GO
BETWEEN - NO 103 -
April-May-June
2004
| The Government of Mauritius has requested postponement of the International Meeting for the Ten-year Review of the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), originally scheduled to be held from 30 August to 3 September. On 10 June, the General Assembly gave its approval for the new date, 10-14 January 2005, preceded by informal consultations from 8-9 January 2005. | |||
| The United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has completed
its initial assessment of the numbers of homes demolished or damaged
beyond repair during the latest Israeli military operations in the
Rafah refugee camp. From 18-23 May 2004, a total of 45 buildings in
the Tel Sultan, Brazil and Salam quarters of Rafah were destroyed
or rendered uninhabitable. These buildings housed 98 families or 575
individuals.
Since the start of the intifada, 1,354 buildings have been demolished in Rafah, affecting 13,175 people |
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On 21 June, the Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations/Civil Society Relations launched its report entitled We the Peoples: Civil Society, the United Nations and Global Governance. Launched simultaneously in New York and Geneva via video link, the report provides 30 recommendations for strengthening UN-civil society engagement. Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette opened the briefing, noting that while civic groups and NGOs had generally been associated with the Organization’s work, as that segment of the world community had grown and had become more vocal, the need to enhance and intensify the relationship had become more vital than ever. Former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso served as Chairman of the Panel. Speaking of the growing influence civic networks and non-State actors now have on the international decision-making process, he said, “Global governance is no longer the sole domain of governments.” He noted civil society’s unique ability to spot emerging issues and threats and to hit upon innovative solutions. “So today, constructive engagement with civil society is not an option for the United Nations, but a necessity.” He also pointed out that that enhanced engagement and interaction with civil society should not be seen as a “threat to governments of the United Nations system but as a powerful way to invigorate the multilateral process.” He stressed that governments and the UN must reach out and make full use of the expertise that NGOs, the private sector, parliamentarians and local authorities could offer. For more information on the Panel’s report, see NGLS Roundup 113. |
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| SC Adopts Resolution on Iraq | |||
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On 8 June, the Security Council unanimously adopted a comprehensive resolution on Iraq (resolution 1546), which endorses the formation of the interim government and the holding of democratic elections by January 2005, welcomes the end of occupation by 30 June, and determines the status of the multinational force and its relationship with the Iraqi Government, as well as the role of the United Nations in the political transition. Among the several provisions concerning the multinational force, the Council decided that the force should have the authority to “take all necessary measures” to contribute to the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq in accordance with the letters annexed to the resolution. Those letters, dated 5 June, are from the Prime Minister of the Interim Government Ayad Allawi and US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to the Council President. The Council welcomed the letters stating that arrangements were being put in place to establish a “security partnership” between the sovereign Iraqi Government and the multinational force and to ensure coordination between the two. It also noted that the Government had authority to commit Iraqi security forces to the multinational force to engage in operations with it, and that the security structures described in the letters would serve as the forums for the Government and the multinational force to reach agreement on the full range of security and policy issues. The Council decided that the mandate for the multinational force should be reviewed at the request of the Iraqi Government or 12 months from the date of the 8 June resolution, and that the mandate should expire upon completion of the political process. It would terminate the mandate earlier if requested by the Government of Iraq. The Council also decided that the Special Representative of the
Secretary-General and the United Nations Assistance Mission for
Iraq (UNAMI), as requested by the Iraqi Government, should play
a leading role in the electoral process, the development of effective
civil and social services, and coordination and delivery of reconstruction,
development, and humanitarian assistance. Jean-Marc de la Sablière (France) said his country had approached the discussion on the resolution with three goals for the Iraqi people and the UN: first, to ensure that the Iraqi interim government would have all the attributes of sovereignty and complete authority to govern the country after 30 June, in spite of the need to maintain a very large foreign military presence; second, to give the Iraqi people credible assurances that the political process was continuing and that the presence of foreign troops was temporary and limited in time to clarify the political horizon of the Iraqi people and assure them that the coming transition period would end as soon as possible; and third, to entrust a mandate to the United Nations which guaranteed the credibility of the Organization and which was realistic in light of what it could do in the present circumstances in Iraq. Mr. de la Sablière, who pointed out that the unity of the international community was more necessary than ever, said the final text met his demands on many points, including that the Iraqi armed forces and security forces would not be part of the multinational force and that it would be up to the Iraqi Government solely to decide whether to commit them to multinational force operations. Gunter Pleuger (Germany) said his country supported the resolution as an important step towards the restoration of full sovereignty of the Iraqi interim government in all relevant areas and towards Iraqi ownership. Alexander Konuzin (Russian Federation) welcomed the inclusion of the provisions on incorporating opposition elements in the political process and on the need for all parties to comply with all international humanitarian norms. It was important to have a timeline for the political process and national elections in January 2005, leading to the formation of a transitional government. Russia, before adopting the resolution, had suggested an international conference with the parties of all influential Iraqi forces, as well as Iraq’s neighbours and members of the Security Council. He called on the Iraqi leadership to consider convening that type of meeting. He also mentioned that as the issue of weapons of mass destruction was the cause of the war in Iraq, it could not be left unattended. He hoped that work could begin soon on adapting the mandate of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the new conditions in the country. Juan Antonio Yañez-Barnuevo (Spain) pointed out that he would have wanted the UN to assume military leadership in the transition phase, and that Spain had been defending a more ambitious role for the UN in Iraq. One essential element of the resolution related to the security structure. In that regard, he hoped that the security agreement concluded between the Government and the multinational force fully respected the sovereignty of Iraq and was a true reflection of the principle of authority that should preside over relations between the interim government and the force. Lauro L. Baja, Jr. (Philippines), Council President, speaking in his national capacity, said that yesterday, the Council had been divided on Iraq; today it was united. That was a great day for Iraq, the United Nations, the Security Council and the international community. His delegation was pleased to have presided over action on that eloquent expression, which had validated his country’s position of unwavering support for a free, democratic and united Iraq. The official handover of sovereignty occurred on 28 June, two days ahead of schedule, when former Coalition Civil Administrator Paul Bremer (US) gave interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi a leather-bound transfer document. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the State of Iraq “back into the family of independent and sovereign nations.” He called upon all Iraqis “to come together in a spirit of national unity and reconciliation, through a process of open dialogue and consensus-building, to lay down secure foundations for the new Iraq.” Mr. Annan said their first duty was to assist their interim government to establish security for the population so that the difficult process of return toward normalcy could commence.
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| Morris: Death Spiral in Southern Africa | |||
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Speaking in Johannesburg on 22 June after a seven-day interagency mission to Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Namibia, James T. Morris, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, said the region is being debilitated by the “death spiral” caused by the confluence of HIV, food insecurity, the burden on public administration and services, and most critically, the drain on human resources. “The number of trained health practitioners, teachers, and other professionals that are succumbing to HIV/AIDS is causing a truly extraordinary human resources vacuum in societies across the region,” Mr. Morris stressed. “It’s a tragedy of unrivalled proportions that is destroying the ability of countries to effectively deal with the pandemic and food insecurity.” Mr. Morris, who is also the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), said that in all countries visited by the mission, factors such as already weakened infrastructure and services have also been exacerbated by increasing poverty, growing wealth disparity, failure of government priorities, and women’s lack of access to productive resources such as seeds, land, and fertilizer. These factors have also undermined people’s ability to cope with the crisis. Southern Africa has the highest rates of HIV infection in the world. There are already 11 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa and the number is expected to reach more than 20 million by the end of the decade. Orphans generally lack basic social services such as health, nutritious food, education, safe water and sanitation. “There are many factors at play here but the end result is that people are dying on a horrific scale and its victims are not getting the help they need,” Mr. Morris said. “It is encouraging that money from the Global Fund, the US PEPFAR programme, and the World Bank is arriving in the region. It is, however, a concern that it will take time before this money touches the lives of people. We need to be aware of this fact and continue to do what we can to save lives and livelihoods.” The United Nations Consolidated Appeal for southern Africa remains seriously underfunded with only US$327 million (53%) in confirmed donations to date out of a requested US$615 million. In particular, funds for non-food items, such as medicines, healthcare, education, water and sanitation supplies, are desperately needed with only 16% of resources for these items having been raised.
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| 2005 Follow-up to Millennium Summit | |||
| On 6 May 2004,
the UN General Assembly (GA) adopted a resolution deciding to convoke
a High-Level Meeting in New York in 2005 as a follow-up to the outcome
of the Millennium Summit held in 2000.
The 2005 event will review progress made in three areas: the fulfilment of all commitments contained in the Millennium Declaration; the fulfilment of the internationally agreed development goals and the global partnership required for their achievement; and the integrated and coordinated implementation of the outcomes and commitments of the major UN conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields. The GA has requested the Secretary-General to submit a report to the next session of the GA (September 2004) on suggested modalities, format and organization of the 2005 event, while the President of the General Assembly is expected to carry out open-ended consultations in this regard. A number of Member States took the floor before adopting this resolution, which has been the subject of intense negotiations for several months. The representative of New Zealand, on behalf of Australia, Canada and New Zealand, expressed concern that the event will not be able to reaffirm previously agreed outcomes. He emphasized that it was essential that the 2005 meeting focus squarely on the question of implementation, while taking into account the findings of the Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change (see Go Between 100). The representative of Ireland, on behalf of the European Union (EU), stated that the EU was ready to make a substantive contribution to the event that will conduct stocktaking of progress made in implementing the Millennium Declaration and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Drawing attention to the inadequate level of transparency involved in these months-long negotiations, Switzerland, Croatia and Norway urged that the process going forward should be truly open-ended to include all interested delegations. The Group of 77 and China, through the representative of Qatar, expressed support for the resolution, which they acknowledged had been difficult to negotiate. While no schedule has been set, it is expected that the President
of the General Assembly will begin related consultations in the
near future.
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| US Withdraws Resolution on ICC Immunity | |||
| At a Security
Council meeting held on 23 June, the United States, acknowledging
resistance among Council members, withdrew a draft resolution it had
put forth that would have exempted US personnel from prosecution by
the UN permanent war crimes tribunal.
The Council was divided over the issue, with most members seeing the draft—and the two identical resolutions the Council adopted in the previous two years (1422 and 1487, see Go Betweens 92 & 98)—as an attack on the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Iraq and Afghanistan prisoner abuse scandals, in which US soldiers had allegedly tormented detainees in violation of the Geneva Conventions, intensified opposition to the measure. Deputy Ambassador James Cunningham (US) said although he felt the draft fairly addressed the concerns of all Council members, “the United States has decided not to proceed further with consideration and action on the draft at this time in order in avoid a prolonged and divisive debate.” Mr. Cunningham hinted that the US would remember the forfeiture when it came to future votes on UN peacekeeping operations. “In the absence of a new resolution, the United States will need to take into account the risk of ICC review when determining contributions to UN-authorized or established [peacekeeping] operations,” he said. “It is better not to present a draft resolution to a vote when the Council appears to be divided,” Ambassador Heraldo Munoz of Chile said. “This is better than voting on such an important issue and appear divided after the consensus and the unity we showed on Iraq,” (see article page 1). Instead, the United States offered a compromise proposal that would make this year the last it seeks exemptions. “The United States is the biggest provider of global security and we have special concerns in this area,” Mr. Cunningham said. “We agreed to the change because members of the Council are becoming increasingly uncomfortable. We are willing to take this step to preserve Council support and to provide a year to phase out this arrangement.” Earlier in the month, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had warned that the Council could undermine its authority by approving the US resolution. Mr. Annan said he thought the decision by the US on 23 June not to pursue its resolution would “help maintain the unity of the Security Council at a time when it faces difficult challenges.”
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| UN Financial Status “Good, But Only In Parts” | |||
| Although the United
Nations hopes to end this year with a positive cash balance for its
regular budget, the world body’s financial situation remains
precarious, Under-Secretary-General for Management Catherine Bertini
said on 4 May in her biannual presentation to the General Assembly’s
Administrative and Budgetary (Fifth) Committee.
Ms. Bertini said the UN missions to Kosovo and Western Sahara are still plagued by cash shortages, and debt owed to Member States is expected to increase. Furthermore, a substantial projected funding deficit could threaten the operation of the UN tribunals. She stressed that UN Member States could help resolve the budget issue by fulfilling their financial obligations in full and on time, noting that a strong financial base was a prerequisite for the Organization in carrying out its many tasks. Speaking on 18 May before the Security Council, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the UN could face a budget shortfall of US$1 billion as it expands its peacekeeping commitments in Africa and other parts of the world. Mr. Annan told the Council that money was needed to help fund new missions planned for Burundi, Haiti and Sudan. The UN is also taking on expanded responsibilities in Ivory Coast. More than 53,000 peacekeepers are serving in 15 UN missions across the world, the highest number since 1995. “By the end of this year, to absorb the new and enhanced missions, we may need an extra US$1 billion for the UN peacekeeping budget, which is currently US$2.82 billion,” the Secretary-General said. “Our duty must be to meet this demand, to seize the opportunities to bring long-standing conflicts to an end,” he added. On 3 June, the Fifth Committee approved some US$2.8 billion gross to finance 11 active peacekeeping missions for 2004-2005. Japan’s representative said the projection that the next peacekeeping operations budget could rise to US$4.5 billion was slowly becoming a reality. He questioned whether Member States had the capacity to pay for an increase of over 60% over the last budget, noting that the increase would consume resources that could have been used for humanitarian assistance or poverty reduction.
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| OCHA: Shortfall in Humanitarian Aid | |||
| On 15 June, the
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said
the United Nations will need US$2.25 billion until the end of the
year to address the critical requirements of 49.4 million people affected
by 25 crises in Africa, Europe and Asia.
“The humanitarian community faces a shortfall of US$2.25 billion for implementing its programmes for the rest of the year. The response so far is too little too late for millions of victims in forgotten emergencies. Timely and increased funding is essential for effective response,” said Jan Egeland, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator. At the launch of the Consolidated Humanitarian Appeals in November 2003, UN humanitarian agencies and their NGO partners appealed for some US$2.95 billion to reach vulnerable populations around the world in 2004. To date, only US$696.8 million has been received. Despite generous contributions from many donors, the financing of humanitarian aid remains inadequate and unpredictable for aid agencies. One hundred sixty-eight humanitarian organizations are working together to provide protection and assistance and their joint programmes are currently only 23.6% funded, much lower than at the same time in both 2003 and 2002, when humanitarian programmes were funded at approximately 33%. Among the reasons for poor funding in 2004 might be that heavy donations in 2003 depleted the funds available for 2004 and that “lacklustre economic situations in industrial countries have reduced governments’ resources from which official humanitarian funds are allocated,” OCHA said. The mid-year review of the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) details the funding response to date to the 2004 CAP, showing the measures that have been taken over the past months to strengthen humanitarian action and to ensure that people in need receive on time the best protection and assistance. The percentage of requirements funded in the 2004 CAP ranges from 49.5% to 1.7%. The lowest responses have been for Burundi with 14.9%, Sudan 14.9%, Zimbabwe 12.8%, Guinea 10.2%, Sierra Leone 9.9%, Côte d'Ivoire 6.3%, Indonesia 2.2%, and Madagascar 1.7%. The crises getting the best responses were located in Chechnya (49.5%), Iran (48.8%) and West Africa (43.6%). OCHA manages the CAP, a UN-led mechanism created ten years ago by the General Assembly to ensure strategic and coordinated humanitarian response to crises. Contact: Elizabeth Byrs, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, telephone
+41-22/917 2653, fax +41-22/917 0200, e-mail <byrs@un.org>,
website (http://ochaonline.un.org).
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| UN Global Compact Adopts 10th Principle | |||
| On 24 June, the
Global Compact held a one-day “Global Leaders Summit” in
New York, chaired by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to take stock
of the Global Compact and chart its future course. An important item
on the agenda was the addition of a tenth principle dealing with anti-corruption,
in light of the UN Convention against Corruption adopted in December
2003 (see Go Between 100). The anti-corruption principle will be added
to the Compact’s nine existing principles of good corporate citizenship
in the areas of human rights, labour and the environment, currently
endorsed by some 1,500 firms in 70 countries.
More than 400 representatives from business, government, the trade
union community, civil society and UN agencies attended the one-day
meeting that included a series of roundtables, dialogues and press
conferences. Mr. Annan opened the Summit by asking business and
labour leaders to cooperate with the UN in making the world a more
equitable and stable place. “Perhaps no one has more at stake
than the business community itself,” he said. “Our fragile
global order stands in jeopardy today. Securing its future requires
your resources and capacities, your advocacy and your leadership.
It calls for the unique contributions that only private enterprise
can make to the creation of public value, at home and abroad.” Chuck Hardwick, Senior Vice-President of Pfizer, addressing the Compact’s new anti-corruption principle, noted that an estimated US$3 trillion in bribes were paid each year, constituting a devastating hidden tax. Noting that the new anti-corruption principle aimed to combat corruption in all its forms, he said that some 150 companies taking part in the Business Roundtable had put anti-corruption high on their agendas. The roundtable urged governments to better monitor and comply with existing conventions against corruption and bribery; for international organizations to encourage governments to promote greater transparency and work against bribery; for businesses to adopt best practices in combating corruption; and for governments to promote transparency. UN Under-Secretary-General for Management Catherine Bertini said that she will work to integrate the principles of the Compact into the internal operations of the UN. “Although the United Nations does not knowingly contravene the Compact’s principles in its administrative practices, the Organization could and should be far more explicit in integrating the principles into its administrative processes,” she said. At Mr. Annan’s request, Ms. Bertini said she is setting up specialized working groups to cover the areas of procurement, facilities management, investment management, human resources management and the Capital Master Plan, a programme for renovating the headquarters complex. On the day before the Global Compact Summit, NGOs held a “counter-summit” to critique the Compact and propose alternatives for corporate accountability. Transparency International (TI), a Berlin-based NGO, said it welcomed the decision by UN Global Compact members to make anti-corruption a tenth principle, but called on corporations to put principle into action by adopting tough anti-corruption policies. NGOs have criticized the fact that anyone can sign on to the Compact’s principles, but there are no sanctions against companies that violate them. The NGO Alliance for a Corporate Free UN said the non-binding agreement gives corporations an excuse to avoid binding commitments to human rights and environmental protection. On 23 June, the counter-summit released a joint NGO statement. “As representatives from a wide range of NGOs, we believe in a strong UN, fully funded by governments. We call on the UN to maintain the integrity of international environmental and social agreements and urge that it hold corporations accountable to these agreements in a legal framework,” the joint statement read. “Legally binding instruments on corporate accountability should include the establishment and enforcement of key environmental, social, labour and human rights standards, requirements for corporations to report to and consult with affected communities, extended international corporate liability, and improved anti-monopoly and anti-trust regulations. In addition, governments should work together more effectively to reduce corporate influence on government and intergovernmental decision-making processes,” the statement said. The NGO statement also made reference to the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights’ Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, released in August 2003 (see Go Between 99). “The Norms represent a landmark step. They provide a succinct, but comprehensive restatement of international legal principles applicable to business concerning human rights, humanitarian law, international labour law, environmental law, consumer law and anti-corruption law. The Norms do not create any new legal obligations, but simply restate and distil existing obligations under international law as they apply to companies.” The Norms were debated at the 60th Session of the Commission on Human Rights (see related NGLS Roundup online). Contact: UN Global Compact, e-mail <globalcompact@un.org>, website (www.unglobalcompact.org).
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| G-8: No Major Debt Relief | |||
| Leaders of the
Group of Eight industrialized nations (G-8) met from 8-10 June at
the Sea Island Summit, held in Georgia (US), and discussed a range
of issues including debt relief for the poorest countries, HIV/AIDS,
and the environment and sustainable development, with the focus remaining
largely on Iraq and combating terrorism.
Prior to the meeting, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed to G-8 leaders to incorporate the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and particularly Goal 8, as an explicit priority in their programmes and policies—through aid, debt relief and a fair and open international trade regime. He stressed the need for the G-8 countries to commit to specific timetables for achieving the official development assistance (ODA) target of 0.7% gross national product. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) called on G-8 leaders to remember the plight of children in many countries. “If we are to meet the Millennium Development Goal aiming to reduce child mortality by two-thirds, the world needs to action greater deliberation and urgency,” UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said in a statement. “The G-8 countries have the power to drive child mortality rates down. UNICEF urges them to use it.” Over 1,500 groups of humanitarian and development NGOs from the G-8 nations issued a joint statement calling on the G-8 leaders to: formally place eradication of extreme poverty as the central agenda item of all G-8 meetings; recommit their governments, by specifying concrete strategies and plans, to the achievement of all the MDGs; and use and tailor all tools necessary for meeting the MDGs, including development assistance, trade policies, debt relief, technology transfer and private investment. The Summit produced a number of outcomes, including an action plan to “apply the power of entrepreneurship and the private sector” toward poverty alleviation; taking all necessary steps to eradicate polio by the end of 2005; an initiative to help prevent famine by improving worldwide emergency assessment and response systems, raising agricultural productivity, and helping five million chronically food insecure people in Ethiopia attain food security by 2009; and taking new action against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including expanding the Proliferation Security Initiative, strengthening the International Atomic Energy Agency, and refraining from new transfers of uranium enrichment and reprocessing technology (see related article page 12). The G-8 endorsed the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, a virtual consortium being established to accelerate the development of an HIV vaccine; however, it received no new funding, and was widely criticized by AIDS activists. ActionAid says inadequate funding by the G-8 nations is undermining the biggest-ever global initiative against AIDS. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (endorsed at the G-8 Summit held in Genoa in 2001 as an independent, public-private partnership designed to attract, manage, and disburse new resources) remains seriously under-funded, and less than 7% of the six million people in urgent need of treatment have gained access to essential medicines. According to ActionAid, of all the G-8 countries, only France is contributing its fair share to the Global Fund relative to the size of its economy, while the US has cut its pledge by 64%, from US$547 million in 2004 to US$200 million in 2005. Anti-debt activists, including Jubilee USA Network and the 50 Years Is Enough Network, expressed disappointment at the failure of the G-8 leaders to support 100% multilateral debt cancellation for impoverished nations. Instead, the G-8 leaders announced a two-year extension of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative rather than a definitive commitment to full cancellation. “At this critical moment, when every minute another African child dies of AIDS, the global community needs 100% cancellation of multilateral debt without harmful conditions,” said Marie Clarke, National Coordinator of the Jubilee USA Network. “By failing to seize the opportunity, the G-8 has once again chosen baby steps over bold action.” “Indebted countries need 100% debt cancellation without deadly conditions on the occasion of the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and World Bank’s 60th Anniversary year,” said Njoki Njehu, Director of the 50 Years is Enough Network. “Cancellation of impoverished country debt by the IMF and World Bank must be financed through their own resources.” Contact: Jubilee USA Network, 222 East Capitol Street NE, Washington DC 20003, USA, telephone +1-202/783 3566, fax +1-202/546 4468, e-mail <coord@j2000usa.org>, website (www.jubileeusa.org).
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| On 21 April, the
Commission on Human Rights adopted resolution E/CN.4/RES/2004/64,
entitled “Promotion of a democratic and equitable international
order,” which affirms that: everyone is entitled to a democratic
and equitable international order; a democratic and equitable international
order fosters the full realization of human rights for all; and calls
upon Member States to fulfil their commitments made during the World
Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance, held in Durban (South Africa) in September 2001 (see
NGLS Roundup 82).
Paragraph 13 of the resolution “requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of Member States, United Nations organs, bodies and components, intergovernmental organizations, in particular the Bretton Woods institutions, and non-governmental organizations and to disseminate it on the widest possible basis.” The text is available online (www.unhchr.ch).
For more information on the 60th Session of the Commission on Human
Rights, see Focus Page 32 and the online Roundup on the NGLS website
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| Controversy as Sudan is Elected to HRC | |||
| On 4 May, Sudan
was re-elected as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Commission,
a move that was protested by the United States and human rights groups
after the African group of UN Member States the week before had presented
a list of four candidates for four open seats, guaranteeing the election
of Sudan, Kenya, Guinea and Togo.
At the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at UN headquarters in New York, where voting took place, the US delegation walked out following remarks by US Ambassador to ECOSOC Sichan Siv, who said that Sudan’s candidacy was “entirely inappropriate” given reports of “ethnic cleansing” in Sudan’s western Darfur region. Sudan’s presence on the Commission “threatens to undermine not only its work, but its very credibility,” he said. Sudan’s Deputy Ambassador Omer Bashir Mohamed Manis said in response, “I will not respond to the overflow of exaggerations against my country.” He said there is a “humanitarian problem in Darfur” and his government “has called upon the international community to lend a helping hand to face this situation.” Sudan has been accused by the US and the UN of aiding rebel militias who are destroying villages, executing civilians and carrying out rapes in Darfur. A Human Rights Commission resolution passed in April expressed concern over the humanitarian crisis in Darfur but stopped short of condemning Khartoum. “A government that engages in the wholesale abuses of its citizens should not be eligible for a seat at the table, especially a country just criticized by the Commission,” said Joanna Weschler of Human Rights Watch. Ten other countries were elected to the 14 total open spots—Malaysia, Pakistan and South Korea were elected from the Asian group; Canada, Finland, and France were elected from the Western Europe and others group; Armenia and Romania were elected from the Eastern Europe group and Ecuador and Mexico were elected from the Latin America and Caribbean group.
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S-G Establishes Panel for Oil-For-Food Probe | ||
| UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan announced on 21 April the formation of an independent panel
that will conduct an inquiry into allegations of impropriety in the
administration and management of the Iraq “oil-for-food”
programme. The panel will be chaired by Paul A. Volcker, former Chairman
of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve System.
Its other two members are Justice Richard Goldstone of South Africa,
who previously served as the Chief Prosecutor of the UN International
Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and Mark
Pieth of Switzerland, a Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology
at the University of Basel.
According to the terms of reference that will govern the independent
inquiry, the panel will have the authority to: To ensure a thorough inquiry, the members of the independent panel will have the authority to access all relevant UN records and information, written or unwritten, and to interview all relevant UN officials and personnel. On 21 April, the Security Council adopted a resolution welcoming the appointment of the panel and calling upon the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), Iraq and all other Member States—including their national regulatory authorities—to fully cooperate with the inquiry. Within three months of the initiation of its work, the panel is expected to provide the Secretary-General with a status report. Speaking at a press briefing in New York on 20 May, Mr. Volcker said he believes the full investigation will take one year. He also stressed it was crucial for the panel to establish a degree of control over the records held in Iraq if its investigation was to be satisfactory. A team had been sent to Baghdad to make contact with the Bureau of the Supreme Auditor, which had responsibility for collecting and consolidating those records.
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| The United Nations
Disarmament Commission closed its substantive session on 23 April
without being in a position to agree to an agenda. During several
public meetings in its three-week session, the delegates made proposals
and counter-proposals on nuclear and conventional disarmament agenda
items, but no compromise language was reached.
The Commission, a subsidiary body of the General Assembly established in 1952, decides each year, by consensus, to deal with two substantive items—one nuclear related topic and another on conventional disarmament—in the months leading up to the annual spring session. This year, the Commission started without an agreement as last year it was unable to agree on concrete proposals to advance either nuclear disarmament or confidence building in the field of conventional arms. While Commission members could not rally behind a consensual substantive agenda, a draft report was adopted. The draft report, which will be forwarded to the General Assembly, recommended that the next substantive session be held for the usual period of three weeks, in March-April 2005, and that an organizational session be convened in November-December 2004. Before adopting the report, India’s representative recalled the opening remarks of the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Nobuyasu Abe, in which he had cautioned the Commission members that a correct response to deal with the so-called crisis in the multilateral system of disarmament would lie in strengthening rather than discarding the system. Mr. Abe had implicitly warned that no institution working in that area, including the Disarmament Commission, could be complacent. Indeed, the erosion of the multilateral institutions would only create space for an exclusive approach, hastening the pace towards atrophying those bodies. Contact: Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Room S-3170, United Nations, New York NY 10017, USA, fax +1-212/963 1121, e-mail <ddaweb@un.org>, website (http://disarmament.un.org/undiscom.htm).
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| In signing a memorandum
of understanding, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the United Nations
Department of Economic and Social Affairs have teamed up on a one-year
project with the objective to define policies that could generate
more business contributions for development.
The provisions within the memorandum signed on 10 May 2004 by José Antonio Ocampo—United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs—and Richard Samans—the World Economic Forum’s Managing Director of the Global Institute of Partnership and Governance—introduces a series of workshops which will welcome the participation of experts from the public, private and civil society sectors. The workshops are expected to take place from June 2004 to June 2005, and will tackle two issues: (1) the lack of investor interest in developing countries’ economies, despite their economic reforms aimed at attracting foreign investment, and (2) the development of a practical managerial framework for private-public partnerships. This initiative builds on the financing for development (FFD) process which has emanated from the Monterrey Consensus and heeds to the request recently made at the High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development, held in October 2003, by the General Assembly, which had mandated the FFD secretariat to convene multi-stakeholder discussions on key development issues (see NGLS Roundup 107). A report on the outcome of these workshops will be presented to the General Assembly in late 2005.
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On 10 May, US President George W. Bush, speaking in Washington DC, announced the 16 countries that have been selected to participate in the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), a foreign aid programme under which the US is pledging to increase development assistance by 50% over three years (see NGLS Roundup 91). Mr. Bush, in his remarks, said, “To make sure that governments make the right choices for their people, we link new aid to clear standards of economic, political, and social reform. We invited governments in developing nations to meet those standards so that they may truly serve their people.” The 16 selected countries are: Armenia, Benin, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Georgia, Ghana, Honduras, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Vanuatu. Funding is not automatically guaranteed as the countries must explain how they plan to address the needs of their people and increase economic growth with proposals that set clear goals and measurable benchmarks. Funding for the MCA will increase over three years to US$5 billion per year in FY2006. To qualify up to this point, the countries have had to meet standards for good governance and economic reform. The Millennium Challenge Corporation, which administers the MCA, is chaired by the Secretary of State, Colin Powell. Other board members include Secretary John Snow, the Secretary of the Treasury; Ambassador Bob Zoellick, US Trade Representative; Andrew Natsios, the Administrator of the US Agency for International Development; and Paul Applegarth, who is the CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. “The powerful combination of trade and open markets and good
government is history’s proven method to defeat poverty on
a large scale, to vastly improve health and education, to build
a modern infrastructure while safeguarding the environment, and
to spread the habits of liberty and enterprise,” President
Bush said. “I urge all nations of the world to follow the progressive
standards of governing justly, investing in people and encouraging
economic freedom.” More information is available online (www.usaid.gov).
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| On 27 May, the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) launched
its Least Developed Countries Report 2004: Linking International Trade
with Poverty Reduction, which finds that policies using international
trade to improve the economies of the 50 poorest and least developed
countries (LDCs) have not generated long-term reductions in poverty.
“Their [LDCs’] development partners should not imagine
that preferential market access or multilateral trade liberalization
will substitute for international aid as a central mechanism for
supporting poverty reduction,” the report says. The policies
could be complementary, but the LDCs require more and better aid
to build their productive capacities, it notes. “The LDCs themselves can maximize the poverty-reducing effects of international trade by pursuing a development-led approach to trade rather than a trade-led approach to development,” UNCTAD says, noting that LDCs during the 1990s registered an average income per capita of 72 cents a day. Although those countries registered some economic growth later in the decade, “the overall incidence of extreme poverty for the group as a whole did not decline during that decade.” “If these trends persist, it may be estimated that the number of people living in extreme poverty in the LDCs will increase from 334 million people in 2000 to 471 million in 2015. By that time, and assuming that the current progress in China and India continues, the LDCs will be the major locus of global poverty in 2015,” the report warns. Furthermore, mass poverty reinforces the tendency towards economic stagnation and vice versa: “Low income leads to low savings; low savings lead to low investment; low investment leads to low productivity and low incomes.” The report finds countries that liberalized trade moderately in the 1990s achieved the best trade-to-poverty relationships and the growth rates of gross domestic product (GDP), exports and investment have been higher after liberalization than before. In any case, “imports have grown faster than exports after liberalization,” and “there has been a repeated tendency for aid inflows to peak during trade liberalization and then fall.” According to UNCTAD, experience shows that a country must have a minimum production base, as well as supply capabilities, to take advantage of export market access preferences. LDCs equipped to take advantage of preferences provided by certain textile export arrangements achieved high and steady export growth, but the benefits of access are being reduced by limits on product insurance, restrictive rules of origin, problems with predictability and the adverse effects of such non-tariff barriers as bans, quotas and tough labelling requirements. UNCTAD says action is required now on three fronts: a two-way mainstreaming of both trade and development within national poverty reduction strategies; increased and effective international financial and technical assistance for developing domestic production and trade capacities; and an enabling international trade regime, which includes phasing out by the Organisation of Economic and Co-operation Development (OECD) countries of agricultural support measures that adversely affect LDCs, new international policies to reduce vulnerability to negative commodity price shocks and to address the special challenges facing mineral economies, more effective market access preferences for the LDCs complemented by new supply-side preferences, and enhanced South-South cooperation in the field of trade and investment. Health issues were also a problem for LDCs, the report says, quoting estimates by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), showing that in 2001 LDCs experienced 37% of worldwide AIDS deaths, although they had only 11% of the global population. Forty-six percent of all children infected with HIV lived in LDCs. Besides health concerns, rising debt burden, declining and unstable commodity prices (primary commodities constitute 67% of total LDC merchandise exports and are the major source of export earnings in 31 of these countries), the erosion of trade preferences, and civil conflict (between 1990-2001, 60% of them experienced civil conflicts of varying intensity and duration, and in most cases these conflicts erupted after a period of economic stagnation and regress) have taken their toll on LDCs as well. Countries are designated as “least developed” on the basis of their very low per capita incomes, weak human resources and high economic vulnerability to shocks. The latest to have joined the group is East Timor. Contact: Charles Gore, Special Programme for Least Developed, Landlocked and Island Developing Countries, UNCTAD, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/917 5944, e-mail <charles.gore@unctad.org>, website (www.unctad.org).
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| The United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has released the results
of a survey, entitled Prospects for FDI Flows, TNC Strategies and
Policy Developments, 2004-2007: Global Investment Prospects Assessment
(GIPA) Research Note No. 2. It finds that investment promotion agencies
(IPAs) worldwide are optimistic that global foreign direct investment
(FDI) will increase in the next four years, especially in 2006-2007,
with 91% of the respondents believing that these will improve. Prospects are considered positive for almost all industries. Globally, the top ranked industries in terms of prospects for FDI are hotels and restaurants, tourism, computers/information and communication technologies (ICTs), and retail and wholesale—all in the services sector. The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and France are viewed as the leading sources of FDI, followed by China and Japan. UNCTAD points out that it is the first time a developing country, China, is in the top ranking for source countries. Production, logistics and other support services, as well as distribution and sales, are the foremost types of activities that IPAs expect transnational corporations (TNCs) to relocate abroad. Half of the responding IPAs expect FDI to enter through greenfield investments, while 27% expect mergers and acquisitions (M&As) to be the preferred mode of entry. On the policy side, the UNCTAD survey finds that IPAs are intensifying their efforts to attract FDI using targeting, in particular, and are not shying away from offering additional incentives. The respondents were optimistic about FDI prospects in the Asia-Pacific region and Africa, both for the short- and medium-term. In Africa’s retail and wholesale sector, all respondents said they expect an increase in FDI, while 95% said the same about Africa’s tourism sector. Prospects for Latin America and the Caribbean, however, were not as bright, especially for the period 2004-2005. Lack of optimism for the region was related to slow economic recovery in some countries, the survey found. The survey is available online (www.unctad.org /sections/dite_dir/docs/survey02_FDI.pdf). Contact: James Zhan, UNCTAD, Division on Investment, Technology and Enterprise Development, Investment Agreements, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/917 5797, e-mail <james.zhan@uncatd.org>, website (www.unctad.org). |
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According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean’s (ECLAC) latest report, foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to Latin America and the Caribbean declined by nearly 20% last year, to US$36.5 billion, mostly because of drops to inflow in Brazil and Mexico. For the fourth year running, FDI flows to the region have continued to shrink, with Latin America and the Caribbean turning in the worst performance of any world regions, the report notes. This situation was exacerbated by the steady increase in profit remittances and in outflows of other FDI-related resources, which has diminished its impact on the balance of payments. The decrease in FDI inflows over the past few years has varied across subregions and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, however. In Mexico and the Caribbean basin, inflows have diminished less, while South America has been more strongly affected. Within South America, inflows were quite stable in the Andean Community but were down sharply in MERCOSUR (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) and particularly so in Brazil. Foreign Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2003 finds that foreign firms are investing less in the region although their presence in those nations continues to be essential for economic growth. The report also points out that the automotive industry is largely responsible for attracting FDI in Latin America, with six of the region’s main transnational companies belonging to this industry—General Motors, Delphi, Volkswagen, Daimler-Chrysler, Ford and Nissan. However, the report warns, unless more is done to attract new leading companies in the automobile sector, FDI will decline even more. “Technological progress is rapidly changing the world car industry and companies such as Toyota and Honda are gaining market share at the expense of their European and American competitors, but these companies have little presence in Latin America,” says ECLAC. “Mexico and Brazil should adopt a new strategy to attract the leading companies that are changing the industry and thereby gain access to new comparative advantages.” Contact: Michael Mortimore, Investment and Corporate Strategies Unit Chief, ECLAC, Casilla 179-D, Santiago, Chile, telephone +56-2/210 2458, e-mail <mmortimore@eclac.cl>, website (www.eclac.cl).
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| The 60th session
of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and
the Pacific (UNESCAP), meeting in Shanghai from 22-28 April, was held
under the theme “Meeting the Challenges in an Era of Globalization
by Strengthening Regional Development Cooperation.” The session
concluded by unanimously adopting the Shanghai Declaration, which
consists of a range of strategies to fight poverty and improve health
in the region.
“The Declaration also reaffirms that the United Nations has a central role in promoting international cooperation for development and in promoting policy coherence on global development issues, including in the context of globalization and interdependence,” said UNESCAP Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su. Asia and Pacific ministers also adopted six resolutions, covering a wide range of strategies to combat economic and social problems in the region, including a call for action to enhance capacity building in public health; implementing ESCAP technical projects; the intergovernmental agreement on the Asian Highway Network; the Centre for Alleviating Poverty through secondary crops development; and revitalization of the UNESCAP Pacific Operation Centre and Pacific Urban Agenda. During the session, the Asian Highway Agreement was signed by 25 countries, which aims to open opportunities for trade and tourism. The Highway is a multi-pronged 140,000 kilometre highway corridor connecting 32 countries and linking Europe to Asia. The completed highway will further facilitate border-crossing for people, vehicles and goods, and provide benefits to landlocked countries. The Asia Business Forum and UNESCAP Business Advisory Group also held their inaugural sessions to discuss emerging trade and investment opportunities in the region. A knowledge-based economy and disaster preparedness was another key area discussed. UNESCAP will try now to help in capacity building and make sure the digital divide becomes a “dividend.” Contact: David Lazarus, Chief, UN Information Services, UNESCAP,
Rajadamnern Nok Avenue, Bangkok 10200, Thailand, telephone +66-02/288
1864, fax +66-02/288 1052, e-mail <unisbkk.unescap@un.org>,
website (www.unescap.org). |
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| Speaking at International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna on 26 May, US Secretary
of Energy Spencer Abraham announced the United States’ Global
Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), an initiative that aims to minimize
as quickly as possible the amount of nuclear material available that
could be used for nuclear weapons. It will also seek to put into place
mechanisms to ensure that nuclear and radiological materials and related
equipment—wherever they may be in the world—are not used
for malicious purposes.
“We will do this by the securing, removing, relocating or
disposing of these materials and equipment—whatever the most
appropriate circumstance may be—as quickly and expeditiously
as possible,” Mr. Abraham said. Activities under the GTRI initiative include: The US will establish a single organization within the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration to focus exclusively on these efforts, and plans to dedicate more than US$450 million to them. International and global cooperation will be an integral part of the GTRI initiative, with Mr. Abraham proposing that IAEA and the international community join in holding a GTRI Partners’ Conference later this year that would examine how to address material collection and security in places where a broader international effort is required. It would also focus on material collection and security of other proliferation-attractive materials, such as those located at conversion facilities, reprocessing plants, and industrial sites, as well as the funding of such work. |
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| According to a
report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), significant
progress has been made toward ensuring that workers around the globe
have the freedom to organize, although some obstacles persist. Organizing
for Social Justice notes “a general positive trend” over
the last four years, which it said was “linked to the spread
of democracy, high rates of ratification of the fundamental international
labour standards and increased transparency in global markets.”
There is also growing recognition that freedom of association and collective bargaining have played “an important part in sound economic development (by) ensuring that the benefits of growth are shared, and promoting productivity, adjustment measures and industrial peace,” the report finds. “The right to organize is one of the most powerful tools we have for promoting decent work and sustainable poverty-reducing development,” said ILO Director General Juan Somavia. Progress is being made to protect vulnerable groups such as public sector workers, migrants and employees in agriculture, export processing zones, domestic work and the informal economy. The study found that violations of freedom of association of both employers and workers remain, however, and that workers may be subject to murder, detention and other punishments. “People continue to lose their lives and their freedom for attempting to organize and defend their fundamental rights collectively,” said the report. Contact: ILO Department of Communication, 4 route de Morillons, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/799 7916, fax +41-22/799 8577, e-mail <communication@ilo.org>, website (www.ilo.org).
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A briefing session on the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM) was held in New York on 26 April 2004. Organized by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the GCIM’s co-Chairs (Jan O. Karlsson, former Swedish Minister for Migration and Development and Mamphela Ramphele, Managing Director of the World Bank) and the Executive Director of the GCIM’s Secretariat (Rolf K. Jenny) highlighted the work undertaken by the Commission so far, while profiling its priorities and upcoming plans. The briefing session served as a follow-up to the GCIM’s first meeting, held in Stockholm in February 2004. Presenting the priority areas the Commission would be looking into, Mr. Jenny said the first area was migrants in the labour market, including such issues as the demographic implications of migration and the impact of trade policies on migration pressures. The second area would cover migration, economic growth, development and poverty reduction. Within that context, the Commission would look into migrant remittances—the money migrants sent back to their countries of origin—and the impact on those countries. The third area, he said, related to irregular migratory movements, also covering topics such as human trafficking and border control measures. The fourth area was how well migrants could integrate into society, which would cover issues such as how they are received and treated, and their impact on the culture, religion and economy of host countries. The Commission would also examine the need for a global normative framework. The last area related to institutional activities, and whether the system (both within and outside the UN) today was providing what was needed at the global level to deal with migration issues. As to whether the Commission would address possible institutional changes in the UN system to better respond to migration issues, Mr. Karlsson said that one of the focus points would be to examine, through regional consultations, how present institutions were responding. Based on these consultations, the Commission would then decide whether to recommend major institutional changes or not. Five regional consultation meetings have been planned, and the first of these meetings was held in Manila in May. The consultation process will bring together stakeholders who share an important responsibility in reporting about migration; these will include not only governments, but also non-governmental bodies, experts and the media. The co-Chairs of the Commission also underscored their willingness to work in conjunction with the Geneva Migration Group, which involves the International Labour Organization, the International Organization on Migration, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (see Go Between 101). Contact: Alessandra Roversi, GCIM Secretariat, 1 rue Richard-Wagner,
1202 Geneva, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/748 4850, fax +41-22/748
4851, e-mail <info@gcim.org>,
website (www.gcim.org). |
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| Money sent home
by migrant workers to relatives in Latin America and the Caribbean
totaled US$38 billion last year, exceeding both foreign direct investment
(FDI) and development assistance as a source of regional income. Recognizing
the importance of remittances to Latin American and Caribbean economies,
the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and an
affiliate of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) signed an agreement
on 27 April aimed at fostering saving and investment habits in rural
communities. More than 900 million of the world’s 1.2 billion
poor people live in rural areas.
The memorandum of understanding signed by IDB President Enrique Iglesias and IFAD President Lennart Båge seeks to make remittances a “true tool for development,” by reducing the cost of wire transfers and other methods of sending remittances and by helping expatriate groups gain access to investment resources. “Remittances are private resources that belong to very hard working people,” Mr. Båge said. “But remittances are also an important source of income for millions of poor people around the world, and provide valuable foreign exchange to developing countries. We do not want to discourage consumption, but remittances can create opportunities for saving and investments in rural areas and help people overcome poverty.” Building on IFAD’s experience linking migrants with their original rural communities, the joint programme will also work with expatriate groups to help provide access to investment resources, advanced technologies, and new markets in their host countries. “Making migrants our partners in development is one of the most innovative aspects of this programme,” Mr. Båge added. The Multilateral Investment Fund, an IDB affiliate, will contribute up to US$4 million to the programme. IFAD will contribute up to US$2 million and local organizations are expected to commit US$1.6 million to fund various projects. Contact: Sappho Haralambous, IFAD, 107 via del Serafico, 00142
Rome, Italy, telephone +39-06/5459 2238, fax +39-06/5459 2034, e-mail
<ifad@ifad.org>, website
(www.ifad.org). |
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| On 25 April 2004,
an agreement to adopt a unified global response to tackling HIV/AIDS
was reached by members of the international community at a meeting
in Washington DC co-chaired by the Joint United Nations Programme
on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Kingdom and the United States. Donors
and developing countries alike agreed to three core principles to
better coordinate the scale up of national AIDS responses.
Known as the “Three Ones,” the principles are: Built on lessons learned from over two decades, the Three Ones will help improve the ability of donors and developing countries to work more effectively together, on a country-by-country basis. The three principles were first identified through a preparatory process at global and country levels, initiated by UNAIDS in cooperation with the World Bank and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The first meeting to review these principles was held during the International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (ICASA) in Nairobi (Kenya), in September 2003 (see NGLS Roundup 108). Also agreed was a Global Initiative on HIV/AIDS signed by UNAIDS and the heads of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund for International Development on 7 May 2004 in Geneva. The Initiative would scale up the AIDS response in 14 targeted countries in the Middle East and North Africa, the Asia Pacific region and Latin America and the Caribbean. It will receive a US$4 million grant from the OPEC Fund, and UNAIDS will match the amount through in-kind contributions. The two-year initiative aims to mobilize greater political commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS, focusing on women and HIV/AIDS, national capacities and leadership as well as partnership with the public and private sectors and civil society. The initiative will also address sub-regional challenges that increase the risk of HIV spread, such as migration and regional conflict. Contact: Dominique de Santis, Press Officer, UNAIDS, 20 avenue
Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/791 4509,
fax +41-22/791 4898, e-mail <desantisd@unaids.org>,
website (www.unaids.org). |
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UNFPA: Culturally Sensitive Approaches | ||
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According to a report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), development efforts stand greater chances of succeeding when they are presented to beneficiaries in a culturally sensitive manner and are built on open dialogue and community involvement. The report, Working from Within: Culturally Sensitive Approaches in UNFPA Programming, highlights approaches and partnerships with local figures and institutions in nine countries. These initiatives illustrate how working from within complex cultural systems can help achieve goals that benefit communities and respect individual rights. Recognizing local social and cultural realities and actively supporting a process of local ownership of p | |||