DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19991027The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General and Shirley Brownell, Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly.
Briefing by Spokesman for Secretary-General
Good afternoon. First, I would like to introduce our guest today who is the President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Judge Stephen M. Schwebel. Judge Schwebel, welcome to the briefing.
Yesterday, Judge Schwebel told the General Assembly that the failure by United Nations Member States to pay their dues "not only has the gravest effects on the life of the Organization" but "transgresses the principles of free consent and good faith ... which are at the heart of international law and relations". I'm sure that will be one of the issues that he will be addressing and that you will want to ask him about.
**Security Council Briefed on Somalia, Humanitarian Mission in East Africa
The Security Council is holding consultations today. Council members were briefed by Ibrahima Fall, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, on the situation in Somalia. Following that, Sergio Vieira de Mello, Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, briefed the Council on his recently concluded mission to East Africa, focusing on the humanitarian situation in Somalia.
**UN Launches Inter-Agency Appeal for Humanitarian Assistance to East Timor
The United Nations today launched the consolidated inter-agency appeal for the East Timor crisis, requesting $199 million to meet the urgent humanitarian needs through June 2000.
The aim of the 62 projects in the Appeal is to ensure that East Timorese have a chance to rebuild their lives by providing a safety-net of essential services including food assistance, health care and shelter. Concurrent with this aim is the goal of laying the groundwork for future development by restarting the economy through community-led initiatives, including micro-credit and repairing essential infrastructure. Humanitarian agencies will also help to restart education, address the victims of trauma and help to instil respect for humanitarian principles.
The programmes are to be carried out by: the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and non- governmental organizations (NGOs).
The appeal is out as a press release on the racks, and we have another from UNICEF which said that the appeal is especially critical due to the early onset of the monsoon season. UNICEF said that health for hundreds of thousands of people is being worsened by the rains. **East Timorese Repatriation Continues; Refugees Return from Mountains
A joint United Nations and NGO team in the East Timor enclave of Oecusse -- or Ambeno, as we've been calling it -- reported today that in the last two days some 4,000 persons have come down from the mountains into Oecusse city. The general health situation is reported to be good, with no apparent signs of malnutrition.
As of today, 22,708 East Timorese have returned to the territory. Of these, 17,035 returns were assisted by the IOM, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and UNHCR. The other 5,673 returns were spontaneous.
**Martin Chairs Inter-Agency Meetings to Assess Immediate Rehabilitation Needs in East Timor
Ian Martin, the Acting Special Representative of the Secretary General, is in Darwin today and tomorrow to chair the meetings of the inter-agency mission which will assess the immediate rehabilitation needs in East Timor and outline reconstruction and development programmes. The mission is led by the World Bank and includes representatives from several United Nations agencies, the International Monetary Fund and donor countries. Some 25 East Timorese are also members of the mission. Following the preparatory meetings in Darwin, the mission will be in East Timor for two weeks starting this Friday.
**FALINTIL Releases Indonesian Army Officer
The United Nations Mission in East Timor announced today in Dili that Captain Artawan from the Indonesian Army who had been captured by FALINTIL -- which is the Armed Forces for the Liberation of East Timor -- in early September was released yesterday. He was released to the United Nations Chief Military Observer, who in turn handed him over to Indonesian military authorities.
**Secretary-General Presents Proposed Budget to Fifth Committee Today
The Secretary-General will present his proposed programme budget to the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly this afternoon.
We have copies of the speech under embargo in our office.
**Secretary-General Addresses OIOS Today
Right about now, the Secretary-General is addressing a meeting of the representatives of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, the Joint Inspection Unit and the Board of Auditors. These are the bodies charged with monitoring the United Nations in the fiscal area.
We hope to make his remarks available as soon as we get them.
**Secretary-General Reports Border Situation 'Tenuous' in Guinea-Bissau
Out on the racks today is a letter from the Secretary-General to the President of the Security Council concerning Guinea-Bissau (S/1999/1091).
The Secretary-General reports on the results of a recent mission to the country which determined that the situation along its borders with Guinea and Senegal is tenuous. The mission recommended the deployment of approximately 200 military observers to these border areas.
The Secretary-General says he's keeping this option under review, and in the meantime, he outlines a number of steps geared towards sending a signal that the international community will be closely watching Guinea-Bissau's electoral process, set to culminate with legislative and presidential elections on 28 November.
The measures include having his Special Representative visit Senegal and Guinea to encourage them to set up joint monitoring mechanisms with Guinea-Bissau along their common borders. The Secretary-General will also request the United Nations Peace-Building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau to facilitate visits by diplomats and United Nations officials throughout the country in advance of the elections.
After reviewing these interim measures, the Secretary-General will revert to the Council on the proposed military observers, should that be necessary.
**UNMIK Announces Temporary Vehicle Registrations
We have available today's briefing notes from the United Nations Mission in Kosovo.
The Mission announced that it will start the temporary registration of vehicles in Kosovo on Saturday -- not the stolen ones, presumably -- and that UNMIK police today took over responsibility for law and order in the Prizren region.
**UNICEF Makes International Appeal on Behalf of Ecuador
We have here a press release from UNICEF on Ecuador: UNICEF today urgently appealed to the international community to help Ecuador in its efforts to reduce its enormous debt burden, including the country's recently announced initiative to embark on global renegotiations of its external debts.
**ACC Begins Annual Meetings Friday
The Administrative Committee on Coordination will begin a two-day meeting here at Headquarters on Friday. As you know, the ACC brings together the heads of all components of the United Nations system in two annual meetings. The Secretary-General chairs those meetings as first-among-equals.
Among the topics of discussion during the upcoming session, participants will discuss how the United Nations can best respond to the challenges of the next century.
If you want to interview any of the heads of the United Nations funds, programmes and agencies who will be in town for the meetings, please contact my office.
**UN Agencies Join Forces to Fight Maternal Mortality
Four United Nations agencies committed to promoting women's health have joined forces to fight maternal mortality.
Tomorrow at 11 a.m. here in room 226, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director- General of the World Health Organization; Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); and Eduardo Doryan, Vice-President of the World Bank, will launch a joint statement on priority actions aimed at reducing the number of women who will die from pregnancy and childbirth.
We have copies of an embargoed press release.
**Security Council Takes Note of Intention to Appoint Vieira de Mello
Available as a Security Council document today is a letter from the Security Council President to the Secretary-General in which the former takes note of the latter's intention to appoint Sergio Vieira de Mello as Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor.
And Sergio will be here to brief you at 1:30 p.m. in this room. And before he gives his briefing, Jacques Klein, the Special Representative of the Secretary- General and Coordinator of United Nations Activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, will be here at 1 p.m. Ok? Jacques Klein at 1 p.m. and Sergio at 1:30 p.m.
Are there any questions before we go to Shirley on the General Assembly?
Briefing by Spokeswoman for General Assembly President
The General Assembly this morning commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of the operations of UNFPA.
Opening the meeting, Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab said the focus of population challenges had shifted from controversy to consensus in the span of UNFPAs 30 years. The Funds practical contribution was visible in many parts of the world. It was helping to build integrated reproductive health programmes, enlarge partnerships and promote full recognition of womens rights and contribution to development. Working closely with governments, parliaments and non-governmental organizations, UNFPA had developed a workable relationship of trust and mutual cooperation, and population management had become widely accepted as an element in development planning. He called on the international community to demonstrate leadership in tackling the social issues on UNFPAs agenda. Copies of that statement are available in room 378.
Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of UNFPA, delivered a statement on behalf of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in which he said that 30 years of success of the Funds operations had been built on three pillars: good information, good programmes and good understanding. The Secretary-General cited the breakthrough at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, on the global need for slower population growth, on the national right to sovereign decision-making and on the individual right to reproductive health. He said that States, at the special session in June, demonstrated their commitment to implementing the Cairo Programme of Action, and called on them to build on this political will. Copies of the statement are available in the Spokesmans office.
Speaking on behalf of the regional groups were: Burkina Faso, for the African States; Uzbekistan, for the Asian States; Bulgaria, for the Eastern European States; Peru, for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and Italy, for the Western European and Other States. The United States spoke in its capacity as host country.
The Assembly then adopted a resolution (A/54/L.18), introduced by Guyana on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China. In it, the Assembly noted with appreciation the positive contributions the Fund and its dedicated staff had made during its 30 years in promoting better understanding and awareness of population and development issues, in improving the quality of human life and in extending systematic and sustained assistance to developing countries, and countries with economies in transition, in undertaking appropriate national programmes to address their population and development needs.
This afternoon, the Assembly is expected to adopt a resolution on cooperation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (A/54/L.9), to be introduced by India. By that text, the Assembly would welcome the support provided to the United Nations by national parliaments through their world organization, and would express the wish that the cooperation between the two organizations would be further strengthened and enhanced in the third millennium. Twenty-two speakers are inscribed.
This morning, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) is continuing its thematic discussion on specific disarmament topic and the introduction of draft resolutions. Yesterday, seven more texts were introduced, including one on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (A/C.1/54/L.23). The Committee will begin taking action on some 55 texts next week.
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial), this afternoon, will hear the introduction of two draft resolutions, on developing human resources for development (A/C.2/54/L.10) and on renewal of the dialogue on strengthening international economic cooperation for development through partnership (A/C.2/54/L.9). The Committee will then conclude its discussion of globalization and interdependence.
To initiate its discussion of agenda item 112, on promoting and protecting the rights of children, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) is holding a dialogue this morning with Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict; Ofelia Calcetos-Santos, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Organization; Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF); and representatives of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
This afternoon, the Committee will hear the introduction of five draft resolutions before continuing the general discussion on the rights of children. One text (A/C.3/54/L.20), with 93 sponsors, on international cooperation against the world drug problem, contains an Action Plan for the Implementation of the Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Drug Demand Reduction. By another text, on improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat (A/C.3/54/L.19), the Assembly would regret that the goal of 50/50 gender distribution in the Secretariat would not be met by the year 2000, and would urge the Secretary- General to intensify his efforts to realize significant progress towards this goal by the end of 2000. The other drafts pertain to the African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders (A/C.3/54/L.22); violence against migrant women workers (A/C.3/54/L.18); and universal realization of the right of peoples to self-determination (A/C.3/54/L.25).
Tomorrow, at 6:15 p.m. in Conference Room 1, youth delegates in the Third Committee will hold a discussion on The United Nations future in the eyes of youth. This discussion, by and for young people involved with the United Nations, is being organized by the delegations of Australia, Denmark, Netherlands and Norway.
The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) meets this afternoon to continue its discussion on international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space. At two meetings today, the Sixth Committee (Legal) is continuing its review of the report of the International Law Commission on the work of its fifty-first session (A/54/10).
This afternoon, as Fred just told you, the Secretary-General will address the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) as it begins consideration of his proposed programme budget for 2000-2001 (A/54/6). The Secretary-General is proposing a budget totalling $2,535 million before recosting. The Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) states, in the related report (A/54/7), that it has no basis to change the overall level of resources proposed by the Secretary-General.
Copies of the Assembly Presidents appointments for today are available in room 378 and on the Internet. He met, this morning, with the Director-General of the ILO, Mr. Somavia. He will host the second working luncheon for the Chairmen of the Main Committees, as well as a dinner in honour of Dr. Mose Tjitendero, Speaker of the Namibian Parliament.
[At this point the Spokesman introduced Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, President of the International Court of Justice, who briefed correspondents on the Court's history, current agenda and decision-making process, among other subjects. Judge Schwebel's briefing will be issued seperately.]
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