said he had also been asked about the opening date of the next session of the General Assembly. He explained that, according to resolution 51/241 on the strengthening of the United Nations system, the fifty-third session should begin on 8 September. However, according to a recent report by the Secretary-General on a number of matters related to the organization of the work of the General Assembly, there had been a proposal to begin the session on 9 September. The General Assembly would take up that question early in June.
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