GO BETWEEN - No 103 - April-May-June 2004

TOP	New IDP Division Established
	In order to better address the plight of the millions of people around the world uprooted from their homes by war and other emergencies, the United Nations has created a new office, the Inter-agency Internal Displacement Division of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Established on 1 July by the UN Secretary-General, the Division—directed by Dennis McNamara, Special Adviser to the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator—will address the issue of internally displaced people (IDPs), which does not fall under the direct mandate of any single agency. Initially, the Division will focus on the six to eight major countries of displacement—Sudan, Uganda, Somalia, Liberia, Burundi and Colombia, with access being negotiated for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sri Lanka—for the next year to 18 months. Staff from the humanitarian agencies will be seconded to the Division to work alongside OCHA staff. Those IDPs “are the forgotten or neglected victims of conflict worldwide,” Mr. McNamara told a press briefing in Geneva on 20 July. “Displaced civilians remain a massive humanitarian crisis.” He noted that of the 21 conflicts raging worldwide, 18 of them were internal, so most of the population displacement—some 25 million people in all, about twice the size of the 13-15 million global refugee population—is taking place without people crossing international borders. Another 25 million people have been displaced by natural disasters and development projects. Those 50 million people probably matched or were more than the number of people around the globe suffering from AIDS, “but [they] get relatively minor international attention,” Mr. McNamara stressed. The Division was established to address the fact that no adequate inter-agency response to displacement existed, particularly for victims of war and human rights abuses, the most obvious recent example being in Darfur, Sudan, he added. Even so, the gap in response is not a problem for agencies and NGOs alone, Mr. McNamara said, stressing that governments also bear responsibility since IDPs by definition were citizens in their own country and the host State often created conditions for displacement or responded inadequately to the phenomenon. In addition, the international donor community was also at fault for response shortfalls: the UN’s 2004 Consolidated Appeal (CAP) had asked for US$5 billion and had received just US$3.5 billion, the new Director said. “The global humanitarian aid budget last year was US$10 billion; the global military expenditure budget US$800 billion—80 times the amount of the global humanitarian aid budget,” reflecting distorted priorities and the consequences of the inadequate humanitarian response, he said. This was an “international shame, most obviously but not only in Darfur but also in many other countries with equal if not greater numbers [of IDPs] and equal human suffering,” he said. “It must be addressed, it can be addressed if there is the political will and priority given to it both by the UN system and the responsible States.” Contact: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, fax +41-22/917 0200, website (http://ochaonline.un.org/index.htm).
TOP	S-G Appoints Women to Senior Posts
	In August 2004, Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced the appointment of three women to senior posts in the United Nations dealing with gender issues and humanitarian affairs. On 12 August, Rachel Mayanja, currently the Director of the Human Resources Management Division at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was appointed Mr. Annan’s Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women. She succeeds Assistant Secretary-General Angela King, who retired earlier this year. Ms. Mayanja joined the UN shortly after the 1975 UN World Conference for Women. Also announced on the same date, was the appointment of Margareta Wahlstrom as the new Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator. She most recently served as the Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in charge of relief, reconstruction and development. Ms. Wahlstrom succeeds Carolyn McAskie, who is now Mr. Annan’s Special Representative for Burundi and chief of the UN Operation (ONUB) in the Central African nation. On 25 August, the Secretary-General announced the appointment of Mehr Khan Williams (Pakistan) as Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. The appointment is at the Assistant Secretary-General level. Ms. Khan Williams has worked for the United Nations since 1976. She has held senior management positions in New York, Florence and Bangkok with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and has also served as Acting Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Sydney. She is currently serving as Special Advisor to the Executive Director of UNICEF.
TOP	UN Initiatives to Promote NEPAD
	A new panel—the Secretary-General’s Advisory Panel on International Support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)— has been formed in order to provide international support for NEPAD, the African development road map. Announced on 20 July at UN headquarters in New York, the panel includes eminent economists, development practitioners and academics and is headed by Chief Emeka Anyaoku (Nigeria), the former Commonwealth Secretary-General and President of the World Wide Fund for Nature. The panel will monitor the scope and progress of international support for NEPAD and advise the Secretary-General on ways to expand and strengthen global partnerships for Africa’s development goals. The advisory panel is among a number of initiatives the UN is undertaking to promote NEPAD internationally. Leading these efforts is the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, headed by Under-Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari. The Special Adviser has issued reports that highlight progress in three main areas of the NEPAD programme—increasing capital flows to Africa; integrating NEPAD priorities into Africa’s national development strategies; and strengthening cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean countries (South-South cooperation) in reaching Africa’s development objectives. The report on capital flows, entitled Potentials for Financing the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, contains specific recommendations for African governments and their development partners in six key areas, including: - Improving market access for Africa’s exports and reducing farm subsidies by industrialized countries; - Tax incentives to encourage foreign direct investment; - Expanding guarantees and other incentives for investors in Africa; - Greater efforts to promote trade with Africa; - Better targeting of development assistance, including aid to small- and medium-sized African businesses; and - Strengthening African economic governance through NEPAD’s Peer Review Mechanism. The report on South-South cooperation, Experiences of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, highlights links between African countries and their Latin American and Caribbean counterparts in agriculture, health and education, energy, telecommunications, peace and security, the environment and trade. The report notes that government-to-government cooperation between Africa and the region has fostered greater contacts among African and Latin American and Caribbean civil society organizations on a range of issues, including human rights and governance. Development bodies like the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, the report notes, could play “a catalytic role” in expanding development cooperation between the regions. The experiences of three countries in incorporating NEPAD’s objectives into national development strategies—Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa—are outlined in the third report. The study notes that while integrating NEPAD’s continental goals into national and local development programmes is complex, substantial early progress has been made in each of the countries examined. NEPAD reporting and monitoring mechanisms have been established, and priorities for initial action have been identified. Although the involvement of civil society and the private sector with NEPAD varies greatly, the report observes, consultations among stakeholders in all three countries are increasing. The reports are available online (www.un.org/esa/africa/publication.html). On 17 September, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan released his second annual report on NEPAD’s implementation (A/59/206). The report finds that although African countries are making considerable progress in carrying out the continent-wide plan, they also need firmer and more coherent support from the international community, including more aid, debt relief, foreign investment, and trade opportunities. Greater consistency in external policies should also be involved so that advances on one front are not undercut by lags on another. To develop Africa’s physical infrastructure, Mr. Annan reports that NEPAD’s Heads of State Implementation Committee has approved a list of 20 “top priority” projects, including in energy, transport, water and sanitation and information and communications technologies. Although the World Bank and African Development Bank have already earmarked some financing, about half of the estimated total cost of US$8.1 billion is expected to come from the private sector, the report notes. It is available online (www.africarecovery.org) under NEPAD/UN Reports. Contact: Agostinho Zaccarias, Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, United Nations, DC1-1237, New York NY 10017, USA, telephone +1-212/963 8435, fax +1-212/963 3892, e-mail <zaccarias@un.org>, website (www.un.org/esa/africa).
TOP	19 August: One Year Later
	On 19 August, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan led a ceremony at the Palais des Nations in Geneva commemorating the first anniversary of the bombing attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad that took the lives of 22 people, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the late Special Representative to Iraq and High Commissioner for Human Rights. Addressing the audience, Mr. Annan said, “It was a personal tragedy for each and every one of us, because of the dear friends and close colleagues we lost, and because of the direct attack against the blue flag and we who have devoted our lives to the United Nations.” Pointing out that “We are no strangers to violence and intimidation,” the Secretary-General noted that since the Baghdad attack, another 17 UN peacekeepers and civilian staff have lost their lives in the line of duty. “Their sacrifice, too, should be recognized today,” he said. “But the attack on the Canal Hotel was a really unique blow for us as an organization. It brought us face to face with danger in a new and more intimidating form—the danger that we, servants of the United Nations, will no longer be victims simply by virtue of the times and places in which we are called upon to serve, but may have become in ourselves one of the main targets of political violence. “We are now wrestling with wrenching, fundamental questions: “How do we improve security without unduly impeding our work and effectiveness? “Our work is with people. We must be able to get to them, and they must be able to get to us. “How do we balance this need for openness with security in today’s world? “How do we operate in places like Iraq and some parts of Afghanistan, where many people want and expect us to help—and this includes the Security Council—but some are determined to block our work at any price? “Are we witnessing a paradigm shift, or a tragic phase that will pass? “We have been working hard to find answers, and to correct our own systemic weaknesses. Much has been done, but much more is still to be done,” the Secretary-General concluded, asking for a minute of silence in honour of all the victims and their families.
TOP	S-G: Law & Transitional Justice
	On 12 August, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan released a report entitled The rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and post-conflict societies (S/2004/616). The Secretary-General suggests that in helping war-torn societies re-establish the rule of law and come to terms with large-scale past abuses after conflict, the United Nations must reject any amnesty for genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity. The report also says that Security Council mandates should ensure that no such amnesty previously granted bar prosecution before a UN-created or assisted court. However, Mr. Annan’s report stresses that the UN not establish or directly participate in any tribunal for which capital punishment is a possible sanction, and that it insist upon full government cooperation with international and mixed tribunals, including the surrender of accused persons. Helping such societies, “all within a context marked by devastated institutions, exhausted resources, diminished security and a traumatized and divided population, is a daunting, often overwhelming, task,” he noted. However, “justice, peace and democracy are not mutually exclusive objectives, but rather mutually reinforcing imperatives,” he said in his recommendations. “Advancing all three in fragile post-conflict settings requires strategic planning, careful integration and sensible sequencing of activities.” Mr. Annan calls for recognizing the need to ensure gender sensitivity in restoring the rule of law, as well as ensuring the full participation of women, and for avoiding the imposition of external models. “We must learn as well to eschew one-size-fits-all formulas and the imposition of foreign models, and, instead, base our support on national assessments, national participation and national needs and aspirations,” he said, noting that recent years have seen an increased UN focus on questions of transitional justice and the rule of law in conflict and post-conflict societies that has been “yielding important lessons for our future activities.” According to the Secretary-General, success will depend on a number of critical factors, among them the need to ensure a common basis in international norms and standards and to mobilize the necessary resources for a sustainable investment in justice. Mr. Annan said he would instruct the Executive Committee on Peace and Security (ECPS) to propose concrete action to strengthen UN support for tackling the issues. The ECPS, a high-level coordinating body created by the Secretary-General, facilitates communication between UN programmes and agencies in order to prevent, respond to, and end conflict. It is not a standing body but is convened on a regular basis by the Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs. The report is available online (www.un.org/Docs/sc/sgrep04.html).
TOP	S-G: Violence in Afghanistan
	On 17 August 2004, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan released his report on Afghanistan (S/2004/634) noting that extremist violence, factionalism and the illicit drug industry are on the rise, threatening lasting peace as the country prepares for elections. The report, entitled The situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security, indicates that violent attacks and cross-border infiltrations have increased, especially in Afghanistan’s south, and these activities are depriving many communities of the benefits of economic and political reconstruction. Violence—both terrorist and criminal—is carried out “with seeming impunity,” resulting in “the loss of too many Afghan lives and increasingly of those of international assistance workers,” the report says. An estimated 30 aid workers have been killed in Afghanistan since the beginning of 2003, most of them by suspected remnants of the Taliban militia who have vowed to halt humanitarian work and derail the elections planned for October 2004 and April 2005. Médecins sans Frontières announced in late July that it was leaving Afghanistan after 24 years because of concerns over security. Five of its staff were killed in an attack in the northwest of the country in June. However, the Secretary-General says the high rate of voter registrations—more than 9.9 million people have now enrolled, with 41% of them female—shows that the groups responsible for the violence are politically isolated ahead of presidential and parliamentary polls. The voter registrations are “a clear response to the efforts of the Taliban and other extremist groups to derail the elections and to exclude women from public life,” the report finds. Speaking before the Security Council on 25 August, Jean Arnault, Head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said that voters and electoral workers will need urgent protection, noting that even the threat of violence could cause large numbers of eligible voters to stay away from the polling sites, especially in the south. With existing security stretched thin, he called for enhanced international support to cover the 5,000 polling sites across Afghanistan. Mr. Arnault called for UN workers to receive enhanced protection, saying there should be more trained Afghan personnel to protect UN sites and more resources for gathering and analyzing security information. Pointing to the political and ethnic diversity of the candidates standing for president, Mr. Arnault said this was evidence that “meaningful political competition is seen to be possible” at least at the national level. More information is available online (http://mirror.undp.org/afghanistan/unama.html).
TOP	1 Million Refugees Repatriated
	According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), one million Afghan refugees have returned home from Iran since UNHCR started its voluntary repatriation programme in April 2002. This reduces by half the overall Afghan refugee population in Iran, which now stands at around one million. High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers welcomed the news as a positive step for Afghanistan, and a milestone for UNHCR’s work in the region. “For over two years now, UNHCR has been strongly committed to the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Rebuilding a country after years of war is a long and difficult process, and I remain concerned at the deterioration in the security situation in some regions. But today gives us all the opportunity to take stock of how much has been accomplished already. One million Afghans have been able to repatriate from Iran, and behind this figure there are one million individual stories, one million people who made the choice to go back, and are now rebuilding not just their own lives, but also their homeland.” UNHCR says this millionth return comes towards the end of a summer season that has seen a marked increase in the repatriation trend from Iran to Afghanistan. In recent weeks, up to 4,000 Afghans a day have made the journey back home. The rise in the number of returns follows the introduction of a series of new measures implemented by UNHCR to facilitate voluntary repatriation. “Many Afghan refugees in Iran are very educated, they have professional skills that are essential to the future of Afghanistan,” said UNHCR Representative in Iran Philippe Lavanchy. “Every teacher who goes back will teach hundreds of Afghan children to read, every doctor will save lives, all will be an integral part of the reconstruction of Afghanistan. This is why the team here has made it a priority to help refugees who want to repatriate by removing some of the obstacles that stood in their path.” The measures put in place by UNHCR over the past year cover a wide range of issues of concern to refugees, from the logistical to the educational. UNHCR has doubled the number of trucks with accompanying baggage leaving on each convoy, allowing refugees to take more of their personal belongings home. UNHCR is also running an information campaign to let refugees know their entitlements under the voluntary repatriation programme. Another UNHCR initiative was to set up “dispute settlement committees” in seven Iranian cities to help refugees resolve their legal disputes before repatriating. The committees deal with civil cases only, and use mediation and arbitration to resolve such issues as non-payment of salary, or refusal to return rental deposits. Often, the sums involved are all the savings that the refugees can rely on to start a new life back in their homeland. If the current repatriation trend continues, UNHCR estimates that another 200,000 Afghans will have repatriated from Iran by the time the voluntary repatriation programme is scheduled to end in March 2005. This will leave around 800,000 Afghans in the country, and the refugee agency is working with the Iranian authorities to find long-term solutions for some of this remaining caseload. Contact: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, CH-1211 Geneva 2 Dépôt, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/739 8111, website (www.unhcr.ch).
TOP	Second World Urban Forum
	The Second World Urban Forum, held in Barcelona from 13-17 September, opened with warnings from world leaders and mayors that rapid urbanization is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity, as they called attention to the fact that millions of people in cities around the world still lack access to safe water and sanitation, health care, education, shelter, and security of tenure. The meeting brought together over 4,000 people, including over 600 mayors from around the world to address the conference’s theme: “Cities: crossroads of cultures, inclusiveness and integration?” The United Nations Human Settlements Programme’s (UN-HABITAT) Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka said the question mark in the theme of the conference implied that the world still had not yet arrived at an effective strategy to make cities work for everyone. The five-day Forum included three plenary sessions, a series of thematic and partner dialogues, networking events, panel discussions, and special events. Numerous speakers called for more backing for local authorities from the UN system and governments, as well as a renewed drive for decentralization. “Urbanization is bringing problems of concern to us all,” said former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in his address. “Four years ago, when world leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration, it seemed they recognized the urgency of the problems,” he said. “But all of us today are concerned that many leaders having taken that step, have not shown the political will to implement them and take on the obligations they assumed. We have to be frank—we cannot leave the millennium commitments to the same fate as Rio document of 1992.” Joan Clos, Mayor of Barcelona and President of the United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities (UNACLA), pointed to the formation of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG, see Go Between 103) in January 2004. He noted that in many countries local governments were unelected, lacked financial independence, were unable to raise their own finances and thus unable to make full use of their authority. The new UCLG wanted to help develop local administrative independence around the world. Nicophore Soglo, Mayor of Contonou (Benin), said that nowhere is the challenge of urbanization greater than in Africa: “The world’s urban population is approaching the characteristics of a time-bomb. We must disarm it immediately.” He pointed out that Africa’s challenges were double those of elsewhere in the world: “We must never forget that Africa has undergone four centuries of deportation—the slave trade followed by colonization and now we have unviable States, governance problems, conflict and HIV/AIDS. Its world market access is derisory. Decentralization and democracy is only beginning in many countries.” During a discussion on urban resources and finance, a number of panellists highlighted the fact that despite their lack of access to urban resources and finance, the urban poor in many cities still manage to build settlements. Their efforts at incremental housing must, therefore, be recognized by the finance sector, and appropriate finance products must be developed to meet their needs. Panellists also raised the issue of setting appropriate interest rates that would serve the needs of the urban poor. This would require support from people themselves, who will need to save regularly, but also from governments who need to assure secure tenure. On their part, development finance institutions need to provide adequate credit guarantee mechanisms to reduce risk and make interest rates affordable. Dennis Shea, Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, stressed the need to harness private sector resources to meet the needs of the urban poor. He added that while national and local governments were willing to put in equity in the form of land for slum upgrading, commercial capital was still not easily available. The discussion concluded with a set of recommendations, including adapting commercial banking and housing finance systems to the needs of the urban poor and ensuring that slum dwellers are the dominant partners in slum upgrading initiatives. The Huairou Commission, representing grassroots women’s organizations around the world, called on UN-HABITAT to convene an expert-group meeting on women’s concerns, and said the Third World Urban Forum should have a “special place” for a women’s caucus. Esther Mwaura Muiru, of the commission, said governments had to address the issues of the Millennium Development Goals with particular attention to the plight of women. The Forum closed with a call from urban leaders on governments to give local authorities more support saying the challenge of urbanization is the greatest facing humanity. In her closing remarks, Mrs. Tibaijuka said, “In two short years, the World Urban Forum has established itself as the world’s premier urban development platform. The 1,100 people at the inaugural event in Nairobi in 2002 would scarcely have dared believe that more than 4,000 participants would come to Barcelona for a week of networking, discussion and debate,” she said. More information on the forum and the initiatives and partnerships that were launched is available online. Canada has agreed to host the Third World Urban Forum in Vancouver (Canada). Contact: Sharad Shankardess, Head, Press & Media Unit, PO Box 30030, Nairobi, Kenya, telephone +254-20/623153, fax +254-20/624060, e-mail <sharad.shankardass@unhabitat.org>, website (www.unhabitat.org/wuf/2004/default.asp). Sarah O’Brien, Executive Officer, United Cities and Local Governments, Carrer Avinyó, 15, 08002 Barcelona, Spain, telephone +34-933/428750, fax +34-933/428760, e-mail <s.obrien@cities-localgovernments.org>, website (www.cities-localgovernments.org).
TOP	Role of Women Ex-combatants
	Women ex-combatants from Rwanda, speaking at a meeting organized in Kigali in late August by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), have asked for a role in regional peacekeeping missions in Africa. The meeting was organized in recognition of the fact that women ex-combatants, despite the essential roles they can play in post-conflict disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) processes, are frequently excluded from these processes. Because of a strong focus on male ex-combatants, the needs of women ex-combatants are often inadequately addressed in demobilization phases, resulting in situations of deteriorating health and poverty. The UNIFEM/CIDA meeting discussed the challenges faced by female ex-combatants reintegrating into society, and the role they are playing as peace builders in their communities. The meeting, which brought together over 200 women from an association of female ex-combatants called Ndabaga, was also attended by Rwandan Minister for Gender, Valerie Nyirahabineza, who said that peacekeeping missions must have a gender perspective, and that Ndabaga members could lend valuable contributions. “Since wars and conflicts affect children and women in a special way, and since women tend to confide in their fellow women more that they do men, peace missions should have a big representation of women to attend to the special needs of women suffering the consequences of war,” she said, citing the recent mission from Rwanda to Darfur (Sudan) as an example of where Rwandan women ex-combatants should have been included. Members of the Ndabaga group, established in 2001, said they are deeply committed to Rwanda’s national reconstruction and reconciliation process, and many are already active leaders in grassroots organizations often called upon to assist their communities with conflict resolution. Rwanda’s Ministry of Gender has allocated funds to help the Ndabaga women access the resources they need and to carry out their activities, while the Minister of Labour, Vocational Training and Public Service, Angeline Muganza, pledged to sponsor Ndabaga members aged 20-25 years for vocational training for three years. “This has really caught people’s imagination,” UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer, said. “We will help their organization to meet with other women’s groups not only within Africa but outside as well. We hope to create a network of demobilized women,” Ms. Heyzer said, referring to their overall role in rehabilitation after conflicts, including education, health care and employment. On the specific issue of women in peacekeeping operations outside their countries, she said they would have to be prepared, but added, “We try to break new ground.” See related article on page 20. Contact: Joanne Sandler, Deputy Director for Programmes, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), 304 East 45th St, 15th Floor, New York NY 10017, USA, telephone +1-212/906 6400, fax +1- 212/906 6705, e-mail <joanne.sandler@undp.org>, website (www.unifem.org).
TOP	Disarmament: Consensus elusive
	The Conference on Disarmament, the sole multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, concluded the third and last part of its 2004 session on 7 September after adopting its annual report, which will be presented to the General Assembly. Although intensive consultations were held and a number of informal proposals were put forward, the report notes that the Conference was not able to agree on a programme of work. The Conference works by consensus and cannot undertake new work without the agreement of all Member States. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his message to the opening session of the Conference, said recent events had inspired demands for new efforts to strengthen the effectiveness of arms control and disarmament agreements, and to revitalize the multilateral disarmament machinery, including the Conference. He stressed that political will was essential in overcoming the current impasse and revitalizing the Conference. During the session, the Conference adopted a decision with regard to enhancement of the engagement of civil society in its work, deciding that after the Conference adopts a programme of work, it will allocate one informal plenary meeting per annual session to NGOs to address the Conference. Only NGOs whose activities are relevant to the work of the Conference will be able to address it, and a formal selection process will be put in place to consider requests. In his closing statement, the President of the Conference, Ambassador Mya Than of Myanmar, said, despite all efforts, the programme of work still remained elusive. However, he pointed to progress made in certain areas, including the enhancement and engagement of cooperation with civil society. The Conference’s report requests the current President and the incoming President to conduct consultations during the intersessional period and, if possible, make recommendations, taking into account all relevant proposals, views presented and discussions held. The dates for the three parts of its 2005 session will be from 24 January - 1 April; 30 May - 15 July; and 8 August - 23 September. Contact: Conference on Disarmament, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/917 3440, fax +41-22/917 0034, website (www.unog.ch/disarm/dconf.htm).
TOP	World Investment Report 2004
	Launched on 22 September, World Investment Report 2004: The Shift Towards Services (WIR04) presents the latest trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) and explores the shift towards services, with a special analysis of offshoring service activities. Part One of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) report discusses recent global and regional trends in FDI and international production by transnational corporations (TNCs). Global FDI flows bottomed out in 2003, the report notes, but there were some regional differences, and the sectoral pattern of FDI is moving towards services. Outward FDI from developing countries is becoming significant. UNCTAD says there is also optimism that inflows to these countries will increase in 2004 and beyond. Part Two of WIR04 deals with FDI in services—an important but often neglected area of FDI in the context of development. It examines the shift of FDI towards services with a focus on the entry of TNCs into new service areas. Services FDI, especially in intermediate and infrastructure services, affects the economic performance of a host-country in all sectors. The offshoring of corporate services is taking off rapidly because of advances in information and communications technologies. However, the potential of such offshoring can only be harnessed if countries adopt appropriate policies, UNCTAD warns. Part Three analyzes key issues relating to national and international policies on FDI in services. As many services are deeply embedded in the social, cultural and political fabric of host societies, the impact of FDI on those services could be far-reaching, WIR04 notes. Therefore, national policies matter—not only to attract FDI in services, but also to maximize its benefits and minimize its potential negative impacts. UNCTAD points out that the proliferation of international investment agreements (IIAs) covering FDI in services has resulted in a multifaceted and multilayered network of international rules that affect national policy making. WIR04 includes a statistical annex, the Outward FDI Performance Index, which shows how countries stack up against one another in terms of their outward FDI performance in terms of their economic size, measured by gross domestic product (GDP). “The Index shows that small developed and developing countries invest relatively more abroad than big ones and that there is greater potential for outward FDI for some big countries,” Karl P. Sauvant, Director of UNCTAD’s Investment Division, said. Countries at the top of the Index include a number of developing economies from South-East Asia (e.g. Hong Kong (China), Malaysia and Singapore). Firms from these relatively small, open economies are subject to the same competitive pressures of the globalizing world economy as their counterparts from developed countries, and are thus increasingly building up their competitive strength for expanding through FDI, WIR04 notes. A number of economies have seen an improvement in their outward FDI performance over the past 15 years. The fact that their FDI grew faster than their share of global GDP indicates that their enterprises are building ownership advantages rapidly and/or are increasingly choosing to exploit their advantages by establishing operations in foreign locations, UNCTAD says. Contact: Karl Sauvant, Director, Division on Investment, Technology and Enterprise Development, UNCTAD, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/907 5707, e-mail <karl.sauvant@unctad.org>, website (www.unctad.org/wir).
TOP	UNCTAD Trade and Development Report 2004
	According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the situation of the global economy is brighter than it was a year ago. Since growth in world output and trade recovered in 2003, there is now widespread optimism that the acceleration of growth in 2004 could lead to a return of the performance experienced at the end of the last decade, and that the world economy may enter an extended period of growth. In reality, however, the outlook for a sustained recovery is more clouded and uncertain than at the beginning of the 1990s, UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Report 2004 (TDR2004): Policy Coherence, Development Strategies and Integration into the World Economy suggests. Large disparities in the strength of domestic demand persist among the major industrial countries, and increasing trade imbalances between the major economic blocks could lead to new protectionist pressures and increase instability in currency and financial markets, with adverse implications for developing countries, the report cautions. The sharp increase in oil prices and uncertainty about their future development, as well as their possible impact on inflation and interest rates, are an additional reason for concern. The report notes that that income growth is unequally distributed both among developed countries, where the euro area continues to lag behind, and among developing countries, where fast and sustained growth continues to be concentrated in East and South Asia. At the same time, per capita income in most of sub-Saharan Africa is stagnating, and the basis for sustained growth in Latin America is still very fragile. TDR2004 points out that the improvement in the global economy has been the result of exceptionally good performance in a small number of countries, with great variations in the spillover effects on other economies. The recovery of the world economy has been driven largely by the US economy and continued fast expansion in East and South Asia. Through its increasing fiscal and trade deficits, the United States economy has provided a strong demand stimulus to the rest of the world. On the other hand, several developing economies in Asia, in particular China, have been able to increase not only their imports—with strong spillover effects in economies in the Asia and Pacific region—but also their exports at double-digit rates. TDR2004 points out that the African continent benefited from the recovery in the world economy less than other developing regions, and that given the severe financing constraints of most sub-Saharan economies, investment rates remain too low to achieve the required degree of diversification into higher value-added production and more dynamic products in international markets. The report stresses that debt relief and the additional provision of official development assistance (ODA) in the form of grants are indispensable for alleviating poverty and improving social conditions in these countries. In light of the persisting weakness of per capita income growth, the report warns that it now appears increasingly unlikely that sub-Saharan Africa can attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in particular that of halving poverty by 2015. In most countries, growth would need to be doubled and sustained over a decade in order to meet those goals. Greater openness to international trade and finance has not enabled developing countries to establish a virtuous interaction between external financing, domestic investment and export growth. TDR2004 argues that, to achieve this, a feasible development agenda has to be based on the concept of “coherence.” According to the report, a more comprehensive policy framework is required that addresses the need to reinforce coherence between the international trading system and the international monetary and financial system. The processes that have led to the recovery of the world economy and the regional growth patterns in the developing world confirm the importance of proactive fiscal and monetary policies that support domestic demand growth, TDR2004 points out. Moreover, a competitive exchange rate can play a decisive role in forestalling external constraints and creating policy space for monetary easing. Contact: Heiner Flassbeck, UNCTAD, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/907 5840, fax +41-22/907 0274, e-mail <heiner.flassbeck@unctad.org>, website (www.unctad.org).
TOP	International Forum on Creative Industries
	On 20 August, the Brazilian Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil Moreira, launched a joint initiative between the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Brazilian Government to set up an International Forum on Creative Industries in Brazil. The Forum aims to help developing countries derive greater development gains from the emerging sector of creative industries, such as the recording industry, photography, commercial art, as well as music production and the motion picture industry. By improving market transparency, sharing best practices, and international advocacy, the Forum seeks to assist in the development of these industries in developing countries. According to UNCTAD, creative industries are also an important vehicle for the promotion of cultural diversity, and are key to helping countries claim their own histories and to envision their own future—and are thus part of a more holistic view of the development agenda. Speaking at the UNCTAD launch for the initiative, Mr. Gil stressed that creative industries presented “a singular opportunity for developing countries to establish new economic and trading relations” because they allow developing countries to make use of their rich supply of creativity and cultural assets to generate employment and to reduce poverty. UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero pointed out that “excellence in artistic expression and abundance of talent are not the privilege of rich countries.” Creative industries already contribute to employment generation and export expansion in some leading developing countries, such as the Indian film industry (known as “Bollywood”). Globally, they are estimated to account for more than 7% of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) and are forecast to grow on average by 10% per annum. However, most developing and transition economies continue to be marginal players in these sectors, reflecting a combination of domestic policy weaknesses and global systemic biases. The Forum will help address a broad range of factors that are hindering developing countries in making use of their potential. Other functions could include identifying marketable creative products in developing countries through market studies and data collection, helping to build the required supply capacity and to modernize the creative sectors (for example, through policy advice or facilitating access to distribution networks in importing markets), as well as providing marketing support in target countries. UNCTAD is setting up an inter-agency task force to provide expertise. The International Forum on Creative Industries represents the first follow-up action to UNCTAD XI, held in Brazil in June (see NGLS Roundup 115). Contact: Zeljka Kozul-Wright, UNCTAD Press Office, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/907 5004, e-mail <zeljka.kozul-wright@unctad.org>, website (www.unctad.org/press).
TOP	UNV: Volunteers Have a Role to Play in the MDGs
	The volunteer movement has a critical role to play in harnessing and channelling volunteer energy towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Ad de Raad, recently appointed Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, said. Speaking at a special forum of the 18th World Volunteer Conference held in Spain in August as part of the Universal Forum of Cultures - Barcelona 2004, he urged governments to seize volunteerism’s potential in helping to realize their commitments to the MDGs. “It is now time for governments to act on United Nations General Assembly resolutions they have adopted, which state that volunteerism can be a valuable resource for achieving development goals,” he said. “Ignoring volunteerism, failing to promote it, failing to strengthen it, failing to assess how it can be leveraged, failing to use it strategically to help meet development targets, amounts to squandering this resource,” he stressed. While volunteerism, he added, is not the solution to all of the challenges facing humanity, disregarding its impact would be moving in the wrong direction. “Volunteering is of course not a solution for addressing all of the world’s ills. But to ignore the contributions that many millions volunteers make, and not to factor volunteerism into official policy and programmes, is a fundamental mistake,” he warned. Created by the General Assembly in 1970 to serve as an operational partner in development cooperation at the request of Member States, UNV encourages people to become active in volunteering in their countries and is administered by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), working through UNDP offices around the world. On 1 September, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed proposals to streamline UNV, which seeks to mobilize people worldwide in the service of peace and development in sectors ranging from agriculture and health to support of human rights and electoral processes. In a note to the General Assembly, Mr. Annan endorsed as “balanced and constructive” a report by the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) that evaluated UNV and recommended improvements to ensure the most efficient use of resources. The report’s proposals to UNV include focussing on a more limited number of high-priority activities and trying to achieve a balance between ongoing activities and new initiatives and projects. It also calls for management to continue improving the representation of volunteers from under-represented countries as well as women and youth. Some 5,000 qualified and experienced women and men of nearly 160 nationalities serve each year in developing countries in technical cooperation with governments, with community-based initiatives, in humanitarian relief and rehabilitation and in support of human rights, electoral and peace-building processes. Contact: United Nations Volunteers, Postfach 260 111, D-53153 Bonn, Germany, telephone +49-228/815 2000, fax +49-228/815 2001, e-mail <information@unvolunteers.org>, website (www.unv.org).
TOP	WHO & UNICEF Warn of “Silent Emergency”
	A report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warns that more than 2.6 billion people—over 40% of the world’s population—do not have access to basic sanitation, and more than one billion people still use unsafe sources of drinking water, creating a cycle of ill-health and poverty that will defeat human development efforts if urgent action is not taken. Entitled Meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) drinking water and sanitation target -- A mid-term assessment of progress, the report details the progress of individual countries, regions, and the world as a whole between the MDG baseline year of 1990 and the half-way mark of 2002. WHO and UNICEF say the report, which is the first in a series looking at progress in water and sanitation coverage, should be a wake-up call to all global leaders: “Every country still has work to do to eliminate disparities in basic services and the data shows clearly how that can be done before the MDG deadline of 2015.” The report notes that while the world is on track to meet the MDG of cutting the number of people lacking safe drinking water to 800 million by 2015, the MDG of providing basic sanitation to 75% of the global population will, at the present rate of progress, fall short by half a billion people, allowing waste and disease to spread, killing millions of children and leaving millions more on the brink of survival, most of which will occur in rural Africa and Asia. “Around the world millions of children are being born into a silent emergency of simple needs,” UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said. “The growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots in terms of access to basic services is killing around 4,000 children every day and underlies many more of the ten million child deaths each year. We have to act now to close this gap or the death toll will certainly rise.” “Water and sanitation are among the most important determinants of public health. Wherever people achieve reliable access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation they have won a major battle against a wide range of diseases,” WHO Director-General Jong-wook Lee said. The severe human and economic toll of missing the sanitation target could be prevented by closing the gap between urban and rural populations and by providing simple hygiene education, according to WHO and UNICEF. They warn that a global trend towards urbanization is marginalizing the rural poor and putting a huge strain on basic services in cities. As a result, families living in rural villages and urban slums are being trapped in a cycle of ill-health and poverty. Reversing this trend and moving towards universal coverage for water and sanitation will take more than money, Ms. Bellamy and Dr. Lee stressed. National policies based on the principle of “some for all” rather than “all for some” have been the key to improvements in many countries. And at the local level, resources have to be retargeted to include the poorest communities, with local government and the private sector co-operating to bring affordable solutions. The report points out a number of encouraging signs, particularly in South Asia where drinking water coverage increased from 71% to 84%, and notes that great gains in water and sanitation coverage have been made against considerable odds in many countries. The report finds that the progress came as a direct result of political prioritization and a drive to find locally effective solutions. “This report is important because it proves that significant improvements are possible in a short space of time, even in the poorest countries,” Ms. Bellamy said. “By identifying trends now, and committing to course corrections, we have a real opportunity to ensure that by 2015 these basic essentials of life are available to all.” Contact: Gregory Hartl, World Health Organization, 20, avenue Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/791 4458, fax +41-22/791 4858, e-mail <hartlg@who.int>, website (www.who.int). Kimberly Gamble-Payne, Deputy Director, Office for Public Partnerships, UNICEF, 3 UN Plaza, New York NY 10017, USA, telephone +1-212/824 6648, fax +1-212/303 7992, e-mail <kgamblepayne@unicef.org>, website (www.unicef.org).
TOP	Industrial Development Report 2004
	A report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), entitled Industrial Development Report 2004: Industrialization, Environment and the Millennium Development Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa, finds that growing economic decay in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where the number of people living in poverty rose from 42% to 47% between 1981-2001, is the biggest development challenge the world faces. The report notes that fostering macro-economic management and good governance and increasing agricultural output will be key to improving the lot of sub-Saharan Africans, as will creating institutional and social capabilities and diversifying their economies. “Only along this path will sub-Saharan Africa be able to not just break out of the vicious circle of poverty, but also to move on to achieving economy-wide productivity growth,” UNIDO said. In order to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, sub-Saharan countries must have per capita growth near 5%. At current rates, they will not halve their poverty rates by 2060, the report indicates. Some growth would be recorded if goals in health, nutrition, education and other social issues were met, the report suggests. It also recommends advanced technology to boost development: “As illustrated by community telecommunications centres and prepaid mobile telephones, it is possible to bring advanced technologies profitably to poor regions using the right mix of services and a basic level of infrastructure.” Part one of the Industrial Development Report 2004 pinpoints the opportunities and policy options available for the SSA countries to reduce poverty through structural change, productivity growth and diversification, and by building up the institutional and social capabilities essential to overcome adverse initial conditions. Examining the ways in which greater private sector participation, strengthened through the provision of public goods, can enhance poverty reduction efforts, the report also outlines forward-looking policy approaches to industrial development that take advantage of environmentally sound and advanced technologies. The report argues the improvements that MDGs envisage in health, education, gender, environment and infrastructure are essential if productive sectors are to grow, create employment and result in sustained development. It also argues that complementary to the efforts to offset the adverse conditions via the MDGs, a number of external and domestic policy interventions need to complement and reinforce the relationship between MDGs, poverty reduction and sustained growth. Above all, this requires the build up of social and technological capabilities. The second part features the Industrial Development Scoreboard, which benchmarks a set of industrial performance and capability indicators and provides a global overview of industrial competitiveness in all its diversity, assessing the main factors affecting it. Contact: UNIDO Headquarters, Vienna International Centre, A-1400 Vienna, Austria, telephone +43-1/26026 0, fax +43-1/2692669, e-mail <unido@unido.org>, website (www.unido.org/doc/5156).
TOP	Landmines Continue to Cripple Children
	With landmines and other unexploded ordnance (UXO) continuing indiscriminately to maim and kill children across Southeast Asia, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called on regional governments to redouble their efforts to clean up the devastating waste from decades of war. “Children are particularly vulnerable to landmines and UXO,” Patrick Hennessy, a senior official at UNICEF, told a three-day Regional Workshop on Mine Clearance and Victim Assistance in Southeast Asia, held in Thailand in late August. “They like to explore, they like to play with objects they find and they cannot read signs warning them of danger. Children also frequently undertake household tasks that involve going near or through mine-affected areas. In Viet Nam, they account for half of all mine-related injuries and one-third of all deaths,” he added. The region contains some of the most heavily mined countries in the world. Landmines and UXO are a danger to children in nearly half of all villages in Cambodia and nearly one-quarter of all villages in Laos. Up to 800,000 tons of UXO and 3.5 million landmines still cover Viet Nam, where over 100,000 people have been killed or injured since 1975. The effect on children is particularly vicious. Some 85% of youngsters who step on landmines die before they reach hospital. Those who survive are often denied their basic rights. They are excluded from school and left with little chance to marry, find work or contribute to their families and societies. Rehabilitation clinics are often too far away or too expensive to access, although children need more care than adults. As they grow, new prostheses need to be fitted regularly, and a child survivor may have to undergo several amputations, since bone grows more quickly than surrounding tissue. The workshop was hosted by the Thai Government as part of preparations for the First World Summit on Landmines, to be held in Nairobi (Kenya) from 29 November-3 December, which will focus on clearing/marking mined areas, educating people at risk, destroying stockpiles, providing assistance to landmine victims and universalizing ratification of the Mine Ban Treaty, already ratified by 141 States (see Go Between 99). Contact: Madeline Eisner, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific, telephone +662-356/9406, e-mail <meisner@unicef.org>, website (www.unicef.org).
TOP	Remembrance of Slavery & Its Abolition
	23 August marked the International Day for the Remembrance of Slavery and Its Abolition and was celebrated worldwide in a number of ways—including through films, discussions, communal gatherings, multi-ethnic bands, artwork and poetry. According to Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural and Organization (UNESCO) Koïchiro Matsuura, while slavery has been abolished by international treaties, it is still practised in new forms that today affect millions of men, women and children in the world. Such forms include human trafficking, child labour, forced marriage, and bonded labour. “The Day gives us the opportunity to reflect together on the historical causes, processes and consequences of the unprecedented tragedy that was slavery and the slave trade, a tragedy that was concealed for many years and is yet to be fully recognized,” Mr. Matsuura said at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. “It not only disrupted the lives of millions of human beings uprooted from their land and deported in the most inhuman conditions, but it brought about cultural exchanges which deeply and lastingly influenced morals and beliefs, social relations and knowledge on several continents,” he added. UNESCO and the UN General Assembly designated the Day to commemorate the 1791 slave revolt in San Domingo, which was the first known victory of slaves over slaveholders, as well as Haiti’s independence in January 1804. A two-day meeting on “Slavery and its Impact in Today’s World” was held in Panama from 23-25 August, allowing a retrospective look at the occurrences and influences which led to the abolition of the transatlantic trade in African slaves to the New World, and which also sought to inform the public about slavery today. The meeting produced the Panama Declaration on “Culture and identity as tools for overcoming racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and different forms of intolerance.” Contact: Andre Kramp, Chief, History and Culture Section, Division for Intercultural Dialogue, UNESCO, 1 Rue Miollis, 75015 Paris, France, e-mail <a.kramp@unesco.org>, website (www.unesco.org/culture/dialogue/slave).
TOP	ILO: Economic Security for a Better World
	According to a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), people in countries where income is protected report high levels of happiness, but about three-quarters of the world’s workers live in circumstances of economic insecurity that foster “a world full of anxiety and anger.” Only 8% of people—fewer than one in ten—live in countries providing favourable economic security. Economic Security for a Better World indicates that a socio-economic safety net, rather than income level, not only promotes personal wellbeing, happiness and tolerance but also benefits growth, development and social stability. “Coming shortly after the report of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, this book should enrich the debate on how we can build a fair globalization,” ILO Director-General Juan Somavia stressed (see NGLS Roundup 112). “Unless we can make our societies more equal and the global economy more inclusive, very few will achieve economic security or decent work.” The report marks the first attempt to measure global economic security as perceived by ordinary people and was based on detailed household and workplace surveys covering over 48,000 workers and more than 10,000 workplaces worldwide. Economic security is measured on the basis of seven forms of work-related security including income, labour markets, employment, skills, work, jobs and representation. Survey results paint a mixed global picture, showing that some lower-income countries achieve higher levels of economic security than certain rich nations. South and South-East Asia have a greater share of global economic security (14%) than their share of world income (7%). By contrast, Latin American States provide their citizens with less economic security. Key findings of the survey include: - The most important determinant of national happiness is the extent of income security, measured in terms of income protection and a low degree of income inequality. - Employment security is diminishing almost everywhere, due to the informalization of economic activities, outsourcing and regulatory reforms. - Job security—defined as a position with good prospects of satisfying work and a career—is weak in most countries. - Women usually experience more employment insecurity on average than men and face more types of insecurity. - Political democracy and civil liberties significantly increase economic security but economic growth has only a weak impact on security over the longer-term. The ILO analysis concludes that conventional social security systems are inappropriate for responding to the new forms of systemic risk and uncertainty that characterize the emerging global economic system. Accordingly, governments and international agencies should promote universalistic, rights-based schemes that provide people with basic economic security, rather than resort to selective, means-tested schemes. Contact: Socio-Economic Security Programme Secretariat, ILO, 4 route des Morillons, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/799 7913, e-mail <ses@ilo.org>, website (www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/ses/index.htm).
TOP	ILO: Youth Unemployment Rising
	With youth unemployment worldwide skyrocketing to an all-time high, the International Labour Organization (ILO) is calling for a combination of targeted and integrated policies to tackle the problem, which would also significantly benefit the global economy. ILO’s report, entitled Global Employment Trends for Youth 2004, indicates that young people aged 15-24 represent nearly half the world’s jobless although they account for only 25% of the working age population. The report finds that halving world youth unemployment rate would add at least US$2.2 trillion to global gross domestic product (GDP) equal to around 4% of the 2003 value. “We are wasting an important part of the energy and talent of the most educated youth generation the world has ever had,” ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said. “Enlarging the chances of young people to find and keep decent work is absolutely critical to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals.” The relative disadvantage of youth is more pronounced in developing countries, where they make up a strikingly higher proportion of the labour force than in industrialized economies, the report says. Eighty-five per cent of the world’s youth live in developing countries where they are 3.8 times more likely to be unemployed than adults, as compared with 2.3 times in industrialized economies. ILO warns that the problem goes far beyond the large number of young unemployed people—47% of the total 186 million people out of work worldwide in 2003. The report says that young people also represent 130 million of the world’s 550 million working poor who are unable to lift themselves and their families above the equivalent of the US$1 per day poverty line. These young people struggle to survive, often performing work under unsatisfactory conditions in the informal economy. The report puts global youth unemployment at 14.4% in 2003, with rates highest in the Middle East and North Africa (25.6%), followed by sub-Saharan Africa (21%), transition economies (18.6%), Latin America and the Caribbean (16.6%), Southeast Asia (16.4%), South Asia (13.9%), industrialized economies (13.4%), and East Asia (7%). The industrialized economies region was the only region where youth unemployment saw a distinct decrease from 15.4% in 1993. The report shows that the growth in the number of young people is rapidly outstripping the ability of economies to provide them with jobs. While the overall youth population grew by 10.5% over the last ten years to more than 1.1 billion in 2003, youth employment grew by only 0.2% to around 526 million. Policies to tackle the problem have been identified by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Youth Employment Network (YEN), a UN-World Bank-ILO partnership that pools the skills, experiences and knowledge of diverse partners at the global, national and local level. The ILO acts as the secretariat for the YEN (www.cinterfor.org.uy/public/english/region/ampro/cinterfor/temas/youth/yen/index.htm). 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/public/english/employment/strat/global.htm).
TOP	Treaty on Rights of Persons with Disabilities
	The committee charged with drafting the first-ever international convention on the rights of persons with disabilities adopted the report of its fourth session (A/AC.265/2004/L.4), on 3 September, which reflects the outcome of the latest round of negotiations on the new instrument. During its two-week meeting, the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities concluded a first reading of the text, which addresses issues such as the definition of disability, general State obligations under the proposed treaty, the need to achieve equality and non-discrimination, and various rights of disabled persons under the law, including the rights to life, survival, development, equal recognition and freedom of expression, as well as respect for privacy, home and family and being included in the community. The treaty under negotiation was proposed to the General Assembly by Mexico in 2001, in the context of growing international recognition of disability rights as human rights. It aims to protect and promote the rights of persons with disabilities, while moving beyond the traditional concept of access to the physical environment to include broader issues, including equal access to education, employment, health, and political participation. It is expected that the convention will be presented to the Assembly for adoption in September 2005. It will create a legally binding framework for promoting the rights of the world’s 600 million people with disabilities. The Committee recommended that its fifth session should take place in New York in January 2005, and that the dates should be included in the relevant resolution to be adopted by the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session.
TOP	UNAIDS & Brazil Scale Up Efforts
	On 1 September, the Government of Brazil and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) announced a new approach to scale up the response to AIDS in developing countries through multilateral agreements between the Government of Brazil, UNAIDS and other developing countries. As part of this new joint initiative, UNAIDS will establish an International Centre for Technical Cooperation on AIDS based in Brazil. “The new initiative will give other countries the necessary tools to effectively fight AIDS, now that financing is greatly increasing. Making this money work is now a priority. We urgently need to identify new ways for countries to build technical capacity to tackle the epidemic, the largest human development crisis in history,” said Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director. “It is absolutely appropriate that the first centre be established in partnership with Brazil, which has demonstrated unrivalled leadership and creativity in responding to the AIDS epidemic, particularly with a strong partnership between the government and civil society.” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Dr. Piot met to discuss the global response to AIDS. “Twenty years into the AIDS epidemic, the linkages between poverty, hunger and AIDS are now more evident than ever,” Dr. Piot said, noting that President Lula has been a global leader in all these fronts. “The Brazilian response to AIDS has emerged as a model in tackling both HIV prevention and treatment head-on. I hope that President Lula’s leadership would encourage other leaders in the South to move forward the response to AIDS.” The Technical Cooperation Centre will initially be funded by UNAIDS and the Government of Brazil. Additional resources will be raised through the private sector and international foundations. 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).
TOP	WHO & UNAIDS: HIV Vaccine Trials
	Greater participation of women and adolescents is needed in HIV vaccine clinical trials, according to a group of international experts, who attended a consultation on HIV vaccine trials in Lausanne (Switzerland) from 26-28 August. The meeting, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), brought together 40 experts from around the world to address the issues of gender and age, as well as race in HIV vaccine-related research and clinical trials. “We have identified measures aimed at rectifying the injustice stemming from the frequent exclusion or low participation of women and adolescents in HIV vaccine clinical trials. Clinical trial enrolment needs to be more inclusive, so the benefits of research are more fairly distributed,” said Ruth Macklin, co-Chair of the meeting and a bioethics professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. A number of reasons account for the lack of participation of women and young people, including: lack of empowerment, independent decision making and education in some settings; social isolation; discrimination; stigma associated with high-risk behaviour; trial enrolment criteria; and issues concerning confidentiality and informed consent, among others. Studies show that women, when exposed to HIV, are at least twice as likely to become infected with HIV as their male counterparts. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, girls and young women are up to six times more likely to be infected than their male peers. Girls and young women aged 15-24 make up 62% of the young people in developing countries living with HIV or AIDS. “Women and girls are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection for biological, social and economic reasons,” said Catherine Hankins, Chief Scientific Advisor at UNAIDS. Young people are also at high risk of HIV—about half of new HIV infections in the developing world occur among 15-24 year-olds. “In spite of the epidemiological reality, women and adolescents, especially girls, have often had minimal involvement in clinical trials of HIV vaccines, as compared to men. This is in spite of the fact that they would be major beneficiaries of a future HIV vaccine,” said Saladin Osmanov, Acting Coordinator, WHO-UNAIDS HIV Vaccine Initiative. The Initiative promotes the development of an HIV vaccine, including through the facilitation of clinical trials. More than 30 new candidate HIV vaccines are currently being tested in human clinical trials, the majority of which began in the past four years. The number of HIV vaccine candidates in small-scale human trials has doubled since 2000, with the trials taking place in 19 countries. The international HIV vaccine research mission is to develop HIV vaccines that are licensed, acceptable, available and accessible by all populations regardless of their gender, age, socio-economic status, race, ethnicity or country, and that are effective across the board. Special attention must be paid to ensure that vulnerable groups, particularly women and girls, benefit from an HIV vaccine, UNAIDS and WHO stress. While there has been a lack of incentive by the private sector to engage in product development, in June the Group of Eight (G-8) leading industrial countries endorsed a global plan to accelerate the effort, a Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, that will allow laboratories to easily share data throught the development of an integrated global clinical trials system (see Go Between 103). 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). Melinda Henry, Information Officer, World Health Organization, 20, avenue Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/791 2535, fax +41-22/791 4858, e-mail <henrym@who.int>, website (www.comminit.com/st2002/sld-6526.html).
TOP	34 Million Friends of UNFPA Reaches US$2 Million Mark
	According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), donations to the 34 Million Friends of UNFPA campaign have surpassed the US$2 million mark as of 4 August 2004 following the Bush administration’s 16 July decision, for the third consecutive year, to withhold US$34 million in funding that US Congress had appropriated for UNFPA (see Go Between 93). The Bush administration alleges that UNFPA is complicit in forced abortions in China. In its statement, UNFPA called the decision “regrettable,” noting that the lost funds could have helped prevent up to two million unwanted pregnancies and nearly 800,000 abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths and more than 77,000 infant and child deaths. “UNFPA has not, does not and will not ever condone or support coercive activities of any kind, anywhere,” UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid said. The 34 Million Friends campaign was launched by Jane Roberts and Lois Abraham in July 2002, following George W. Bush’s decision to withhold funding from UNFPA. Independently, the women began contacting friends and organizations urging Americans to send in at least US$1 and to pass the message along to others. “We have never experienced anything like this,” Ms. Obaid said. “Lois and Jane have not only mobilized funds that we need and are using to save women’s lives, but they also have demonstrated that citizens in the United States, as all over the world, understand that family planning and related reproductive health care, safe motherhood and HIV/AIDS prevention are essential requirements for basic human health—and that we must work together to make them universally available.” Support from the United Nations Foundation for administrative costs has enabled contributions from citizens to directly support UNFPA’s programmes. The US Committee for UNFPA accepts tax-deductible contributions for 34 Million Friends of UNFPA. Funds raised through this grassroots effort have supported safe motherhood, family planning, HIV/AIDS prevention and maternal health efforts in the poorest regions of the world. A substantial share of funding has been allocated to help prevent maternal death and disability, such as obstetric fistula, which often harms very young women. More information about the 34 Million Friends of UNFPA campaign is available online (www.34millionfriends.org). Contact: Kristin Hetle, Chief, Media Services Branch, UNFPA, 220 East 42nd Street, New York NY 10017, USA, telephone +1-212/297 5020, fax +1-212/557 6416, e-mail <hetle@unfpa.org>, website (www.unfpa.org).
TOP	UNFCCC Meets, Prepares for COP-10
	The twentieth session of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB-20) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Bonn (Germany) from 16-25 June 2004, bringing together over 1,350 participants to prepare for the 10th Conference of Parties (COP-10), to be held in Buenos Aires from 6-17 December 2004. The meeting took place amidst growing optimism that the Russian Federation is getting ready to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Russia’s ratification would enable the Protocol to enter into force (see Go Between 101). “We are extremely pleased with these recent developments. Based on these positive signals, we trust that the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol will be readily forthcoming,” Joke Waller-Hunter, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC said. “This will certainly give a boost to the climate change process, in a year where we mark the 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention. In those ten years much has been set in motion, but muc