DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL AND THE SPOKESWOMAN FOR THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICES OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

AND THE SPOKESWOMAN FOR THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT

Following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Michéle Montas, Spokeswoman for the General Assembly President.

Good afternoon.

**Security Council

The period of inertia, excuses and conditionality in the Middle East peace process must end, the head of the UN’s Political Affairs department, Kieran Prendergast, told the members of the Security Council this morning.  He noted that while the last month had been one of relative quiet, it had been met not with positive steps but with inaction.

Everyone, he said in an open meeting, has waited for the other to act.  But progress cannot be contingent on the actions expected of others, he went on to say, adding that Israelis and Palestinians can and should do more to meet their Road Map obligations.

He also told Council members that the international community would be judged on the effectiveness of its efforts.  In acting through the Quartet, he said, it must be actively engaged in assisting the parties and monitoring progress.

Prendergast noted the recent reports on the possibility of the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers meeting, as well as the talk of a new ceasefire.  “These tender shoots need nourishing”, he said.  He told the Council that the two recent civil society peace initiatives were welcome.  Not only, he said, do they reveal a strong underlying desire on the part of both peoples for a peaceful settlement, they also revive the hope of each side that, in the other, there is a partner for peace.

The full text of Prendergast’s comments is available upstairs.  In it, he also updates Council members on the situation along the Blue Line [between Lebanon and Israel], which he says remains tense.

Council members are now in closed consultations on the Middle East.

[Later on during the briefing, the Spokesman announced that a vote on the resolution on the Road Map for the Middle East was under way and the Secretary-General was in the Chamber.]

**Oil-for-Food Programme

As you know, the UN’s administration of the “oil-for-food” programme comes to an end this Friday at midnight.

Operational responsibility for the seven-year-old programme, including all humanitarian projects funded by oil revenues, assets ranging from schools to power stations and all contracts with suppliers, will be transferred to the Coalition Provisional Authority.

At four this afternoon during closed consultations, the programme’s Executive Director, Benon Sevan, will update Security Council members on the winding down of the UN’s role in the programme.  The full text of Sevan’s briefing is available upstairs under embargo.

Also available, immediately after the noon briefing, are a number of fact sheets regarding the achievements of the programme and the current financial status of accounts, which includes information on the transfer yesterday of another billion dollars from the oil-for-food account to the development fund for Iraq.  To date, 3 billion dollars have been transferred.

We expect Benon Sevan to be available to you at the Security Council stakeout immediately following closed consultations this afternoon.

**Guinea-Bissau

The Security Council has extended the UN Peace-building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau until the end of 2004.

Out as documents today is an exchange of letters between the Secretary-General and Security Council President Ismael Abraão Gaspar Martins on this subject.

**Great Lakes

There is a new political momentum in Africa’s Great Lakes region as preparations proceed for an international conference on the area, the Secretary-General says in a new report released today.

But there also remain challenges and constraints on organizing a successful conference, he warns.  And you can read more about the report, which is out on the racks.

**Democratic Republic of Congo

The Special Representative of the Secretary General in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, William Swing, travelled to the Rwandan capital of Kigali today to discuss with Rwandan authorities conditions for the repatriation of Rwandan combatants currently in the Congo.  He will also discuss the role which the UN Mission in the country can play through its programme for the disarmament, demobilization, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration of foreign-armed groups.

A press release regarding this and other developments in the DRC is available upstairs.

**Individual UN Agencies Appeal for Humanitarian Aid

Following yesterday’s launching by the Secretary-General of a $3 billion Consolidated Appeal for 2004, individual UN agencies have started calling for contributions to humanitarian assistance activities.  This year, the Appeal looks at 21 specific crises that are regional and require a complex, coordinated response.

In a UNICEF media release, Executive Director Carol Bellamy reminds donors that “as important as the crises affecting Afghanistan and Iraq are, these are not the only places in the world where children’s lives are being devastated by emergency conditions”.

The World Health Organization is also calling on donors to urgently invest in health services for 45 million children, as well as women and men caught up in the world’s deadliest crises.

The press releases issued by UNICEF and WHO are available upstairs.

**Afghanistan

On Tuesday, the Afghan driver of a vehicle belonging to a partner agency of the UN Mine Action Centre was carjacked in the south-eastern Afghan town of Ghazni by four armed men, who beat him before letting him go.

The Mine Action Centre, upon learning about the incident yesterday, suspended all its operations in Ghazni Province until adequate security measures are put in place.

**Women -- Afghanistan

Further on Afghanistan, the UN Children’s Fund says that Afghan women and children have seen unparalleled progress in health, nutrition, water and education in the two years since the fall of the Taliban regime.

There has been a huge increase in the number of children enrolled in Afghan schools, with some 4 million children now enrolled in classes throughout the country -– more than ever seen in Afghanistan’s history.  A third of those children are girls, with the boy-girl ratio in schools returning to pre-Taliban levels.

A UNICEF press release is available with other highlights of the progress over the past two years.

**Côte d’Ivoire

The humanitarian needs of the population of Côte d'Ivoire outstrip the ability of aid organizations to respond.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also warns that the situation could worsen unless serious problems of protection are addressed.

In one example, the Office says hundreds of non-native migrant farmers have been driven from their lands in an apparent dispute over cocoa.  Humanitarian agencies have been prevented access to the area of concern.

And you have more on that in a press release upstairs.

**ICTY

General Wesley Clark has been ordered by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to testify on 15 and 16 December as a witness in the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

We have a press release from the Tribunal, explaining the conditions under which General Clark will provide his testimony, and that is upstairs.

**Sasakawa Prize

The Secretary-General will confer the UN Environment Programme’s annual prize to two environmentalists -– one from China and one from Brazil -– in a ceremony this evening at the New York Historical Society.

We have embargoed copies of the Secretary-General’s remarks at that award ceremony in my office.

**Symposium on “Population and HIV/AIDS”

There will be a symposium on Population and HIV/AIDS at the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium this afternoon between 4:00 and 6:00.

The symposium is organized by the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Land-Locked Countries and Small Island Developing States.

We have an information note on that.

**Guest at Noon Tomorrow

Our guest at noon tomorrow will be Catherine Bertini, the Under-Secretary-General for Management, who will be here to discuss the UN budget.

**Background Briefing Tomorrow

Following that tomorrow, there will be a background briefing.  The Secretary-General will be delivering the first annual Distinguished Lecture on International Flows of Humanity, and that will be at Columbia University this Friday.  We have invited a senior UN official to give you a background briefing on migration, which will be the subject of the Secretary-General’s lecture.  I said that will be following Catherine Bertini, but that will in fact be at 11:15 a.m., so it will be before the noon briefing tomorrow.

And as it is a background briefing, UNTV will not be airing it, and delegations are invited to watch this briefing in Studio 4, located in the first basement.

**World Chronicle Television Programme

And finally, World Chronicle programme 916 will feature Jacques Diouf.  He is Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization, and you can see that today on in-house channel 3 or 31 at 3:30 p.m.

That’s it for me.  No questions?  Then we’ll go right to Michéle.

Spokeswoman for General Assembly President

Thank you Fred, and good afternoon.

The President of the General Assembly is presently in Washington, where he is addressing a meeting of experts on democratic governance hosted by the Organization of American States.  President Hunte will be speaking to the OAS Permanent Council on issues on the global agenda that are of particular interest to both the UN and the OAS.

He will be back at the UN tonight to meet with Abdou Diouf, Secretary-General of the International Organization of La Francophonie.

The General Assembly is not scheduled to meet in plenary until 24 November.  The plenary scheduled for the 20th to take action on Sixth Committee reports, that is cloning –- it is part of it, has now been postponed to the 8^th of December.  There is no date set yet for the eventual report of the Credentials Committee.  I had a number of questions on that.

The General Committee, however, is meeting tomorrow for an informal briefing to hear Ms. Louise Fréchette, Deputy Secretary-General, on United Nations staff security.  It is an open meeting in the Trusteeship Council Chamber.  The General Assembly will then hold a closed meeting to pursue the open-ended informal consultations of the plenary on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly.  It will be chaired by the President of the General Assembly, Julian Hunte.  The second informal note and elements for consideration for a working text on revitalization of the General Assembly by the President of the General Assembly were faxed to all missions on Friday, 14 November 2003.  It is presently on the President’s Web site and you can look at it.

Only one committee, the Third, is taking action today on different resolutions on human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.  There are 13 resolutions to be introduced or voted on, also, one resolution on elimination of racism and racial discrimination.

This is all I have for you.  Thank you.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  Thank you.  Any questions for Michéle?  Stéphane is here.  Okay, this is a further update on the Council’s activities.  Apparently, they are also about to vote on a draft presidential statement on the Democratic Republic of the Congo after the vote on the Middle East.

Thank you very much.

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