Launch of the International

Year of Freshwater 2003

FRESHWATER ISSUES AT ‘HEART OF HUMANKIND’S HOPES FOR PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT’,

SAYS DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL AT EVENT TO LAUNCH INTERNATIONAL YEAR

CONVENTION ON TRANSBOUNDARY MOVEMENTS OF HAZARDOUS WASTES IS CRUCIAL

TO QUEST FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL

Following is Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s message to the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, delivered on his behalf by Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Geneva, 12 December 2002:

SECRETARY-GENERAL HAILS AMENDED PROTOCOL TO PROHIBITIONS ON USE OF MINES,

BOOBY-TRAPS IN MESSAGE TO HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES

Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s message delivered yesterday to the Fourth Annual Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the

Amended Protocol in Geneva:

HIGH-LEVEL COORDINATOR INVITED TO VISIT IRAQ

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

Security Council

4662^nd Meeting (AM)

SECURITY COUNCIL, IN PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT, WELCOMES AGREEMENT

BETWEEN CROATIA, YUGOSLAVIA CONCERNING PREVLAKA PENINSULA

Thanks UN Mission on Peninsula, Which Concludes 15 December,

For Helping Create Conditions Leading to Negotiated Settlement

                                                            SOC/NAR/849*

12 December 2002

Leading manufacturers and Basel Convention to cooperate on environmentally

sound management of end-of-life mobile phones

(Reissued as received.)

CAMPAIGN TO VACCINATE MILLIONS OF FARM ANIMALS BY YEAR’S END,

AS THREAT OF RABIES LOOMS IN AFGHANISTAN

WATER ISSUES AMONG HIGHEST PRIORITIES OF UNITED NATIONS,

SAYS DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL

Following are the remarks by Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchetteon the launch of the International Year of Freshwater (2003), New York, 12 December 2002:

SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES MEETING OF STATES PARTIES TO ENSURE CONVENTION

ON CERTAIN CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS REMAINS HEALTHY, EFFECTIVE

The following is the text of today’s message by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, in Geneva: