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.

**Secretary-General in Los Angeles

The Secretary-General has just concluded his trip to California and we expect him back in New York tonight, and back at the office tomorrow morning.  Yesterday afternoon, the Secretary-General and his wife Nane spent some two hours at an HIV/AIDS clinic jointly run by the University of Southern California and Los Angeles County.  The focus of the clinic’s work is on the care of mothers and children.  They strive to help women who are living with HIV/AIDS to take care of themselves so that they can, in turn, take care of their children.  The Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan had a chance to meet with some youth activists who receive treatment at the clinic.  They told the Secretary-General of their concerns and their hopes for the future.

In speaking to reporters afterwards, the Secretary-General said he hoped the clinic’s comprehensive approach to AIDS treatment could be replicated around the world.  He added that he was particularly impressed with the young people he had met.  “These are the heroes”, he said, “given the stigma, the discrimination, the difficulty it is to come out.”

In answering a question, he underscored the need to assist women who often face the brunt of this pandemic.  Women, he said, have to be given the means to protect themselves.

Later that evening, the Secretary-General attended the UNICEF gala honouring the agency’s goodwill ambassadors.  The star-studded evening was emceed by Whoopi Goldberg.

Immediately following the UNICEF event, the Secretary-General met with US Senator Hillary Clinton, who also happened to be in Los Angeles.  The Senator briefed the Secretary-General on her recent trip to Afghanistan and Iraq.

**Secretary-General to Visit Switzerland, Germany

The Secretary-General will be on the road again starting Sunday evening.  He is scheduled to first visit Geneva, then go on to Berlin and Tübingen in Germany.  While in Geneva, he is scheduled to address the World Summit on the Information Society on Wednesday.

Also on his agenda is the opening ceremony of the World Electronic Media Forum, at which he will deliver remarks, and the launch of the independent Global Commission of International Migration.  Both those events will take place on Tuesday.

Then, on Thursday, the Secretary-General will travel to Berlin for an official visit to Germany, during which he will meet with President Johannes Rau, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Minister of Foreign Affairs Joschka Fischer, as well as the leader of the opposition Christian Democratic Party, Angela Merkel.  He is also expected to attend a dinner hosted by the Chancellor and the heads of the Global Compact companies there.

Then on Friday, the 12^th, the Secretary-General is to travel to Tübingen, where he will deliver a lecture on ethics entitled, “Do we still have universal values?”  And that will be at the University of Tübingen.  And then he is scheduled to return to New York on Saturday, the 13^th.

**High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change

The High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, chaired by Mr. Anand Panyarachun of Thailand, will meet for the first time from 5 to 7 December 2003.  The Panel will meet with the Secretary-General and then will proceed to a venue outside the city for two days of intensive briefings and meetings.

The Panel is being asked to examine the landscape of peace and security, broadly defined; identify the contribution of collective action in addressing the major challenges and threats, both hard and soft; and recommend the changes necessary to ensure effective collection action, especially by the UN.

**Security Council

The Security Council is reviewing the sanctions on Liberia in consultations today.  The Council heard a briefing by the Chairman of the Liberia sanctions committee, Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan.  A press statement is expected to be read out on this issue by the Council President, Ambassador Stefan Tafrov of Bulgaria.

Council members are then expected to hear a briefing from Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno on recent developments in Côte d’Ivoire.  They will then hold a formal meeting to adopt a presidential statement on that subject.

This afternoon at 3:30, the Council will hold a formal meeting on Burundi, during which it will hear from South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

The President of the Economic and Social Council and the Permanent Representative of Burundi have also been invited to that meeting.  The ceasefire agreement on Burundi is available as a Security Council document today.

**Cameroon-Nigeria

The Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, which the Secretary-General set up to bring about the peaceful implementation of the International Court of Justice’s ruling on the border dispute between those two countries, has ended a two-day meeting in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

In a nine-point communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, chaired by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, the Commission said it had agreed that the withdrawal, and the handover in the Lake Chad Area will take place from 8 to 18 December 2003.  It also agreed that the Mixed Commission’s observer personnel be set up immediately in the Lake Chad Area for a period of one year since this will strengthen confidence among the parties.

The Mixed Commission further recommended that the Cameroon–Nigeria Joint Commission meet every year instead of every two years.  The next meeting of the Commission will be held in Abuja from 10 to 11 February 2004.

**Sierra Leone Court

Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, today issued a “Red Notice” to seek the arrest of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, so that he can be transferred to the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Interpol issued its notice following an agreement between it and the Special Court on 3 November, under which the Court may request Interpol to publish and circulate such notices for persons wanted by the Court.  The Special Court’s Prosecutor’s Office said that the Red Notice will serve as a reminder that Charles Taylor remains a fugitive from justice, and that his indictment will not go away.

**Great Lakes:  Group of Friends Meet in Geneva

The Group of Friends of the Great Lakes region is holding its first meeting today in Geneva.  The meeting is co-chaired by Canada and the Netherlands and has brought together 38 senior delegates representing governments and international organizations.  The Group will examine the ways to provide political, diplomatic, technical and financial assistance leading to the holding of an international conference on the Great Lakes region, as proposed jointly by the UN and the African Union.  More information is available upstairs.

**Afghanistan

The UN Mission in Afghanistan reports that voter registration for next year’s general election started this week in seven of eight regional capitals:  Kabul, Bamyan, Jalalabad, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kunduz, Kandahar and Herat.  Voter registration in the eighth regional capital, Gardez, will begin tomorrow.  Initial results indicate that a little over 10,000 people registered to vote this week, about a third of them in Bamyan.

Next week, the Constitutional Loya Jirga will begin, under which Afghans from all around the country will convene in Kabul to discuss the shape of a new constitution.  We have press briefing notes from Kabul on the arrangements for the Loya Jirga, which is scheduled to open on 10 December.

**Food and Agriculture Organization

It could take up to 10 years for Afghanistan's animal herds to regenerate naturally, according to the preliminary results of a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) livestock census -- the first study of its kind ever carried out in that country.

The study's results show that animal herd numbers have plummeted after four years of drought and years of civil strife.  The study's final results are expected early next year, and the data will provide a foundation on which to base future decisions regarding matters such as farming systems and livestock development policies.

**Micronesia

The UN has deployed a three-member disaster assessment coordination team to Micronesia, to assess needs in the wake of the powerful tropical storm that passed through there last month.  The team, who came upon a request from the Micronesian Government, is in the capital of Yap State and is in close contact with government officials.

Thanks to early warning and preparedness measures by the Government, no injuries or casualties were reported as a direct result of the typhoon.  However, strong winds and a tidal surge affected the communities in low-lying areas on some of the islands.  We have a press release from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

**Biological Diversity

In an effort to protect biodiversity, some 300 delegates representing governments and indigenous communities will meet in Montreal next Monday.  The week-long meeting, which is organized under the aegis of the Convention on Biological Diversity, will focus on how to preserve the traditional knowledge used by indigenous communities to protect biological resources and biodiversity.  We have more in a press release.

**Year of Family

And finally today, in the United Nations, we are celebrating the launching of the tenth anniversary observation of the International Year of the Family, with the Secretary-General saying that it is time to take stock of policies since 1994 and determine whether the situation of families has improved.

He says the anniversary gives us a chance to consider what can be done on issues of direct concern to families, such as the spread of AIDS, migration and the ageing of societies.

We have a number of activities at Headquarters today to mark this occasion, including a high-level seminar, sponsored by the Path to Peace Foundation and the World Family Policy Center.  And that will be in Conference Room 1 at 3 p.m.  Also, at 2:30 p.m., José Antonio Ocampo, the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, will open an exhibit on the family, in the basement near the Vienna Café.

That’s all I have for you. Mohammed?

Questions and Answers

Question:  Can you give us more details about the topics of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s meeting with German officials?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  I can’t give you that now.  We usually don’t give you a sense of the agenda of his meetings before they take place.  We do try to give you a light read out of the meetings afterwards.  So, I can’t help you on that one.  Yes, Jim?

Question:  Two Iraq-related questions:  One, in the current report on UMMOVIC, I was looking and there is nothing in here about financing, the funding of UNMOVIC.  Since it was funded through oil-for-food and oil-for-food is finished, where is UNMOVIC going to be getting its money from now on?

Spokesman:  UNMOVIC had accumulated an amount of money -- I can’t tell you how much -- that is financing their current activities.  And I believe the decision was made to allow them to keep that money and to continue to operate on those funds.  But I would ask you to check with the UNMOVIC spokesman for more specific details.

Question:  When you say the decision was made, was made by whom?

Spokesman:  Check with the UNMOVIC spokesman, if you will.  We don’t really speak for them.

Question:  Second question, two NGOs are saying that sometime next week the Coalition Provisional Authority is going to announce the formation of an Iraqi special tribunal, in other words a war crimes tribunal for people associated with Saddam?  What do you know about this?  Are you involved in the planning for such a tribunal?

Spokesman:  I have no information on that subject.  I don’t know whether the Coalition has informed the United Nations of their intention to set up such a tribunal.  I would have to check whether we have had any inputs in the event they did.  I kind of doubt it because we’ve been focusing almost exclusively on humanitarian activities in Iraq.  But I’ll check for you and let you know.

Question:  Any comment on what the validity of such a tribunal would be in view of the circumstances?

Spokesman:  I would not want to comment until I know exactly what it is they intend to do and see whether we have any desire to comment on it or even to evaluate it from a legal point of view.

Spokeswoman for General Assembly President

Thank you, Fred. Good afternoon.

We have no plenary today.  The General Assembly will hold its next plenary tomorrow, Friday.  On its agenda is the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security and emergency international assistance for war-stricken Afghanistan.

In a resolution adopted yesterday on preparations for and observance of the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family in 2004, the General Assembly requests the Secretary-General to strengthen the programme of work of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs to enhance the unique role of the family in society.  The Assembly also welcomes the launching by the Secretary-General of the celebration of the tenth anniversary on 4 December, today.  This launching is taking place this afternoon.  Fred already mentioned it.

President Julian Hunte, who is presently in Geneva, will be represented by Luis de Matos Monteiro da Fonseca, Vice-President of the General Assembly.

The General Assembly in perspective:

As you know, Monday, the tenth emergency session on Palestine will resume to examine the Secretary-General’s report on the construction of the wall.  This session will be chaired by President Hunte.  The reports of the First Committee on disarmament and the Sixth Committee on legal issues are to be taken up after the emergency session.  As you know, the cloning issue is part of the Sixth Committee report.  How will they proceed with this?  We do not have, at this point, any official notification on whether or not the no-action motion taken in the Sixth Committee on that issue will be questioned.

Next Tuesday, the Assembly will take action on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples and the Reports of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (the Fourth Committee).  Next Wednesday, the 10^th, the General Assembly will mark Human Rights Day with awards given to the recipients of human rights prizes in 2003.  We’ll have time to come back to that event in the next few days.

Two Committees are still working.  The Second Committee on economic matters is to hold its final meeting this Friday, the 5^th.  The Fifth Committee on budget matters is to end its official programme of work next Friday, December 12^th.  The Fifth will still have to examine the resolutions from the other Committees that have financial implications, like that on the illicit trade on small arms -- I got some questions on that - that will not be voted on Monday, along with the other First Committee matters because of financial implications.

This is all I have for you on the workings of the Assembly in the next few days.  Thank you.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  Questions? Yes, Jim?

Questions and Answers

Question:  On Monday afternoon, you say the First Committee and the Sixth Committee.  But traditionally, the First Committee takes up an entire session.  Do you anticipate being able to squeeze all the votes from both Committees into one session or is this going to have to be pushed over into Tuesday?

Spokeswoman for General Assembly President:  We anticipate that they will get to the Sixth Committee that afternoon, the reason being that this year except for the small arms issue there are really no controversial resolutions.  So, I think we still might take up the Sixth Committee on Monday as scheduled.

Question:  Will there be a new resolution discussed on the wall at the General Assembly on Monday or is it just a discussion about the Secretary-General’s report?

Spokeswoman:  There will definitely be a resolution.

Question: Is this the resolution where (inaudible) wants the International Court of Justice to take a position?  That’s the one on Monday?

Spokeswoman:  Yes, members of the Arab League have indicated that they will want the resolution that was not adopted at the last emergency meeting, when they adopted a compromise resolution from the European Union, that that issue will come back, the issue of referring the whole matter to the International Court.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  Thank you very much.

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