GO BETWEEN 2001: no. 86
May-June
UN UPDATE
POPS CONVENTION SIGNED
After years of negotiation, 91 countries and the European Commission signed the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants at a Conference of Plenipotentiaries held from 22-23 May 2001 in Sweden. They also adopted seven resolutions that had been tabled but not agreed during the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) in South Africa last year (see Go Between 84).
The Stockholm Convention sets out control measures covering the production, import, export, disposal, and use of POPs. Governments are to promote the best available technologies and practices for replacing existing POPs while preventing the development of new ones. They will draw up national legislation and develop action plans for carrying out their commitments.
The control measures will apply to an initial list of 12 chemicals including eight pesticides (aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, mirex, and toxaphene), two industrial chemicals (PCBs and hexachlorobenzene, which is also a pesticide), and two unwanted by-products of combustion and industrial processes (dioxins and furans). A health-related exemption has been granted for DDT, which is still needed in many countries to control malarial mosquitoes. A POPs Review Committee will consider additional candidates for the POPs list on a regular basis. This is to help ensure that the treaty remains dynamic and responsive to new scientific findings.
Of all the pollutants released into the environment by human activity, POPs are among the most dangerous, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). They are highly toxic and cause an array of adverse effects including death, disease and birth defects among humans and animals. Specific effects can include:
--cancer;
--allergies and hypersensitivity;
--damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems;
--reproductive disorders; and
--disruption of the immune system.
In order to strengthen collaboration on the Convention, the World Bank and UNEP signed an agreement in May for activities to assist countries in developing national implementation plans. The two agencies will also work together to help governments build national capacity for implementing the Convention’s provisions. They will provide assistance for developing national POPs inventories and monitoring programmes, and will support activities for eliminating or restricting the production and accidental release of POPs.
UNEP and the World Bank will also be collaborating on POPs through the Global Environment Facility, the Convention’s interim financial mechanism. The Facility is administered by UNEP, the Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Contact: Jim Willis, Director, UNEP Chemicals, Geneva Executive Centre, 11-13 chemin des Anémones, CH-1219 Chatelaine (Geneva), Switzerland, telephone +41-22/917 8183, fax +41-22/797 3460, e-mail <chemicals@unep.ch>, website (irptc.unep.ch) or (www.chem.unep.ch/pops).
COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), which held its ninth session from 16-28 April 2001 in New York, focused on the difficult issues of energy and atmosphere, the economic theme of transport, and the cross-sectoral themes of information for decision making and participation, and international cooperation for an enabling environment. This year's multi-stakeholder dialogue focused on energy and transport for sustainable development. The Commission, also acting as the Preparatory Committee for the September 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held its first organizational session for WSSD. A summary of the highlights of CSD-9 is provided in NGLS Roundup 74.
FINAL PREPCOM FOR SPECIAL SESSION ON CHILDREN
Preparations for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children, to take place in September 2001 in New York, continued at the third meeting of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom). During the PrepCom, held from 11-15 June 2001 in New York, Member States met in two parallel sessions to continue negotiating a draft outcome document of the Special Session and discuss a report on children from UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan. Highlights of the PrepCom are provided in the focus article below.
FINAL PREPCOM FOR SMALL ARMS CONFERENCE
The third and final Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for the July 2001 UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects met in New York from 19-30 March 2001. A summary of discussions at the PrepCom, which worked to strengthen a revised draft Programme of Action (POA), is provided in the focus article below.
RESUMED PREPCOM FOR AGEING ASSEMBLY
The Commission for Social Development, acting as the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for the April 2002 Second World Assembly on Ageing, met in New York from 30 April-1 May 2001 to approve draft rules of procedure for the Assembly. Before suspending its resumed first session until late November or early December of this year, the PrepCom also approved three draft decisions, including one on participation and accreditation of NGOs to the Assembly.
The Assembly will be held in Madrid (Spain) from 8-12 April 2002. It will mark the 20th anniversary of the First World Assembly by conducting a comprehensive review of its outcome. The Second World Assembly will seek to adopt a revised plan of action and long-term strategy on ageing that reflects, among other things, the impact of population ageing on development and institutions, particularly in the developing world. An NGO forum will be held concurrently with the Assembly, and both events will focus on the theme of the 1999 International Year of Older Persons, which is A Society for All Ages.
The PrepCom, chaired by Felipe Paolillo (Uruguay), approved a revised draft text by which the General Assembly would urge all Member States and other actors to contribute generously to the UN Trust Fund for Ageing in support of preparatory activities, including the participation of the least developed countries. Similarly, the decision on arrangements for accreditation for NGOs to the Assembly urges relevant UN bodies to assist organizations in need of resources, particularly those from developing countries and countries with economies in transition.
By the terms of a third text on the participation of NGOs in the World Assembly, NGO representatives accredited to the Assembly would be permitted to address the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole, and if time allowed the plenary. NGOs that fit the following descriptions do not need to apply for accreditation to attend the Assembly;
--those in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC);
--those accredited to previous major UN conferences and their follow-up conferences; and
--those that attended the First World Assembly on Ageing, held in Vienna.
The only requirement for these NGOs is to send a letter of intent to the secretariat. All other NGOs must submit an application to the UN secretariat no later than 31 December 2001. The NGO Forum will follow its own procedures for registration. NGOs wishing to attend the Forum must contact the International Executive Committee for the NGO Forum.
The PrepCom elected Aicha Afifi (Morocco) from the African Group of States as Vice-Chairperson; one vacant position remains, to be filled by a candidate from the Eastern European Group.
Contact: UN Programme on Ageing, UN Secretariat for the World Assembly on Ageing, DESA/DSPD, Room DC2-1358, 2 UN Plaza, New York NY 10017, United States, telephone +1-212/963 3175, fax +1-212/963 3062, e-mail <ngoran@un.org>, website (www.un.org/esa/socdev/ageing).
For the NGO Forum: International Executive Committee for the NGO Forum, e-mail <information@agequakeforum.org>, website (www.agequake.org).
CAUSES OF CONFLICT IN AFRICA
The Open-Ended Ad Hoc Working Group of the General Assembly on the Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa held its first substantive session in New York from 29 May-1 June 2001. The session was organized around panel discussions followed by interactive dialogues on the themes of education, and conflict prevention and post-conflict peacekeeping. Two informal civil society panel discussions on the same themes were also held during the session, as well as a symposium devoted to the issue of child soldiers.
A panel on education in Africa was chaired by General Assembly President Harri Holkeri (Finland) and featured Professor George Eshiwani, Vice-Chancellor of Kenyatta University and President of the Association of African Universities.
Mr. Eshiwani, lamenting “brain drain” as well as government allocation of much needed resources for education to the military sector, underscored the importance of education for Africa. He said the continent’s biggest resource was its people and reminded participants that “if you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
Panellists and delegates acknowledged the importance of education as a means to meet the challenges of globalization and poverty eradication. They underscored the need for education for HIV/AIDS prevention, peace-building, and in emergency situations.
They stressed the need for additional financial resources and increased cooperation and synergy within the UN system to accomplish the international development goal of ensuring that all children are enrolled in primary education by 2015. Also highlighted was the increasing importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a leveraging factor in education to complement programmes for poverty reduction and sustainable development.
During a panel on conflict prevention and post-conflict peacekeeping, Ambassador Joseph Legwaila (Botswana), the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Ethiopia and Eritrea, said the root causes of conflict in Africa are “historical, institutional, constitutional, political, economic, social and cultural in nature.” He noted that current conflicts in Africa were “attributable in general to some of these factors, but more pointedly to the absence of democratic political systems and good governance.”
Issues discussed during the panel included timely application of preventive diplomacy to ease tensions before they result in conflict; preventive deployment, which involves stationing UN military or observer forces on one or both sides of the border of a country that feels threatened; preventive disarmament and curtailment of the flow of conventional weapons and the illegal trade in small arms; pre-conflict peace-building; and post-conflict peace-building.
Panellists noted that of the 17 ongoing conflicts in Africa, most were characterized by violations of human rights of the civilian population; the collapse and disappearance of state structures; exploitation and looting of natural resources such as timber, diamonds and gold; and the difficulty containing conflict due to massive outflows of refugees and large populations of internally displaced persons. Many delegates called attention to failed UN peacekeeping efforts in Rwanda and Somalia, while others emphasized the importance of enhancing the UN’s intelligence gathering, early-warning resources and quick-response capacities in order to prevent outbreak of internal or international conflicts. The concept of humanitarian intervention and its relation to state sovereignty was repeatedly raised.
Mr. Legwaila pointed out that “internal conflicts do not easily render themselves to external mediation because of the exaggerated sense of national sovereignty and the often licentious principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states.” He emphasized that if Africa’s commitment to conflict prevention was truly genuine, at minimum “sanctioned diplomatic involvement by a bilateral actor or a multilateral body should be accepted as a means of averting violence and ultimate conflict.” Such involvement, he said, cannot be limited by considerations of sovereignty or construed to be a violation of the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states.
Strengthening the UN’s capacity for conflict prevention, inter-agency missions to areas of potential conflict, and subregional approaches to prevention were also discussed. Emphasis was placed on the need for financial resources as well as the availability of local, regional or sub-regional mechanisms for resolving disputes before they develop into conflicts.
Contact: Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Office S-3161-L, United Nations, New York NY 10017, United States, fax +1 212/963 0207. The updated matrix on implementation of the Secretary-General’s recommendations is on website (www.un.org/esa/africa/adhocWG/matrix2001).
UN CHARTER SPECIAL COMMITTEE
The Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on Strengthening of the Role of the Organization, which met in April 2001 in New York, considered the maintenance of international peace and security, peaceful settlements of disputes, ways and means of improving its working methods, and the work of the Trusteeship Council.
The Committee, chaired by Mirza Cristina Gnecco (Colombia), considered as a priority the question of implementation of the Charter provision on assistance to third states affected by the application of sanctions under chapter VII of the Charter. Some delegations bemoaned the fact that little headway had been achieved on the topic during the several years that it had been on the Committee’s agenda. However delegates stressed that every effort should be made to minimize any negative impact on third states from the application of sanctions, as some had endured severe hardships. In this regard, some said they supported the establishment of a trust fund for assistance.
Chile, speaking on behalf of the Rio Group, expressed support for “smart sanctions” and its belief in the need for exemptions and mechanisms for ending them at the appropriate time. If sanctions had a severe impact on third states, Chile said, possible assistance measures should be identified through consultations between the Security Council, sanctions committees and humanitarian organizations.
Many delegations commended the Security Council on its ongoing work on the issue of third states. Sweden, speaking on behalf of the European Union (EU) and associated countries, welcomed the Security Council’s efforts to facilitate access to the sanctions committees by affected third states. The EU also underscored the important role of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in monitoring economic assistance to third states affected by economic problems related to sanctions. Some delegations supported the establishment of a working group within the General Assembly’s Sixth Committee that would focus on assistance to third states.
Iraq said that in the past ten years, embargoes and economic sanctions had become objectives in themselves and established rules of international relations and law had been manipulated to serve the purposes of a “unilateral power.” Iraq stressed that the concept of sovereignty had suffered as a result of that dominance, and that in order to re-establish the supremacy of law in international affairs, the Charter Committee should have a salient place on the agenda of the UN in order to “readjust the imbalance of power between the Security Council and the General Assembly.”
The Committee, when adopting its final report, approved a section based on consideration of a working paper submitted by Libya entitled “Strengthening certain principles concerning the impact and application of sanctions.” The paper stresses that sanctions should be imposed only as a last peaceful resort, and “smart” targeted sanctions should be developed.
The Committee also supported revitalization of the General Assembly as the “chief deliberative, policy-making organ and representative organ of the Organization.” This statement on the Assembly’s role was based on a paper written in 1997 and submitted by Cuba. Some delegations expressed doubt about the usefulness or appropriateness of continued consideration of the original proposal. The amendment was accepted without a vote, although the United States expressed reservations.
Regarding peaceful settlement of disputes between states, the Committee continued to consider proposals including establishment of a dispute settlement service, which would offer its services early in disputes, and enhancement of the role of the International Court of Justice.
REPORT ON LOOTING OF THE DRC
A UN Security Council Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) presented its findings (S/2001/357) on 12 April 2001. Chaired by Safiatou Ba-N’Daw (Côte d’Ivoire), the panel collected information over a period of six months, and researched and analyzed links between the exploitation of natural and other resources in the DRC and the continuation of conflict there.
The conflict, says the report, “has become mainly about access, control and trade of five key mineral resources: coltan, diamonds, copper, cobalt and gold.” It finds that illegal exploitation of the mineral and forest resources of the DRC is taking place at “an alarming rate.” It describes a web of military and business partners who it says are razing the rain forest, slaughtering elephants and gorillas, and shipping minerals out of the DRC. The report also describes “mass-scale looting” of stockpiles of minerals, coffee, wood, livestock and money that were available in territories conquered by the armies of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.
The report holds President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda politically responsible for the looting undertaken by their armies and citizens.
The consequence of the illegal exploitation, says the report, has been twofold: massive availability of financial resources for the Rwandan Patriotic Army as well as individual enrichment of top Ugandan military commanders and civilians; and the emergence of illegal networks headed either by top military officers or businessmen. These two elements form a link between the exploitation of natural resources and continuation of conflict. Contributing factors include the opportunistic behavior of some private companies and influential individuals, including several decision makers in the DRC and Zimbabwe.
In researching the links between exploitation and continuation of the conflict, the panel compared the involved countries’ budget allocations for their respective armed forces with actual expenditures. It demonstrated that military expenditures far outweigh the money allocated for such expenses. Rwanda’s military appears to be benefiting directly from the conflict, it says; the Ugandan economy has benefited through the “re-exportation economy,” and the treasury has benefited which has allowed an increase in the defense budget.
The DRC government has relied on its minerals and mining industries to finance the war. The report charges the governments of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe with financing their military involvement in the DRC by exploiting the natural resources in areas that they control. Bilateral and multilateral donors and certain neighboring and distant countries have also passively facilitated exploitation of DRC resources, and thereby the continuation of the conflict.
The report recommends that:
--the Security Council declare a temporary embargo on the import/export of coltan, pyrochlore, cassiterite, timber, gold and diamonds from and to Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi until their involvement in the exploitation of natural resources of the DRC is made clear;
--an immediate embargo on weapons and military material to the rebel groups, which would be extended to states that supported the groups;
--the Security Council request the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to consider suspending their support to the budgets of Rwanda and Uganda until the end of the conflict; and
--the Security Council strongly urge all Member States to freeze the financial assets of companies or individuals who continue to participate in the illegal exploitation of the DRC.
The report further recommends that the Security Council consider establishing an international mechanism that will investigate and prosecute individuals involved in economic criminal activities, and companies and government officials whose economic and financial activities directly or indirectly harm powerless people and weak economies.
It also requests the Council to consider establishing a permanent mechanism that would investigate the illicit trafficking of natural resources in armed conflicts in order to monitor cases that are already subject to investigation by other panels.
IFAD BOARD APPROVES PROJECTS
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), whose Executive Board met in Rome (Italy) in April 2001, will provide loans for six development projects for a total cost of US$74.2 million.
The board approved loans for Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Grenada, Honduras, Pakistan and São Tomé and Principe. It also approved grants worth US$8.2 million for the Caribbean Regional Unit for Technical Assistance (CARUTA); the Rural Financial Services Support Programme; and agricultural research programmes.
The four-year Agricultural Services Project in Armenia, initiated by IFAD, targets small farm households with 230,000 families. The project will cover eight of the most disadvantaged provinces in the country. It aims to increase incomes and improve the well-being of small farm households by intensifying crop production, promoting irrigation development, and providing rural finance services.
A six-year project in Bosnia and Herzegovina will focus on developing the traditional livestock production sector, important for the rural economy. The income and quality of life of some 21,000 small farm households are expected to improve with investment in rural infrastructure. The project aims to develop a replicable model of sustainable small-scale commercial livestock production.
An IFAD-initiated project in Grenada will address the needs of at least 3,000 rural households to help foster market linkages, strengthen communities for self-development, and encourage a range of long-term sustainable income sources.
In Honduras an IFAD project will aim to promote equitable access of poor rural communities including small landholders, landless farmers, the indigenous and rural women.
A seven-year IFAD project in Pakistan aims to reduce poverty in remote areas, especially among smallholders and the landless, and to improve the status of rural women.
Other projects include one in São Tomé and Principe, which will aim to improve living conditions and incomes of fishing households in isolated areas, and the Poverty Alleviation Project in Western Terai of Nepal.
Contact: IFAD, Via del Serafico 107, I-00142 Rome, Italy, telephone +39-06/54591, fax +39-06/5459 2141, e-mail <ifad@ifad.org>, website (www.ifad.org).
MEDICINES FOR POOR COUNTRIES
Making life-saving medicines more affordable for poor countries is vital for improving public health and it is realistic, experts said in a three-day workshop held in April 2001 in Hosbjor (Norway). Participants said “differential pricing”--companies charging different prices in different markets according to purchasing power--is a feasible means of achieving this, provided certain conditions are met.
The workshop, which brought together 80 experts from 21 countries and a wide range of professional backgrounds, examined ways to reduce pharmaceutical prices in low-income countries. It was organized by the World Health Organization (WHO), World Trade Organization (WTO), the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, and the Global Health Council, a broad-based healthcare organization in the United States.
Discussions focused on how to increase financing so that the world’s poorest people can obtain necessary medicines and healthcare. HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis featured prominently, but a wide range of other diseases that affect poor people were also discussed.
Differential pricing has already been achieved for commodities such as vaccines, contraceptives and condoms through a combination of high-volume purchasing, reliable and adequate financing, advocacy, corporate responsibility and market forces. The challenge, according to workshop organizers, is to find ways to expand this to life-saving medicines.
Participants accepted that there is no single formula to achieve this. A wide mix of options is needed, they said. Several also felt that generic drug manufacturers play an important role in bringing competition to pharmaceutical markets and improving production efficiency, which would reduce prices further.
Participants acknowledged that intellectual property protection is an important incentive for research and development into new drugs. Some said there are also other ways to encourage research and development. At the same time, countries need to be able to make use of the public health safeguards built into the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. This includes compulsory licensing (governments allowing others to produce a patented invention without the patent owner’s permission) and “parallel" imports (i.e. imports of products supplied by the patent owner or a licensee at a lower price in another country).
When drug prices fall--and many low priced essential drugs are already available--there is still no guarantee that poor communities can afford them. This is particularly true for HIV/AIDS drugs. Even with costs coming down to US$500 per patient per year, this is well beyond the reach of the many countries whose total health expenditure is less than US$10 to US$20 per year. In these cases, significant amounts of external financing are needed.
Many of the participants also said financing for drugs should not be considered in isolation. They called for massive increases in finance to develop effective healthcare systems in general including training, education and delivery, as well as for buying the drugs.
Contact: Essential Drugs and Medicine Policy Department, WHO, 20 avenue Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/791 2111, fax +41-22/791 4167, e-mail <medmail@who.int>, website (www.who.int/medicines).
Information and Media Relations Division, WTO, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, CH-1211 Geneva 21, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/739 5007, fax +41-22/739 5458, e-mail <enquiries@wto.org>, website (www.wto.org).
Background papers for the conference are available online on both websites. On the WTO website, go to trade topics > intellectual property > TRIPS news, and look for “workshop on affordable drugs.”
TOBACCO AND CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
Tobacco poses a major obstacle to children’s rights by infringing upon their basic health and welfare and exposing them to child labour in many parts of the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). A WHO report released in May 2001 on Tobacco and the Rights of the Child encourages countries to abide by terms of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by taking all necessary legislative and regulatory measures to protect children from tobacco. It also says they should ensure that the interests of children take precedence over those of the tobacco industry.
Around four million people die prematurely from tobacco-related illnesses each year, with deaths expected to rise to ten million yearly by 2030, according to WHO. Many of tobacco’s future victims are today’s children. Around 250 million children alive today will be killed by tobacco in the future if current consumption trends continue. Most people start using tobacco during adolescence and, sustained by an addiction to nicotine, continue into adulthood.
Tobacco use among young people continues to rise as the tobacco industry aggressively promotes its products to a new generation of potential smokers, warns the report.
“Tobacco companies spend billions of dollars a year promoting a product,” it says, “that encourages children to take up a behaviour harmful to their physical, mental and social development. Much of this promotion takes the form of powerful advertising that influences children and adolescents in their views on tobacco.”
In addition to the impact caused by direct use of tobacco, children are also exposed to the harmful effects of second-hand tobacco smoke. With adverse health effects associated with even low levels of exposure, children everywhere suffer the consequences of exposure to second-hand smoke. Nearly 700 million, or almost half of the world’s children, breathe air polluted by second-hand smoke, according to the report. In almost all cases they have no choice in the matter as they are unable to protest or protect themselves.
The issue of child labour is also addressed by the report. Tobacco companies have been implicated in child labour in major tobacco producing countries such as Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Malawi, the United States and Zimbabwe.
Overwhelming scientific evidence attests to the harmful impact of tobacco use and second-hand smoke on child health, as well as the widely documented targeting of children by tobacco companies. For these reasons, says the report, implementing comprehensive tobacco control is not only a valid concern falling within the legislative competence of governments but a binding obligation under the Convention.
Strong tobacco control policies will help prevent violations of the rights of children, particularly those relating to guarantees of basic health and welfare, and protection from child labour. Through tobacco control, countries--both individually and collectively--can live up to their obligations under the Convention, concludes the report.
Contact: Chitra Subramaniam, Tobacco Free Initiative, WHO, 20 avenue Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/791 3271, fax +41-22/791 4832, e-mail <tfi@who.int>, website (tobacco.who.int/en/youth/index.html).
UNICEF/WHO MEASLES INITIATIVE
In a concerted move against one of the world’s deadliest childhood diseases, the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced in March a new initiative designed to halve global measles deaths by 2005.
“Measles is still a major childhood killer,” said Bjorn Melgaard, WHO Director of Vaccines and Biologicals, “with over 30 million cases and nearly 900,000 annual deaths in recent years. These figures are even more shocking given the fact that effective immunization, which includes vaccine and safe injection equipment, costs just US$0.26 and has been available for more than 30 years.”
Measles accounts for the majority of the estimated 1.6 million annual deaths due to childhood vaccine-preventable diseases. Failure to deliver at least one dose of measles vaccine to all infants remains the primary reason for the high incidence and mortality rates of measles.
The Global Measles Strategic Plan calls on countries to assess progress on measles control, identify reasons for low routine coverage, develop a three- to five-year plan for measles mortality reduction, and fully implement the recommended strategies.
The plan has been developed by UNICEF and WHO in cooperation with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), numerous experts worldwide and several other partners. According to organizers, it has the advantage of being a flexible framework that can be adapted to the specific needs and immediate goals of individual countries.
Under the new initiative, WHO and UNICEF will assist affected countries to:
--provide a first dose of measles vaccine to all infants;
--guarantee a “second opportunity” for vaccination to increase the probability that as many children as possible are immunized and assure that those immunized are responding to the vaccination;
--establish an effective system to monitor coverage and conduct measles surveillance; and
--improve management of complicated measles cases, including vitamin A supplementation.
Measles, a viral disease, is spread by infected droplets during sneezing and coughing, through direct contact with nasal or throat secretions of infected persons, or by touching contaminated objects. It is predominantly a disease of childhood, causing fever and rash and sometimes complicated by ear infections, pneumonia or encephalitis (inflammation of the brain). This can result in convulsions, deafness, mental retardation or death.
In addition to the compelling humanitarian and health reasons, the economic arguments for investing in measles control are convincing, according to UNICEF and WHO. Of all health interventions, measles immunization carries the highest health return for the money spent, saving more lives per unit than most other health interventions.
Contact: Alfred Ironside, Media, UNICEF, 3 UN Plaza, New York NY 10017, United States, telephone +1-212/326 7261, e-mail <aironside@unicef.org>, website (www.unicef.org).
Melinda Henry, Spokesperson’s Office, WHO, 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.who.int).
CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION
The joint Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) Codex Alimentarius Commission’s Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology has “made significant progress in setting standards for foods derived from biotechnology,” according to the two UN agencies. Codex Alimentarius is the body charged with the development of international standards for food safety and consumer protection.
The Task Force, which brings together officials from 35 countries and representatives of 24 non-governmental organizations including Consumers International, industry groups and Greenpeace, met in April 2001 in Rome (Italy). It reached near consensus on a draft text of “general principles for risk analysis of foods derived from biotechnology.”
Risk analysis is the system by which governments consider the safety of foods and the measures that need to be taken to protect the public from any health risks. The guidelines do not cover environmental issues because these are included in other United Nations agreements, such as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (see Go Between 81).
The one point on which consensus at the April meeting could not be achieved was the question of traceability. This is a system of tracing all foods and food components from their origin to the point of final consumption, and is not related exclusively to foods derived from biotechnology. Traceability is strongly favoured by European countries, but some countries worry that the system might be too complex and too costly to operate globally, according to FAO and WHO.
The Task Force also announced agreement on a Draft Guideline for the Conduct of Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Plants. The guidelines pay special attention to the question of allergenicity that might be transferred to new genetically modified (GM) plant varieties. The guidelines also prohibit the transfer of genes that would cause gluten-sensitive reactions in people with celiac disease.
The Task Force will further refine guidelines at its next meeting and will initiate work on similar guidelines for the safety assessment of genetically modified micro-organisms used in food production and processing.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission was established in 1962 to implement the joint FAO/WHO Foods Standards Programme. Codex is an intergovernmental statutory body with a 165-country membership.
Contact: Secretariat of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, I-00100 Rome, Italy, telephone +39-06/57051, fax +39-06/5705 4593, e-mail <codex@fao.org>, website (www.codexalimentarius.net).
FAO WARNING ON TOXIC PESTICIDES
Huge stocks of toxic pesticide waste are a serious problem in almost all developing countries and in many countries in transition, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In a recent report it says more than 500,000 tons of old and unused pesticides that have been banned or have expired threaten the environment and the health of millions of people in these countries.
“The lethal legacy of obsolete pesticides is alarming, and urgent action is needed to clean up waste dumps,” said Alemayehu Wodageneh, FAO Expert on obsolete pesticides. “These ‘forgotten’ stocks are not only a hazard to people’s health; they also contaminate water and soil. Leaking pesticides can poison a very large area, making it unfit for crop production.”
The waste sites contain some of the most dangerous insecticides in existence. They include aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin and heptachlor, which have been banned in most countries, along with organophosphates. As pesticides deteriorate, they form by-products, which may be more toxic than the original substance. In addition to pesticides, waste sites contain contaminated sprayers, empty containers and huge quantities of heavily polluted soil.
“Many stocks are situated near farmers’ fields and wells in poor rural areas, as well as near houses, food stores and markets in urban areas,” said Mr. Wodageneh. “The dumps are often abandoned, unmanaged and in very poor condition.” In many cases, pesticides are left in the open or stored in unsubstantial mud and straw structures with earth floors, and numerous containers are corroding. Toxic substances “are leaking into the ground,” he added. “Local people complain about headaches, nausea and coughs.”
Support from industry is crucial for the disposal of pesticides because aid agencies of donor countries cannot cover all the costs, according to the FAO. It has called upon chemical companies represented by the Global Crop Protection Federation to aid the disposal effort. Incineration is currently the only safe and environmentally acceptable method of disposal, and the industry has made a commitment to pay for the incineration of obsolete pesticides, noted FAO. But so far, companies have contributed little, it said.
Among other things, FAO called upon its member nations to employ environmentally-friendly integrated pest management methods and to drastically reduce the use of pesticides where possible.
Contact: Erwin Northoff, Media Officer, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, I-00100 Rome, Italy, telephone +39-06/5705 3105, fax +39-06/5705 4975, e-mail <erwin.northoff@fao.org>, website (www.fao.org).
FAO REPORTS ON GMOS
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), like all new technologies, are instruments that can be used for good and bad: they can either be managed to benefit the most needy or skewed to the advantage of specific groups, said Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He made the comments as two FAO publications were released: the first is part of a new series dedicated to ethics in food and agriculture, and the second is a report by an independent panel of experts on challenges facing humanity including the need for an equitable, ethical food and agriculture system.
The first publication, Ethical Issues in Food and Agriculture, introduces ethical questions as they relate to FAO’s mandate. It also describes a vision for building an ethical and equitable food and agriculture framework.
“Today ethical concerns are central to debates about the kind of future people want,” says the publication. “Perhaps the most egregious problem is the widespread bias against the hungry and the poor.” A more equitable, ethically-based food and agriculture system “must incorporate concern for three widely accepted global goals, each of which incorporate numerous normative propositions: improved well-being, protection of the environment and improved public health.”
The second report on Genetically Modified Organisms, Consumers, Food Safety and the Environment is designed to share the current knowledge of genetically engineered products in relation to consumers, including the safety of their food and protection of their health, and environmental conservation. It advocates interaction and involvement of all stakeholders in the decision-making process regarding GMOs. The report stresses that modern biotechnology, if appropriately developed, could offer new and broad potential for contributing to food security.
Among other things, FAO has established an independent Panel of Eminent Experts on Ethics in Food and Agriculture to advise the Organization and raise public awareness of ethical considerations associated with issues such as food security for present and future generations, and sustainable management of the earth’s limited resources.
Contact: José Esquinas-Alcázar, Secretary, Committee on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, I-00100 Rome, Italy, telephone +39-06/5705 4986, fax +39-06/5705 6347, e-mail <jose.esquinas@fao.org>, website (www.fao.org/ethics/index_en.htm).
TENTH SESSION OF THE CRIME COMMISSION
The tenth session of the United Nations Crime Commission, held in May 2001 in Vienna (Austria), called for the first time on the United Nations to support countries in their efforts to trace and recover the proceeds of corruption. The resolution followed a panel discussion on aspects of combating corruption, which is the focus of a global programme administered by the United Nations Centre for International Crime Prevention.
In debating the question, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice set the stage for preparations to negotiate a legally-binding international treaty on corruption. That process would require a go-ahead from the General Assembly at its session in late 2001.
The Commission addressed the problem of international trafficking in protected plant and animal species in a criminal justice context. It also said there was a need to promote early entry into force of the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its protocols on trafficking in human beings, smuggling of migrants, and illicit manufacturing and trafficking in firearms. The Convention has been signed by 125 countries and the European Commission.
Other issues addressed during the session include cyber-crime, trafficking in explosives, follow-up to last year’s Crime Congress, and hands-on UN assistance to countries requesting help in upgrading their capacities to fight crime.
Contact: Centre for International Crime Prevention, United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, PO Box 500, A-1400 Vienna, Austria, telephone +43-1/26060 4269, fax +43-1/26060 5898, website (www.uncjin.org/CICP/cicp.html).
UNDCP SUBREGIONAL MEETING
Drugs can no longer be conceived as a national problem with solutions to be found by individual countries. Instead, in the face of regionalization of the drug problem governments must cooperate to deal with the complex and changing problems of illicit drug production, trafficking and abuse. These are some of the conclusions of ministers and senior officials of six governments and the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), which met in Yangon (Myanmar/Burma) in May 2001.
Government representatives of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar/Burma, Thailand and Viet Nam took stock of progress in subregional drug control operations, and discussed ways to strengthen their efforts in the fight against illicit drugs and drug-related crimes.
Discussions focused on progress made under a 1995 Subregional Action Plan for Drug Control signed by the represented countries. Issues addressed included reduction of illegal drug production and trafficking, law enforcement cooperation, drug control advocacy, and law enforcement cooperation.
Among other things, participants recognized the importance of integrating drug abuse prevention strategies into programmes for poverty alleviation, especially among ethnic groups in the highlands of Southeast Asia.
Contact: Sumru Noyan, Chief, External Relations Unit, ODCCP, Vienna International Centre, PO Box 500, A-1400 Vienna, Austria, telephone +43-1/26060 4266, fax +43-1/26060 5850, e-mail <sumru.noyan@undcp.org>, website (www.undcp.org).
ILO ANNUAL REPORT
The shortage of adequate employment opportunities is “the fault line in the world today,” according to the annual report of the International Labour Office (ILO). Reducing the Decent Work Deficit: A Global Challenge was presented by ILO Director-General Juan Somavia to the 89th Session of the International Labour Conference, meeting in June 2001 in Geneva. In the report, which is addressed to ministers of labour, employers and workers in the ILO’s 175 Member States, Mr. Somavia expresses “profound concern about a global decent work deficit of immense proportions, reflecting the diverse inequalities of our societies.”
He said the decent work deficit “is expressed in the absence of sufficient employment opportunities, inadequate social protection, the denial of rights at work and shortcomings in social dialogue.” These failings provide “a measure of the gap between the world that we work in and the hopes people have for a better life.”
The extent of the employment gap is revealed by ILO estimates, which find that “there are 160 million people openly unemployed in the world.” However if underemployed people are taken into account, “the number skyrockets to at least one billion.” The report says that “of every 100 workers worldwide, six are fully unemployed according to the ILO definition. Another 16 are unable to earn enough to get their families over the most minimal poverty line of US$1 per day.”
The rights gap involves such abuses as “the denial of freedom of association and the incidence of forced and child labour and discrimination.” According to the report, an estimated 250 million children worldwide are working. An ILO report on forced labour (see focus article below) says trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, is increasing. And “close to two countries out of every five have serious or severe problems of freedom of association.”
The social protection gap is described as “truly alarming,” with an estimated 80% of the world’s workers lacking adequate social protection. In many low-income countries “formal protection for old age and invalidity, or for sickness and health care reaches only a tiny proportion of the population: meanwhile 3,000 people a day die as a consequence of work-related accidents or disease.” In higher income countries, income insecurity is a growing problem and “workplace anxiety, depression and exhaustion are often reported.”
The social dialogue gap reflects shortfalls in organizations, institutions and often in attitudes that have resulted in a major “representational gap in the world of work resulting from the fact that workers and employers have frequently and for diverse reasons not organized to make their voices heard.” Examples cited by the report include the roughly 27 million workers worldwide in Export Processing Zones and millions more in the informal economy who are either excluded from or under-represented in tripartite dialogue.
While acknowledging that average incomes are rising worldwide and that the global economy shows great potential for innovation and productivity, the report notes that “gains are accompanied by persistent inequality, growing exclusion, insecurities caused by economic fluctuations and a feeling that the ground rules are unfair.”
It highlights “a growing polarization of opinion regarding the pattern and direction of globalization,” but identifies “a growing awareness that something needs to be done to bridge this divide.” Mr. Somavia said he welcomed “a widespread receptiveness to the idea that achieving greater opportunities of decent work for all is an appropriate goal for the global economy.” He urged that its potential for bridging the divide on globalization be explored.
“The goal of decent work is best expressed through the eyes of people,” noted Mr. Somavia. For workers faced with extreme poverty, decent work “is about moving from subsistence to existence” and is “the primary route out of poverty.” For many others, “it is about realizing personal aspirations in their daily existence and about solidarity with others.” He added that “everywhere, and for everybody, decent work is about securing human dignity.”
Reducing the decent work deficit is “the quality road to poverty reduction and to greater legitimacy of the global economy,” noted Mr. Somavia. But there is also an economic dividend: “economic and social efficiency can go together.” And an integrated approach is essential--each element of decent work reinforces the others, and all play a part in achieving broad goals such as poverty eradication.
Contact: Department of Communication, ILO, 4 route des Morillons, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/799 7940, fax +41-22/799 8577, e-mail <presse@ilo.org>, website (www.ilo.org).
ILO PANELS ON GENDER, POVERTY AND JOBS
From the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women to the 2000 Millennium Summit, nations have affirmed that action on inequalities between women and men is necessary for poverty reduction. Although employment promotion is central to fighting poverty and social exclusion, many inequalities still exist in the world of work.
In order to explore the links between these issues, a panel discussion on Gender Equality, Poverty Reduction and Employment was held on 12 June in Geneva. Participants in the panel, organized by the ILO Bureau for Gender Equality, and InFocus Programme on Investing in Skills, Knowledge and Employability, addressed:
--barriers to integrating a gender equality perspective into employment promotion;
--poverty reduction strategies;
--the capacity of governments and social partners to deal with this triple challenge; and
--critical and feasible measures for breaking barriers and strengthening relevant national capacities.
A second panel on Jobs, Gender and Small Enterprises, held 14 June by the Bureau for Gender Equality and InFocus Programme on Boosting Employment through Small Enterprise Development, focused on issues related to the increasing attention by governments, international organizations and social partners to promote entrepreneurship by women. Women’s entrepreneurship has been recognized as contributing to employment creation, poverty alleviation and national economic development, as well as enhancing the economic empowerment of women themselves. Panellists addressed, among other things:
--the scope and scale of women-owned enterprises;
--the number of jobs created by women-owned enterprises;
--activities of national employers’ organizations to promote and support women entrepreneurs;
--how to help women-owned micro-enterprises grow; and
--ILO initiatives to improve the quality and quantity of jobs in women-owned enterprises.
Contact: Department of Communication, ILO, 4 route des Morillons, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/799 7940, fax +41-22/799 8577, e-mail <presse@ilo.org>, website (www.ilo.org).
COMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN
The Commission on the Status of Women, meeting in New York from 9-11 May 2001, concluded its resumed 45th session which was suspended in March to allow for further negotiations on a number of texts.
The resumed session of the Commission, chaired by Dubravka Simonovic (Croatia), adopted a resolution on the Proposed System-Wide Medium-Term Plan for the Advancement of Women for 2002-2005, and an annex containing comments by some Member States on the plan.
The commission also adopted a decision submitted by the chair, on the basis of informal consultations conducted among Member States, on the Programme of Work for the UN Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the UN Division for the Advancement of Women for the Biennium 2002-2003.
During the session, much discussion among Member States focused on the draft agreed conclusions on Women, the Girl Child and HIV/AIDS, which the Commission adopted on the final day after lengthy negotiations. The agreed conclusions note that gender inequality renders women and girls more vulnerable to the disease, and that full enjoyment of all their human rights is crucial for preventing further spread of HIV/AIDS.
The Commission called for the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, held from 25-27 June in New York, to integrate a gender perspective in the preparatory process and outcome document. This includes fully integrating such a perspective in any new targets and actions needed to achieve internationally-agreed targets that relate to women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS.
The Commission also listed a number of actions--to be taken by governments, the UN system and civil society--related to:
--the empowerment of women;
--prevention of HIV/AIDS;
--treatment, care and support to those living with the disease; and
--an enabling environment for regional and international cooperation.
Contacts: Denise Scotto, NGO Focal Point, Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), Room DC2-1204, United Nations, New York NY 10017, United States, telephone +1-212/963 8034, fax +1-212/963 3463, e-mail <scotto@un.org>, website (www.un.org/womenwatch).
CONVENTION ON LAW OF THE SEA
States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which held their 11th meeting in New York from 14-18 May 2001, debated the ten-year time limit for submissions to the Commission on Limits of the Continental Shelf.
The submissions, as set out in article 4 of Annex II to the UNCLOS, concern delineation of the outer limit of a continental shelf beyond 200 miles. Determination of the outer limit is necessary to separate areas that fall under national jurisdiction from areas of the seabed to be utilized for the benefit of all nations.
The continental shelf is defined as the seabed and subsoil of the submarine area that, because of its geological characteristics, is considered as the natural prolongation of continental or land mass beneath the oceans or seas to outer edge of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which breadth of the territorial sea is measured.
UNCLOS gives coastal states sovereign rights to explore and exploit such resources. Under specific circumstances and depending on scientific criteria contained in article 76 of the Convention, states may extend their sovereign rights over the resources of the shelf in areas beyond 200 nautical miles.
Determination that these criteria have been met involves the consideration of complex technical and scientific material and data produced by the coastal state. The data must be submitted to the Commission on Limits of the Continental Shelf within ten years of entry into force of the UNCLOS for that state.
During the debate it was noted that adoption of the Commission’s Scientific and Technical Guidelines--which were to assist coastal states in making their submission--had been delayed. The 11-member Pacific Island Forum States introduced a position paper strongly urging an extension of the ten-year time frame for submissions. It noted that the scientific and technical work required to support a submission was beyond the capacity of many small island states. The problem, according to the Forum, is exacerbated by the fact that in many cases the zones of national jurisdiction-- including territorial seas, archipelagic seas and exclusive economic zones--have not been accurately defined.
At the conclusion of the meeting delegates adopted a decision based on a proposal by Papua New Guinea to keep under review the more general issues of the ability of states, particularly developing countries, to fulfill the requirements of article 4. States Parties agreed that 13 May 1999 will serve as the starting date of the ten-year period from entry into force of the Convention for each state to make a submission on the outer limits of the extended continental shelf. The date will also apply to states for which the Convention entered into force before 13 May 1999, which is when the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf adopted its Scientific and Technical Guidelines.
Cristian Maquiera (Chile), President of the session, said the issue of the ten year time period was one of the most important items on the meeting agenda. He expressed gratitude to Norway for its contribution of more than US$1 million and to the United Kingdom for an additional contribution, to help developing countries meet their obligations under article 76 of the Convention.
Delegates also approved the draft 2002 budget of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, totaling US$7.8 million. They approved US$894,300 as contingency funds to provide the Tribunal with the necessary financial means to consider cases in 2002, in particular those requiring expeditious proceedings. States Parties also held a special election to fill a vacancy left on the International Tribunal by the death last year of Judge Kihai Zhao (China). Guangjian Xu, a legal adviser with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, was elected.
The 12th meeting of states Parties will be held from 13-24 May 2002 in New York, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention.
Contact: Annick de Marffy, Deputy Director, Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, 2 UN Plaza, New York NY 10017, United States, telephone +1-212/963 3962, fax +1-212/963 5847, website (www.un.org/depts/los).
UNEP STUDY OF WORLD’S ECOSYSTEMS
What has been described as an “unrivalled scientific undertaking aimed at assessing the condition of the world’s wildlife habitats and ecosystems” was launched in June 2001. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) will bring together an unprecedented network of scientists, experts, government bodies and environmental groups. Its aim will be to “plug important gaps in knowledge on the true health of habitats and whether they are continuing to function for the benefit of humans and the plants and animals which make them their homes.”
The study will focus on improving the understanding of humans’ impact on the planet, and it will propose remedies and chart ways in which the Earth’s ecosystems can be saved and restored.
“If we are to rescue the Earth’s life support systems, we need hard facts,” said Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which is involved in the study. “We already know a great deal. We have sufficient knowledge to turn fine words into actions. But important questions remain, which is why I welcome this scientific undertaking.”
The four-year undertaking will seek to find a common approach among various scientific and other organizations on how to assess the health of ecosystems. One of the most difficult challenges, according to UNEP, will be the assessment of inaccessible coastal and deep ocean areas including coral reefs, mangrove swamps and the continental shelves. It is hoped that satellite data will play an important role in mapping the location and extent of these areas, which should then allow identification of areas where direct scientific assessments by people on the ground are urgently needed.
The study will build on the Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems published in 2000 and produced by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank and UNEP.
Contact: Robert Bisset, Office of the Spokesman/Director, Communications and Public Information, UNEP, PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya, telephone +254-2/623084, fax +254-2/623692, e-mail <robert.bisset@unep.org>, website (www.unep.org).
Adlai Amor, Media Director, WRI, 10 G Street NE, Suite 800, Washington DC 20002, United States, telephone +1-202/729 7736, fax +1-202/729 7610, e-mail <aamor@wri.org>, website (www.wri.org).
UNESCO BIODIVERSITY MEETING
The International Conference on Biodiversity and Society, held by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and US-based Columbia University in May 2001, closed by calling on governments, civil society and local communities to work together in developing an integrated approach to environment conservation. Participants in the conference, held in New York, said this approach should combine the protection of biodiversity with sustainable economic development and preservation of cultural values.
“The protection of biodiversity,” said Mohammed Valli Moosa, Minister for Environment and Tourism in South Africa, “must be seen within the context of the benefit of high biodiversity to humanity and within the context of the advancement of global human values. Particularly in the African context, talk about protecting biodiversity for its own sake will make little progress because of poverty and economic development imperatives that we have.”
Participants including scientists, biosphere reserve managers, policy makers and community stakeholders discussed nine case studies conducted at sites chosen for their biological diversity as well as their economic, cultural and social importance. These were, among others, the Mata Atlantica forest in Brazil and the Sonoran Desert along the US-Mexico border.
In a declaration participants said that “attempts to conserve and sustainably manage biodiversity must include economic, social, cultural and political perspectives.”
Solutions must “acknowledge the interests and values of stakeholders, including local traditions of property and access rights.”
And local communities must “be meaningfully involved and engaged in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.”
Contact: Press Service, UNESCO, 7 place de Fontenoy, F-75700 Paris, France, telephone +33-1/45 68 17 44, fax +33-1/45 68 56 52, website (www.unesco.org).
Case studies and conference proceedings will be available online (www.earthscape.org); more information on the conference is available at (www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/events/biodiversity.html).
INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
The world’s rich and irreplaceable biological heritage is under attack on many fronts from land clearance, over-hunting and over-harvesting, pollution--and the spread of invasive alien species.
“Invasive alien species are thought to be the biggest threat to biological diversity after habitat destruction,” said Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
“The dramatic growth in tourism and trade is offering these unwanted visitors more and more opportunities to travel hundreds or thousands of kilometres beyond their natural habitat via boat or aircraft. Some thrive in their new homes--but at great cost to native species and ecosystems, and at a cost of billions of dollars to local economies,” he said.
Invaders can compete with native plants and animals, displace them, consume them, act as parasites or transmit diseases, reduce growth and survival rates, cause the decline or extinction of local populations or even entire species, and uproot or damage plants.
Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was adopted in 1992 under UNEP auspices, governments are working together to take more aggressive measures to prevent alien species from invading in the first place. If this fails, complete removal may still be feasible early in an invasion. Where eradication is not feasible or cost-effective, containment and long-term control measures will need to be considered.
But governments cannot do it alone, according to UNEP. Businesses and individuals have a vital role to play. Tourists must take the responsibility for obeying all customs rules--even a piece of fruit in hand luggage can carry invading insects or micro-organisms--and owners of exotic pets or plants must take care to keep them contained. Businesses involved in timber, agriculture, shipping, and similar trades need to rigorously respect safety measures for minimizing the transport of invasive alien species.
Contact: Michael Williams, Information Officer, UNEP, Geneva Executive Centre, 15 chemin des Anémones, CH-1219 Châtelaine (Geneva), Switzerland, telephone +41-22/979 9242, fax +41-22/797 3464, e-mail <mwilliams@unep.ch>, website (www.unep.org).
Information on alien invasive species is available from the Convention on Biological Diversity, (www.biodiv.org), the Global Invasive Species Programme (jasper.Stanford.edu/GISP) and the World Conservation Union (www.iucn.org).
UNESCO UNDERWATER HERITAGE MEETING
Government experts representing some 100 states met in Paris (France) in March 2001 to examine the Draft Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage. The Convention is destined to protect such valuable heritage, including archaeological sites that are increasingly vulnerable to pillaging by treasure hunters.
In many cases, pillaging has already led to the loss of material of inestimable value to study of the origins and history of civilizations. However, the protection of underwater cultural heritage lacks an adequate universal legislation, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It said existing maritime legislation, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), does not adequately cover heritage protection.
The March meeting, held at UNESCO headquarters, yielded consensus on issues including:
--the priority to be given to preservation in situ of underwater cultural heritage;
--principles of cooperation between states and information sharing;
--salvage and finds legislation;
--the need to raise public awareness concerning the value and interest of cultural underwater heritage; and
--rules concerning activities directed at underwater cultural heritage.
Further discussion was planned during the second part of the meeting, scheduled in late June and early July, on issues including the responsibility of coastal states for cultural heritage situated on the continental shelf.
Contact: Press Service, UNESCO, 7 place de Fontenoy, F-75700 Paris, France, telephone +33-1/45 68 17 44, fax +33-1/45 68 56 52, website (www.unesco.org).
SUBCOMMITTEE ON OUTER SPACE
Activities of international organizations relating to space law, a review of the concept of “launching State,” and a draft convention concerning international interests in mobile equipment were among topics discussed at the 40th session of the Legal Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. The Subcommittee, which met in April 2001 in Vienna (Austria), also discussed a draft protocol on matters specific to space property.
The Subcommittee noted that various international organizations had been invited by the secretariat to report on their activities relating to space law, and it agreed that a similar invitation should be extended for the next session.
In view of the obligations and responsibilities imposed on a launching state under the Liability and Registration Conventions, the Subcommittee reviewed the concept of launching state as defined in those conventions.
The Subcommittee continued consideration of legal issues relating to the review and possible revision of the United Nations Principles Relevant to the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space. It further considered the definition and delimitation of outer space as well as utilization of the geostationary orbit, taking into account the concerns of developing countries.
It also agreed to the establishment of an ad hoc consultative mechanism to review issues relating to the draft convention of the International Institute for Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) on international interests in mobile equipment, and the preliminary draft protocol thereto on matters specific to space property.
Contact: Director, Office for Outer Space Affairs, United Nations Office at Vienna, PO Box 500, Vienna, Austria, telephone +43-1/26060 4950, fax +43-1/26060 5830, e-mail <OOSA@unov.un.or.at>, website (www.oosa.unvienna.org).
UN-NGO COOPERATION
COMMITTEE ON NGOS MEETS
The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations suspended its 2001 session on 25 May in New York after recommending 44 organizations for consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
The three-week session reviewed a total of 52 deferred applications, 47 new applications, four reclassification requests and 230 quadrennial reports. Due to a lack of time, 47 applications were not examined. However, the Committee did hear from 19 NGO representatives and approved the request of three organizations to be heard at the ECOSOC high-level segment on 16-18 July 2001 in Geneva. Once ECOSOC confirms recommendations by the Committee, there will be a total of 2,093 NGOs in consultative status with the Council.
The Committee asked ECOSOC to approve a recommendation to resume from 14-25 January 2002 in order to complete the work of its 2001 session.
The 19-member Committee, a standing body of ECOSOC established in 1946, considers applications submitted by NGOs for consultative status and their requests for reclassification and quadrennial reports submitted by those organizations; implements the provisions of Council resolution 1996/31 and monitoring of consultative relationships; and considers other issues as requested.
Non-governmental, non-profit voluntary organizations can be admitted into consultative status with the Council if they meet the requirements detailed in Council resolution 1996/31 regarding, among other things, the organization’s activities, decision-making processes and resources.
Contact: Hanifa Mezoui, Chief, NGO Section, DESA, 1 UN Plaza, Room DC1-1480, New York NY 10017, United States, telephone +1-212/963 8652, fax +1-212/963 9248, e-mail <desangosection@un.org>, website (www.un.org/esa/coordination/ngo).
DPI/NGO DISARMAMENT FORUM
The NGO Committee on Disarmament, together with the United Nations Department for Public Information (DPI), held a Spring 2001 Disarmament Forum in New York from 11-12 April. The forum featured panel discussions on a range of topics including Small Arms as a Development and Humanitarian Issue, and Implementation of the Brahimi Report. The Brahimi report is an assessment of UN peacekeeping activities that was issued in 2000 (see Go Between 82). It calls for substantial changes in the UN system, including the need for more resources for peacekeeping missions, and improved processes and relationships both within the UN system and between it and Member States. Among panellists were experts from the UN secretariat and agencies, permanent missions of Member States, and civil society.
In the panel on small arms, speakers examined the connection between development and small arms. They focused on linkages between the demand in small arms and poverty, discrimination, and breakdown in security that is fuelled by political, ethnic, religious or nationalistic animosities.
In war-torn societies, they said, illicit trade in small arms often undermined reconstruction and development efforts. Panellists also emphasized the need for a comprehensive approach to illicit trade in small arms and the importance of collaboration between governments, international and regional organizations and civil society actors to curb the trade.
During the panel discussion on implementation of the Brahimi Report, speakers said that in the post-Cold War era peacekeeping missions had become complex and difficult to accomplish.
Panellists said the need for change had been embraced by the UN General Assembly and Security Council. However, while NGOs recognized the importance of the Brahimi report, they said it offered only a superficial and partial analysis of situations that lead to conflict.
Contact: NGO Committee on Disarmament, 777 UN Plaza, New York NY 10017, United States, telephone +1-212/687 5340, e-mail <disarmtimes@igc.org>, website (www.igc.org/disarm).
GLOBAL FINANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY
Civil society is becoming increasingly important in redressing the deficit in the governance of global finance, according to a joint study by the United Nations University (UNU) and Centre for the Study of Globalization and Regionalization (CSGR) at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. The study coordinator, Jan Aart Scholte, said that civil society engagement has both positive and negative aspects and is “not inherently bad or good.”
Concerning recent social movement activity in Seattle (United States), Davos (Switzerland), Prague (Czech Republic) and other cities, the study cites positive contributions such as building civic awareness, allowing for the participation of more stakeholders, generating debate, increasing transparency in the system, holding individuals and institutions accountable, and promoting global standards.
On the other hand, it acknowledges that civil society organizations (CSOs) need to be scrutinized on their claims of representation, accountability and technical expertise, which could help maximize their involvement in the global financial arena and minimize their shortcomings.
The study, which brought together 20 authors from all continents, puts forward a number of initiatives that it says civil society should consider in its work on global finance.
Inge Kaul of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said these include:
--promoting the notion of an international financial architecture as a global public good;
--advocating more participatory decision making on financial issues and developing concrete ideas for such decision making;
--supporting an extension of the financial architecture to the local level to enhance access of the poor to appropriate financial services; and
--civil society representatives making themselves available to participate in various financial bodies and meetings.
Alison van Rooy, of the North-South Institute (Canada) and a contributor to the study, recognized what she described as the significant contributions made by civil society on global finance. However, she noted a number of difficulties faced by CSOs.
These include the gradual movement away from the “Washington Consensus” and the resulting space to articulate alternatives, which poses a serious challenge to civil society movements.
There are also internal challenges to the movements, including North-South partnerships, competing demands for legitimacy, and strategic investment of limited civic energy and interest.
Contact: Jan Aart Scholte, Centre for the Study of Globalization and Regionalization, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom, telephone +44-24/7657 2533, fax +44-24/7657 2548, e-mail <csgr@warwick.ac.uk>, website (www.warwick.ac.uk/csgr).
SLEEPING SICKNESS PREVENTION INITIATIVE
A project to combat sleeping sickness in Africa has been launched by the World Health Organization in cooperation with Médecins sans Frontières and the Aventis pharmaceutical company. Activities of the project include drug donations, disease management and control, and research and development.
“We can now look forward to halting the spread of sleeping sickness,” said Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director General of WHO. “As we increase surveillance, treatment and research, there is now reason to hope that we can better control this disease.”
Sleeping sickness on the continent, known as African Trypanosomiasis, affects as many as half a million people in the sub-Saharan region. It is becoming increasingly prevalent after having been close to elimination in the early 1960s. Infection, transmitted by the tsetse fly, eventually affects the central nervous system causing severe neurological disorders and, if left untreated, death.
WHO expects to be able to re-start control programmes in countries such as Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the United Republic of Tanzania, where the risk of African Trypanosomiasis is high but where control activities have been scant in recent years.
Contact: Gregory Hartl, Spokesperson, WHO, 20 avenue Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/791 4458, fax +41-22/791 4858, e-mail <hartlg@who.ch>, website (www.who.int).
UNEP/CIVIL SOCIETY CONSULTATIONS
A United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) consultation with civil society on International Environmental Governance, held on 22-23 May 2001 in Nairobi (Kenya), brought together representatives of 56 civil society organizations from around the world.
Participants in the consultation, held at UNEP headquarters, included members of the business community, faith-based organizations and research institutes. They discussed multilateral environmental agreements, financing, compliance and visions for UNEP and its mandate.
Multilateral agreements were seen as necessary to help remedy weaknesses in the area of environmental governance. Recommendations included:
--strengthen UNEP and ensure that all multilateral environmental agreements be located there;
--all multilateral environmental agreements should have compliance mechanisms, which should be streamlined, centralized and involve civil society actors; and
--environmental functions of the Commission on Sustainable Development should be transferred to UNEP.
On the issue of financing, participants agreed that UNEP needed predictable and sustainable funding to carry out its mission and should seek more stable sources of financing. They discussed the effectiveness of a sectoral or cross-cutting organization; the possible advantages of a world environmental organization as a more stable source of funding; and other possible sources of funding including taxes, investment sector funding, and investment guarantee systems. Also mentioned were direct private investment, and private investment in green enterprises and sustainable development.
Compliance mechanisms were characterized as inadequate and even absent from some multilateral environmental agreements. The large number of agreements was one of the obstacles to compliance, participants said. When a multilateral environment agreement was agreed, compliance mechanisms that incorporate incentives and sanctions should be put into place.
Both developed and developing countries should be subject to the same formal and transparent compliance mechanisms. In addition, a joint dialogue on international environmental governance should be convened to bring together groups already consulted separately, and a set of criteria should be developed for Major Groups (identified in Agenda 21) in the multi-stakeholder process.
Participants said UNEP should maintain its role and seek to become an executing agency. It should be responsible for sustainable development “rather than the environment in isolation,” and its governance should be expanded to include civil society. They also said that UNEP should assist Southern governments to fulfil their reporting obligations, as well as to participate more effectively in global environmental negotiations.
From 24-24 May participants attended a second consultation on the theme Enhancing the Active Engagement and Participation of Civil Society in the Work of UNEP.
Among other things, recommendations were made that UNEP should:
--institutionalize Major Group participation in project design, implementation and evaluation;
--continually review mechanisms for cooperation with NGOs and Major Groups;
--encourage and support participation by NGOs and Major Groups in policy development and governance of the organization; and
--raise funds jointly with civil society organizations for agreed projects and programmes.
They said UNEP “possessed good information, but much of it was not ‘packaged’ for use by civil society.” Among other things, they said organizations should select one issue on which user-friendly information could be prepared, and UNEP should devise general guidelines for organizations and for “target communities.”
A Civil Society and NGO Unit, established by UNEP in 2000, aims to strengthen the Programme’s cooperation with civil society.
Other activities by UNEP to mainstream civil society involvement in its activities include:
--a memorandum of understanding with the Global Legislators Organization for a Balanced Environment;
--strengthened partnerships with major African NGOs and a series of partnership meetings;
--a forum for NGOs in conjunction with the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum held in May 2000; and
--a similar forum in February 2001.
Contact: Subramonia Ananthakrishnan, Chief, Civil Society and NGOs Unit, Division of Environmental Policy Development and Law, UNEP, PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya, telephone +254-2/ 623870, fax +254-2/ 623679 or 622788, e-mail <anantha.krishnan@unep.org>, website (www.unep.org).
UNEP/NGO PROJECT FOR GREAT APES
An international project to save Great Apes from extinction, launched in May 2001 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and partners, will target key areas in Africa and South East Asia “where humankind’s closest relatives are teetering on the brink.”
The Great Apes Survival Project aims to stop possible extinction of Great Apes as a result of war, habitat destruction, capturing of live young for sale, and poaching for trophies, souvenirs and their meat.
The project will work with wildlife groups and non-governmental organizations including some that have been battling for years to stem the demise of the gorilla, orangutan, chimpanzee and other Great Apes.
Partners, among others, are the Ape Alliance, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Born Free Foundation, Fauna and Flora International, the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, and World Wide Fund for Nature.
“A global effort is now needed to combat this disaster,” said Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of UNEP. “The clock is standing at one minute to midnight for the Great Apes. Some experts estimate that in as little as five to ten years they will be extinct across most of their range. Local extinctions are happening rapidly and each one is a loss to humanity, a loss to a local community, and a hole torn in the ecology of our planet. We can no longer stand by and watch these wondrous creatures--some of whom share over 98% of the DNA found in humans--die out.”
In some areas the project will provide rangers and wardens state of the art communications equipment and vehicles. In others, wildlife corridors linking fragmented habitats and isolated populations are needed.
Educating local people on the value of Great Apes for eco-tourism and for protecting forests will also be key objectives.
Contact: Robert Bisset, Office of the Spokesman/Director, Communications and Public Information, UNEP, PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya, telephone +254-2/623084, fax +254-2/623692, e-mail <robert.bisset@unep.org>, website (www.unep.org).
NGO UPDATE
JUBILEE DEBT CAMPAIGN UK
Previous supporters of Jubilee 2000 (United Kingdom) and others who support the aims of the campaign and agree to contribute resources have been invited to join the newly-named Jubilee Debt Campaign (UK). The aim of the coalition of regional groups and national organizations will be “cancellation through fair and transparent processes of the unpayable debts of the poorest countries.”
The campaign will:
--maintain pressure on decision makers for debt cancellation “to ensure that it is delivered and that it contributes toward poverty reduction;”
--make public its continued commitment to campaign on debt;
--make debt its primary focus; and
--“review annually its continuation in the light of the levels and management of poor country debt, advocacy opportunities, campaigning resources and other factors.”
Membership will be divided into two categories: regional coalitions and local groups; and national organizations. The campaign, which will be coordinated by a new secretariat, “will not take on a remit of international coordination.”
Contact: Ashok Sinha, Coalition Coordinator, Jubilee Debt Campaign (UK), c/o Drop the Debt, 37-39 Great Guildford Street, London SE1 0ES, United Kingdom, telephone +44-20/7922 1111 (extension 229), fax +44-20/7922 1122, e-mail <ashok@jubileedebtcoalition.org.uk>, website (www.jubileedebtcoalition.org.uk).
SOCIAL WATCH 2001 REPORT
The latest statistics indicate that most countries are far from achieving social development goals set for 2000 according to the Social Watch Report 2001, published by a coalition of international citizens’ groups.
The report says that partly due to the financial crisis of the late 1990s, many counties show no progress at all and some are worse off than they were ten years ago.
With affiliates in over 50 countries, Social Watch is an international citizens’ coalition that monitors implementation of governments’ commitments to eradicate poverty and achieve gender equity.
Against the backdrop of the 2001 Preparatory Committee meeting on Financing for Development (see focus article below) the coalition monitoring implementation of the world governments’ commitments to eradicate poverty and achieve gender equity called for urgent action to mobilize resources for development.
This should be done through increased official development assistance (ODA) levels, debt cancellation, a possible tax on international speculative transactions, and an economic system that is not biased against the poor.
“Promoting the necessary political will,” said Social Watch Coordinator Roberto Bissio, “to implement internationally agreed commitments on social development is the raison d’être of Social Watch.
This year’s edition contains over 50 country reports and numerous thematic reports written by civil society organizations around the world. It illustrates cases of conflict between achieving social development priorities and responding to the pressures of economic globalization.
The report calls for new rules and institutions capable of guaranteeing stability and more equitable growth in the system. It says that while an open capital account is a positive instrument for financially developed countries, emerging markets are constantly being undermined by uncontrolled and unexpected capital flight and by sudden and unsound deregulation and liberalization policies.
The report examines six thematic areas: basic education; children’s health; reproductive health; health and life expectancy; food security and infant nutrition; and safe water and sanitation. It says that in all these more countries are making progress than regressing. For example, 81% of countries show improvements in women’s life expectancy, and 79% made some progress on female literacy.
However things look less promising, the report notes, when considering the countries’ rate of progress toward achieving set goals. Only one-fourth of countries have already reached targets, or are on schedule in three key areas: education, child health, and water and sanitation. In food security and reproductive health, just over one-third have achieved set goals; only in the areas of health and life expectancy have a significant number of countries already achieved goals or are on target to do so.
The report notes regressive trends in the area of basic education: of the 122 countries for which data is available 31% are worse off than ten years ago, and 33% show setbacks in net rates of female enrolment in primary school. Similarly, 28% of countries show a drop in nutritional levels and food security since 1990.
Areli Sandoval of Equipo Pueblo, a Mexican member organization of Social Watch, drew attention to the International Conference on Financing for Development to be held in Mexico next year. She said that the process offered an opportunity to settle the issue of resources necessary for implementation of commitments agreed at the world conferences of the 1990s, and address what she called the “huge pending social agenda.”
Contact: Patricia Garcé, Executive Secretary, Social Watch, Casilla de Correo 1539, Montevideo 11000, Uruguay, phone +598-2/419 6192, fax +598-2/411 9222, e-mail <socwatch@chasque.apc.org>, website (www.socwatch.org).
FOOD FIRST REPORT ON LAND REFORM
The US-based Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First) has issued a report that critiques market-based land reforms and highlights mass movements that it says are driving alternative reforms from below.
In a report entitled Tides Shift on Agrarian Reform: New Movements Show the Way, Food First raises concern about the World Bank’s land reform efforts and the privatization of communal land. In Mexico as well as parts of Africa and Asia, it says increased individual competition has caused the breakdown of community-based resource management systems-- such as terraces and small-scale irrigation--leading to accelerated land degradation. The introduction of the individual profit-motive, sometimes linked with outside corporations, can produce a new short-term emphasis on extraction-like profit taking, observes the report. Individualism can also come into sharp conflict with indigenous land use systems, and problems may arise with the land claims of women and indigenous communities, often left out of the process.
The report notes that land titling, registries and facilitation of markets may seem to meet the demands of farmers for secure title to their land, but they induce mass sell-offs of land instead which causes increased landlessness, land concentration and rural-urban migration. This re-concentration of land is occurring rapidly in many parts of the world, according to Food First.
The report also addresses the World Bank’s market-assisted reforms, which involve granting loans and credits for the landless to buy land at market rates from wealthy landowners and to acquire fertilizers and technical assistance for new, marketable crops. It says landowners often choose to sell only their most marginal, remote and ecologically fragile plots, often at exorbitant prices. Selling these lands can lead to extending the agricultural frontier, deforestation, and desertification and soil erosion, as well as introducing unsustainable practices into fragile habitats.
The following principles should be considered when implementing land reform, according to the report.
--When families receive land they must not be saddled with heavy debt burdens.
--Women must have the right to hold title to land.
--Land distributed must be of good quality, rather than ecologically fragile soils that should never be farmed. It must also be free of disputed claims by other poor people.
--People need more than land if they are to be successful. There must be a supportive policy environment and essential services such as credit on reasonable terms, infrastructure, support for ecologically sound technologies, and access to markets.
--The power of rural elites to, among other things, profit from policies and subsidies in their favor must be effectively broken by the reform.
--The vast majority of rural poor must be beneficiaries of the reform process.
The report says successful reforms are distinguished by a motivation and perception that new small family farms created should be the centrepiece of economic development.
Contact: Institute for Food and Development Policy, 398 60th Street, Oakland, California 94608, United States, telephone +1-510/654 4400, fax +1-510/654 4551, e-mail <foodfirst@foodfirst.org>, website (www.foodfirst.org).
NGO CONFERENCE ON CHILD SOLDIERS
Representatives of governments in the Middle East, the United Nations and NGOs gathered at a conference in Amman (Jordan) from 8-10 April 2001 to discuss legal measures to fight the use of children as soldiers during armed conflicts. The conference was organized by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, which brings together several international human rights associations.
Participants adopted the Amman Declaration which urges, among other things, all states to ratify or accede to, without reservations or declarations, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. The Optional Protocol (see NGLS Roundup 68) prohibits the voluntary recruitment of children under the age of 18 years in armed conflict. The Amman Declaration also calls upon all states “to ensure the special protection of all children living under occupation,” without specifying any countries.
It links the recruitment of child soldiers with the use of small arms and “calls upon states, including those outside the region, not to supply small arms or light weapons to any government or armed group which recruits or uses children as soldiers.”
The Declaration also “urges states to adopt legislation holding companies accountable for activities which can…involve children in hostilities or military activity and call[s] on companies to adopt and abide by codes of conduct.”
Contact: Rory Mungoven, Coordinator, Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, PO Box 22696, London N4 3ZJ, United Kingdom, telephone +44-20/7274 0230, fax +44-20/7738 4110, e-mail <info@childsoldiers.org>, website (www.child-soldiers.org).
OTHER NEWS
AFRICAN SUMMIT ON INFECTIOUS DISEASES
At the African Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related Infectious Diseases, held in Abuja (Nigeria) from 26-27 April 2001, African heads of state gathered to discuss the HIV/AIDS pandemic on the continent. Nearly 70% of the world’s infected adults and children live in Africa.
Other participants at the Summit, which was convened by the Organization of African Unity and the Nigerian government, included heads of United Nations agencies, representatives of NGOs, and executives of the private sector.
The Summit was preceded by two days of ministerial and technical meetings, including panel discussions on: policy and prevention strategies; access to care, drugs and support; how to “operationalize” and sustain a multi-sectoral approach with respect to infectious diseases; current research approaches in Africa, including traditional medicines and socio-economic research; and sustainable resource mobilization including needs, allocation and accountability.
Reports were also given on success stories related to international partnership efforts.
Some 25.3 million Africans are living with HIV, and tuberculosis and many other related infectious diseases add to the burden of AIDS. According to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s report on Follow-Up of Implementation of the OAU Decisions/Declarations on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related Infectious Diseases in Africa, HIV/AIDS is a “disease of poverty.” The two create a vicious cycle, whereby one complements the other. At the Summit, Mr. Annan urged the creation of a US$7 to US$10 billion global fund to fight infectious diseases in Africa.
“The fund will be governed by stakeholders,” he said, “which will be made of donors, the UN system and groups dealing with people infected by HIV/AIDS.” He noted that resources would be disbursed with an emphasis on “action at the country and community level.” The key objectives will be to prevent further spread of HIV/AIDS, reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission, provide care and treatment to all, deliver scientific breakthroughs, and protect the vulnerable--particularly orphans.
Mr. Annan called on African leaders to “break the wall of silence and embarrassment” that surrounds the AIDS issue in many African societies, and to remove the discrimination and stigma attached to those infected. He also urged them to mobilize more of their domestic budgets against the pandemic. He said local communities and people living with HIV/AIDS must be involved in the struggle against it, and women must be empowered in order to protect themselves and their children against infection.
“Building stronger healthcare systems,” he noted, “is an absolutely essential step often overlooked in the budgets of governments and development agencies.” Without improved healthcare, cheaper anti-retroviral drugs may even do more harm than good if life-threatening side effects are not addressed or therapy is interrupted. This could lead to drug-resistant forms of HIV, he warned.
“If we do not win here in Africa, we are not going to win [the fight against HIV/AIDS] anywhere else,” said Mr. Annan.
In the Abuja Declaration participants heads of state and government pledged to:
--ensure that needed resources are made available from all sources and are efficiently and effectively utilized;
--set a target of 15% of annual budgets to improvement of the health sector;
--formulate a continent-wide policy for an international assistance strategy for the mobilization of additional financial resources;
--enact and utilize appropriate legislation and international trade regulations to ensure the availability of drugs at affordable prices and technologies for treatment, care and prevention of infectious diseases;
--consolidate the foundations for prevention of infectious diseases; and
--ensure that National AIDS Commissions/Councils are properly convened and produce a focus for national policy-making and programme implementation.
The Declaration also calls on donor countries to complement the resources mobilization effort, and to fulfill the target of 0.7% of their gross national product (GNP) as official development assistance.
Contact: Organization of African Unity, PO Box 3243, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, telephone +251-1/517700 or 510039, fax +251-1/517844 or 512622, e-mail <johnson@telecom.net.et>, website (www.oau-oua.org).
THIRD SUMMIT OF AMERICAS AND PEOPLE’S SUMMIT
The Third Summit of the Americas, held in Quebec City (Canada) from 20-22 April 2001, was attended by 34 leaders from every country in the Americas except Cuba on grounds that its government was not democratically elected. Participants pursued negotiations on trade and economic integration in the hemisphere under the aegis of an agreement establishing a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The FTAA has been the subject of what have been described as non-transparent negotiations since the first Summit of the Americas, held in 1994 in Miami (United States). Negotiators have set 2005 as the FTAA’s implementation deadline.
The Summit of the Americas concluded with all but one of the 34 participants (Venezuela) pledging to achieve free trade in the hemisphere by 2005, a goal the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) support.
The two international financial institutions pledged US$20 billion to bolster democracy in the region and prepare for free trade amid varied levels of economic development. The World Bank will propose that its Board approve US$12 to US$16 billion in loans and credits to Latin America and the Caribbean over the next three years to support the region’s efforts to combat poverty. The proposal will emphasize improvements in health, particularly HIV/AIDS prevention, education and information and communications technology.
Summit participants, responding to pressure from civil society organizations, also pledged to release a draft of the free trade agreement, which has evolved over the last seven years of negotiations.
A large coalition of human rights, labour and environmental NGOs and activists known as the Hemispheric Social Alliance held a second People’s Summit of the Americas from 17-21 April in response to the official event.
At the People’s Summit participants said the FTAA promoted a “development model that is unjust and destructive and which gives too much power to corporate interests while excluding genuine public consultation.” More than 2,000 civil society representatives from the 35 countries of the Americas, including Cuba, expressed their opposition to policies promoting export-led economic growth in the hemisphere.
“We refuse to accept a status quo that continues to marginalize vast sectors of our population and to degrade our environment,” said the Alliance for Responsible Trade (ART). “Neo-liberal rules to deregulate capital markets, combined with new telecommunications technologies have opened our markets to the vagaries of hot money.”
According to People’s Summit participants, “The FTAA to date has been driven by narrow commercial self-interest business elites. The proposed FTAA, based on the extension of NAFTA to the hemisphere, seeks to free corporations from government regulation, secure expanded markets for exporters and offer new guarantees to foreign investors--goals that more often than not conflict with the interest of the hemisphere’s farmers and workers and their families, and threaten the long-term prospects for poverty eradication and sustainable development.”
Despite these charges NGOs were not opposed to closer trading relations, according to Oxfam Canada. “Trade can contribute to equitable development and can be undertaken so as to enhance respect for human rights and environmental sustainability,” it said. “We believe that a rules-based system is the best way to achieve this....However, an agreement based on blanket liberalization of trade and investment rules, particularly one between countries of vastly different size and clout, will undermine the policy tools governments must have at their disposal for sustainable development.”
To achieve this, the Hemispheric Social Alliance put forward a document entitled Alternatives for the Americas. It reflects many NGO concerns on such issues as agriculture, intellectual property, investment, market access and the processes by which agreement is being negotiated and would be administered.
The document, which formed the basis of discussions at the People’s Summit, calls for a mechanism to transfer resources to the poorer members of the FTAA. It proposes that foreign debt of the poorer nations of the Americas be written off by the stronger economies, as a mechanism for providing compensatory financing for countries at a lower level of development. “Every agreement between countries at different levels of development,” says the document, “must include compensatory financing to allow for achieving the competitiveness that integration implies and to fund social programmes.”
Canadian authorities, anxious to prevent a repeat of the anti-World Trade Organization (WTO) protests in Seattle (United States) in December 1999, used sweeping security measures vis-à-vis the People’s Summit. Some 5,000 officers from the police, including local municipal forces and riot police, made the operation the largest police deployment in Canadian history. More than 400 people were arrested, with 57 demonstrators and 46 police officers injured in violent altercations.
Contact: Second People’s Summit of the Americas, 3720 avenue du Parc, suite 300, Montreal, Quebec H2X 2J1, Canada, telephone +1-514/982 6606, ext. 2001, fax +1-514/982 6122, e-mail <rqic@alternatives.ca>, website (www.sommetdespeuples.org).
THIRD WTO MINISTERIAL PLANS FOR NGOS
At an NGO briefing in Geneva on 28 March 2001, the secretariat of the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced the establishment of an interdivisional task force on the organization’s relations with NGOs. The group, to be comprised of 12 representatives from the WTO’s key divisions, will report to the WTO Director-General and play a coordinating role for NGO-related activities within the secretariat.
In April, the WTO secretariat issued a paper (WT/INF/30) outlining new initiatives it intends to undertake with NGOs in the build-up to the fourth WTO ministerial meeting, to be held 9-13 November in Doha (Qatar). It says the basic objective of the initiatives is “to facilitate and encourage substantive and responsible discussion with NGOs on issues falling within the WTO’s mandate.”
Most initiatives consist of meetings between NGOs and the WTO secretariat, and occasionally with member governments. These include regular NGO briefings in Geneva by the secretariat, lunchtime dialogues with NGOs that have published trade-related studies or reports on issues falling within the WTO’s mandate, and small-scale “open dialogue” discussions with NGOs, member governments and the secretariat on issues of concern to NGOs that fall within the WTO mandate. The WTO secretariat is also considering the possibility of organizing one or more stand-alone workshops, both in Geneva and in the regions, as well as NGO attendance at technical seminars organized by the secretariat for member governments.
In Doha, the secretariat is considering holding daily briefings for accredited NGOs to keep them updated on the negotiation proceedings. According to the paper, these would be supplemented by periodic issue-specific briefings and workshops that would take place at the NGO Centre in Doha, a two-minute walk from the convention centre where the ministerial meeting will take place.
Procedures for NGOs wishing to apply for accreditation to the ministerial meeting are available on the WTO website (see contacts below).
Contact: Bernard Kuiten, External Relations Officer, WTO, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, Case postale, CH-1211 Geneva 21, Switzerland, telephone +41-22 /739 5676, fax +41-22/ 739 5777, website (www.wto.org).
ODA FALLS IN 2000
Official development assistance provided by the member countries of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation fell last year by 1.6% in real terms.
In current prices and exchange rates, total net ODA flows declined from US$56.4 billion in 1999 to $53.1 billion in 2000. But most of this drop, according to the OECD, was due to lower exchange rates for most currencies against the United States dollar. With the strong overall OECD growth last year, aid as a proportion of DAC members’ combined gross national product (GNP) returned to 0.22, the 1997 ratio.
Two factors explain the fall, according to the OECD. The first is due to changes in the list of countries eligible to receive official development assistance. Adjusting for these, total ODA fell by just 0.2% at constant prices and exchange rates. Second, Japan’s aid was US$2.3 billion lower than in 1999 when it included exceptional contributions to the Asian Development Bank in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.
Fifteen of the 22 DAC member countries reported a rise in ODA in real terms in 2000. For 12, the increase in ODA equaled or outpaced their economic growth. For the first time Luxembourg reached the UN 0.7% target for ODA as a proportion of GNP. This meant it joined Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, which continue to surpass the target.
Aid from the United Kingdom rose by 35.6% in real terms, “more than compensating for the 10.6% fall last year, with the rebound due to the timing of its multilateral contributions and its commitment to an increased budget for aid,” noted the OECD. Also increasing their aid substantially were Belgium (21.7%), Greece (28.7%), the Netherlands (10.0%) and Sweden (22.3%).
Aid disbursements by the European Commission rose in real terms by 12.6%. Total aid from the non-Group of Seven DAC countries increased by 8.3% in real terms and accounted for 26% of DAC members’ official development assistance.
Total aid from G-7 countries fell by 4.8% in real terms because of the exceptional fall in Japan’s aid, combined with a fall in aid from France since its aid to French Polynesia and New Caledonia is no longer counted as ODA. Italy’s aid also fell due to the timing of its payments to multilateral agencies. Germany increased its aid (5.9%) as well as the United States (2.7%), while Canada’s fell slightly (-2.2%).
Contact: Media Relations, OECD, 2 rue André-Pascal, F-75775 Paris Cédex 16, France, telephone +33-1/45 24 80 91, fax +33-1/45 24 80 03, e-mail <news.contact@oecd.org>, website (www.oecd.org/dac).
FOCUS
THIRD PREPCOM FOR GA SPECIAL SESSION ON CHILDREN
Preparations for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children, to take place from 19-21 September 2001 in New York, continued at the third meeting of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom). During the PrepCom, held from 11-15 June 2001 in New York, Member States met in two parallel sessions to continue negotiating the draft outcome document of the Special Session and to discuss a report on children submitted by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
At the Special Session, Member States will conduct a review of progress since the 1990 World Summit for Children. They are also expected to adopt a Declaration and Programme of Action entitled A World Fit For Children, which will set a global agenda for improving the lives of children.
Negotiations on the Draft Outcome Document
Discussions at the third PrepCom were described by Chairperson Patricia Durrant (Jamaica) as “painfully slow.” Delegates were unable to finalize the revised draft outcome document, which contains a Declaration and Programme of Action. Agreement was reached on 39 paragraphs, while sections on issues including children and armed conflict, mobilizing resources, and follow-up and monitoring were not discussed. The PrepCom decided that negotiations on the texts would continue during informal consultations in New York in July and August.
The draft outcome document discussed during the PrepCom was the third revision prepared by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the substantive secretariat for the Special Session. The document calls for greater legal protection for several categories of vulnerable children, and reflects more support for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) than previous drafts. However, from the outset of the third PrepCom delegates were divided about whether the document should adopt a strong rights-based approach based on the CRC, or should focus on the well-being of children. Attempts to bridge the divide in small, closed meetings were in vain.
Other subjects in the text that remained unresolved were references to sexual and reproductive healthcare and services, the role of parents in issues that involve children, policies focusing on adolescents, juvenile justice, and capital and corporal punishment. Discussions were dominated by four groups of countries with opposing views: the new and predominantly Islamic group known as Some Developing Countries; the United States; the European Union; and the Rio Group of Latin American countries.
Discussion of the Secretary-General's Report
Much discussion during the PrepCom was devoted to Mr. Annan's report on We the Children: End-Decade Review of the Follow-Up to the World Summit for Children (A/S-27/3). Based on 135 national reports prepared by Member States on implementation of the World Summit's Plan of Action, it reveals mixed progress. Several countries have succeeded in reducing mortality among children under five, and in most regions of the world high and sustained levels of immunization are saving millions of children. There are also more children around the world in school today than ever before. However, the report says much more needs to be done since over ten million children die each year, often from preventable diseases. About 150 million children suffer from malnutrition; over 100 million are still not in school; two million were killed in conflicts during the past decade; and the HIV/AIDS epidemic is threatening decades of gains in child survival and development, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Some Member States, when commenting on the report, identified persistent poverty and insufficient investments as the main factors hampering progress in many parts of the world. Others underlined the importance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a guide to efforts aimed at improving the lives of children.
NGO Participation in the PrepCom
Over 3,600 NGOs have been accredited to the Special Session and its preparatory process. A large number of NGO representatives, as well as young people on NGO or government delegations, attended the PrepCom and coordinated their activities in daily Child Rights Caucus meetings. The Caucus circulated a revised NGO Alternative Text, which among other things urges Member States to ensure that specific references to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the outcome document are retained and strengthened. The Alternative Text calls for removal of reference to “corporal punishment” from the outcome document. It also proposes inclusion of other forms of resource mobilization such as global solidarity schemes and fiscal measures.
On the other side of the spectrum, a group of conservative US and Arab NGOs were active at the PrepCom and lobbied against references in the text to, among other things, providing sex education, as well as sexual and reproductive healthcare services to adolescents. They also promoted abstinence as a way of preventing unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, and focused on the family and what was described as the primary role of parents in their children’s lives.
The Special Session and Children’s Forum
The Special Session will include a plenary and three interactive roundtable sessions in which heads of delegations of Member States, representatives of observers and entities of the United Nations, and children will participate. The theme of the roundtables will be Renewal of Commitment and Future Action for Children in the Next Decade. The Special Session will be preceded by a Children's Forum from 16-18 September, and its outcome will be presented to the plenary by children.
Contact: Margaret Kyenkya-Isabirye, Senior Advisor, Programme Partnership Unit, NGO Section, UNICEF, Room H8A, UN Plaza, New York NY 10017, United States, telephone +1-212/824 6570, fax +1-212/824 6466, e-mail <mkisabirye@unicef.org>, website (www.unicef.org/specialsession).
For a copy of the NGO Alternative Text: Child Rights Information Network, c/o Save the Children, 17 Grove Lane, London SE5 8RD, United Kingdom, telephone +44-20/7716 2240, fax +44-20/7793 7628, e-mail <info@crin.org>, website (www.crin.org).
SECOND PREPCOM FOR CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM MEETS
Governments and NGOs gathered from 21 May to 1 June 2001 in Geneva for the second session of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), to be held in Durban (South Africa) from 31 August to 7 September 2001.
The second session of the PrepCom was scheduled to be the last in a series of inter-governmental preparatory meetings. Because progress in these was limited, many had hoped that during the final meeting of the PrepCom states would commence negotiations to reach consensus on the draft Declaration and Programme of Action.
In her opening statement to the second PrepCom, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson reminded delegates that “a lot still remains to be achieved” and “progress has been slower than many had hoped.” She said she was “counting on [all participants to bring] a constructive approach to this preparatory committee,” and she urged them to “narrow down the critical issues which call for special attention” and “look for common ground.”
At the beginning of its second session, the PrepCom appointed a closed working group of 21 states, representing all regional groupings, to shorten the draft Declaration and Programme of Action by deleting and merging paragraphs. After this exercise, states started negotiations on the drafts in two separate groups, one on the draft Declaration and one on the Programme of Action. By the end of the session, delegates had reached a consensus on some 25 of the over 600 paragraphs of the two drafts (see documents: A/CONF.189/PC.2/L.1 and A/CONF.189/PC.2/L.1/Add 1).
The over 200 NGO representatives that attended the second session of the PrepCom coordinated their activities in regional and thematic Caucuses or groupings. In the first week NGOs made statements to the plenary on their own behalf, and a number of NGO caucuses made statements at the end of the week.
The working group of 21 states continued to shorten the draft Declaration and Programme of Action in a private session for a third week. Due to the lack of progress, an additional third session of the PrepCom was scheduled from 30 July to 10 August in Geneva.
Background of the Inter-
Governmental Preparatory Process
Many observers have remarked on the slow progress of discussions on the draft Declaration and Programme of Action of the WCAR. During the inter-governmental preparatory meetings that preceded the second session of the PrepCom, delegates proposed a large number of amendments to the two draft documents, which had been prepared by the WCAR secretariat at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The amendments were drawn from the recommendations of four regional preparatory meetings held in 2000 and 2001, and significantly lengthened the draft Declaration and Programme of Action. The amendments reflected differences in opinion among the various regional groups of countries concerning the way in which the Declaration and Programme of Action should address certain issues. These include historical and/or contemporary forms of slavery; compensation measures for the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism; discrimination based on African descent; and the impact of globalization and economic disparities on the persistence of racist attitudes.
NGO Forum and Youth Summit
In parallel with the WCAR, an NGO Forum will be organized in Durban from 28 August to 1 September. The NGO Forum will be organized by the South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO) in cooperation with an International Steering Committee and an International Coordinating Committee.
These are composed of elected representatives of regional and international NGOs and are responsible for making policy decisions regarding input to the NGO Forum, drafting the agenda of the Forum, and putting forward criteria for the selection of NGOs that will receive financial assistance to attend the Forum. An NGO Drafting Committee has produced a first draft of the NGO Declaration, to be adopted at the end of the Forum.
On 26-27 August a Youth Summit will be organized in Durban by the South African Youth Task Team in collaboration with SANGOCO, the International Youth Committee and the WCAR secretariat. The Youth Summit, which will bring together NGO youth representatives and delegates under 30 years old who are on WCAR government delegations, will draft a joint Youth Statement and Plan of Action to be presented at the WCAR (see contact below).
Contacts
WCAR: Laurie Wiseberg, NGO Liaison Officer for the WCAR, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Palais Wilson, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/917 9393, fax +41-22/917 9050, e-mail <lwiseberg.hchr@unog.ch>, website (www.unhchr.ch/html/racism/index.htm).
NGO Forum: Moshe More, Program Director, South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO), Sable Centre, 4th Floor, 41 De Korte Street, Braamfontein, Gauteng, South Africa, telephone +27-11/403 7270, fax +27-11/403 5531, e-mail <moshe@wcar.sangoco.org.za>, website (www.racism.org.za).
Youth Summit: Major Kobese, South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO), e-mail <major@wcar.sangoco.org.za>.
TDR 2001: FOCUS ON INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL ARCHITECTURE REFORM
Under the current regime of laissez-faire, the global financial system is likely to remain prone to systemic instability and crises such as the one triggered in East Asia in 1997, according to the Trade and Development Report, 2001 produced by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The mainstream debate has mainly focused on “disciplining” developing country debtors, the report says, even though the main causes of systemic instability lie in the major industrialized countries.
The report says failure to achieve greater progress in international financial architecture reform has been to a considerable extent due to political rather than technical reasons, because proposals that would address global systemic instability and risk have often run counter to the interests of creditors. Thus the focus has been on measures to “discipline” debtor countries such as adopting strict financial standards at the national level, improving transparency, adopting appropriate exchange rate regimes, carrying large amounts of reserves, and making voluntary arrangements with private creditors to involve them in crisis resolution. The report acknowledges that some of these reforms have their merits. However, it notes that many of the recommended “self-defense mechanisms”--such as carrying large amounts of reserves to counter speculative currency attacks--can be very costly in social and economic terms. Moreover, they presume that the cause of crises rests primarily with policy and institutional weaknesses in debtor countries, and thus the onus of responsibility for reform is placed firmly on their shoulders.
Systemic Nature and Global Reach of Crises
In sharp contrast to the above, the report emphasizes that “the virulence of the economic forces unleashed after the collapse of the Thai baht in July 1997, and among countries with track records of good governance and macroeconomic discipline, seemed to confirm the systemic nature and global reach of currency and financial crises.” It says that almost all major crises in emerging markets have been connected with frequent gyrations and misalignments of the currencies of major industrialized countries (United States, countries of the European Union and Japan) and large swings of extremely unstable international capital movements--all of which are beyond the control of recipient countries. However, the report says, these factors are not taken into account in the mainstream debate and the official advice to developing countries related to the choice between floating exchange rate regimes or locking into a reserve currency through currency boards or dollarization (the so-called hard pegs). “Much of this is a false debate,” the report asserts, since crises are likely to occur under either system.
The report suggests that the root of the problem lies in failure to establish a stable international system of exchange rates after the breakdown of the Bretton Woods arrangements in the 1970s. Yet the need to establish a global system of exchange rates, it notes, is not even on the agenda for reform of the international financial architecture. Thus it recommends that serious consideration be given to:
--introduction of adjustable target zones for the three major reserve currencies (the Dollar, Euro and Yen), together with a commitment by nations to defend these target zones through coordinated intervention and macro-economic policy action;
--establishment of effective multilateral surveillance over macro-economic policies of major industrial countries, especially in terms of their impact on poorer countries; and
--regional arrangements that, in the absence of progress at the global level, could provide collective defense mechanisms for developing countries against systemic failures and instability, but that would probably require the participation of a large reserve-currency country.
Temporary Standstill and Orderly Debt Workout
In the absence of an effective global mechanism to prevent financial crises, it is essential to determine how best to limit their damage, says the report. It notes that large bailout packages have been the preferred option, but are becoming increasingly problematic. They create “moral hazard” for lenders, which do not bear the consequences when their investments fail--a breach of the basic principles of market discipline. The packages also shift the burden of the crisis onto taxpayers in debtor countries. Because debtor country governments are often forced to assume responsibility for private debt, their taxpayers have had to foot the bill of most of the US$60 billion total cumulative losses that international banks incurred in emerging markets since 1997. Over the same period the same banks have collected more than US$20 billion per annum as risk premium on loans to these countries. Moreover, bailouts are facing increasing political opposition in creditor countries, as crises become more frequent and extensive and required funds get larger. The report notes that “while the international community has come to recognize that market discipline will only work if creditors bear the consequences of the risks they take, it has been unable to reach agreement on how to bring this about.”
The report proposes a temporary standstill for countries under financial attack in order to stop “asset-grabbing” and pave the way for an orderly and equitable debt workout. In order to ensure private sector involvement in crisis management (“bailing in” the private sector), this would have to be combined with strict limits on access to financing by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Such a strategy would require amending the IMF’s Articles of Agreement to provide statutory protection from creditor litigation against debtors imposing temporary standstills.
The report notes that despite support for such a framework by many industrialized countries, there is “strong opposition from some major powers, and from participants in the private markets, to mandatory mechanisms for ‘binding in’ and ‘bailing in’ the private sector.” However, it says that without statutory protection of debtors, negotiations with creditors for restructuring loans would be voluntary in nature and could not be expected to result in equitable burden sharing. Recent examples of negotiated settlements show that creditors did not bear the consequences of risks they had taken. Instead, they forced developing country governments to assume responsibility for private debt and accept a simple maturity extension at penalty rates.
Such standstills should be sanctioned through an established independent panel, insists the report, because as a creditor itself the IMF cannot be expected to play this role. The IMF should also refocus its conditionalities on core macro-economic objectives as recent bailouts in Turkey and Argentina suggest that the practice of attaching wide-ranging policy conditions to loan packages persist, despite official pronouncements to the contrary.
The report also recommends that developing countries do not succumb to pressure from some developed countries within the IMF to take on international legal commitments to liberalize their capital account regimes. If countries were to lock themselves into such legal obligations, this would remove the policy autonomy they may require to regulate capital flows, such as through the imposition of capital controls to tame excessive inflows and stave off “panic exits” of short-term speculative capital.
Reform of Governance of International Financial System
The report emphasizes that much of the policy reform proposals discussed above would imply significant changes in the mandate and policies of the IMF; these cannot be discussed in isolation from reforming the way decisions are made in the IMF. “Reform of the international financial architecture,” says the report, “presupposes a reform of the IMF.”
Any system of control and intervention at the international level would need to be reconciled with national sovereignty and accommodate diversity among nations. Moreover, the report warns, a rules-based international financial system raises concerns for developing countries. “Under the current distribution of power and governance of global institutions,” says the report, “such a system would be likely to reflect the interests of larger and richer countries rather than to redress the imbalances between international debtors and creditors.” Such biases already exist in the rules-based trading system it notes, “although relations here are more symmetrical than in the financial domain.” Whereas developed countries account for only 17% of voting strength in the United Nations, 24% in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and 34% in the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), they account for over 61% in the Bretton Woods Institutions. “And a single country [the United States] holds virtual veto power over important decisions,” adds the report. It cites a study undertaken for the Group of 24 (G-24) middle-income developing countries which argues that “the allocation of quotas and the correlate membership rights in both institutions [the IMF and World Bank] no longer reflect relative economic and political power, and the principle of equal representation....Furthermore, decision-making practices have not adapted to the changed mandates of both institutions, whose work now takes them further and further into influencing domestic policy choices in developing countries.”
In addition, says the report “it is now agreed in many quarters that the procedures for selection of the Managing Director of the IMF and the President of the World Bank should give greater weight to the views of developing and transition economies, since the raison-d’être of these institutions is now to be found mainly in their mandates and operations with respect to these economies.”
“More fundamentally,” the report continues, “crucial decisions on global issues are often taken outside the appropriate multilateral forums in various groupings such as the G-7 or G-10, where there is no developing country representation or participation.” It cites a paper prepared for the June 2000 World Bank/Commonwealth secretariat conference on Developing Countries and Global Financial Architecture. The paper says that “nothing consequential happens in the formally constituted organizations that do have operational capabilities--the IMF, the World Bank, the Bank of International Settlements--without the prior consent, and usually the active endorsement, of the ‘Gs’ (here used as a short form for all the deliberative groups and committees dominated by the major industrial countries).” The Trade and Development Report welcomes the inclusion of developing countries in the newly created G-20, which discusses financial architecture reform outside the Bretton Woods Institutions. However, it notes that so far the focus of this forum’s work “has not substantially deviated from the G-7 reform agenda” and has no representation from the poorest and smallest developing countries.
“If reforms to the existing financial structures are to be credible,” stresses the report, “they must provide for greater collective influence from developing countries and embody a genuine spirit of cooperation among all countries.…No less than a fundamental reform of the governance of multilateral institutions is therefore necessary.” Progress in these areas will depend on the willingness of major industrial countries to extend the reform agenda and process, so that they also address the concerns of the developing countries. But progress will depend equally on positions taken by developing countries; so far, there is no consensus among them on a number of key issues. “At times of crisis,” the report says, “many countries seem unwilling to impose temporary standstills, preferring official bailouts, even though they complain that their terms and conditions deepen the crisis, put an unfair share of the burden of adjustment on the debtors and allow the creditors to get away scot-free.”
However, there appears to be greater convergence of views and interests among developing countries regarding measures for crisis prevention and governance of international financial institutions, observes the report. These include more balanced and symmetrical treatment of debtors and creditors, more stable exchange rates among the major reserve currencies and effective IMF surveillance of the policies of the major industrial countries, especially with respect to their effect on capital flows, exchange rates and trade flows of developing countries. There is also convergence on the need for less intrusive conditionality and “above all, more democratic and participatory multilateral institutions and processes.”
In his foreword to the report, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan notes that the many “challenging recommendations” it offers are related to issues that will be discussed at next year’s International Conference on Financing for Development to be held in Monterrey (Mexico) on 18-22 March 2002 (see pages 32-33), and expresses his hope that it will make a useful contribution to those discussions.
Contact: Gloria-Veronica Koch, Chief, Civil Society Outreach, UNCTAD, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/907 5690, fax +41-22/907 0122, e-mail <gloria-veronica.koch@unctad.org>, website (www.unctad.org).
UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS HOLDS 57TH SESSION
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights held its 57th session from 19 March to 27 April 2001 in Geneva. The session included discussions on tolerance and respect, in the context of the upcoming World Conference Against Racism. Go Between summarizes highlights of the discussions.
Racism and Debate on Tolerance and Respect
Racism and the preparations for the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, to be held in South Africa from 31 August to 7 September 2001, were high on the session’s agenda. Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, stressed the importance of the conference by stating that racism and xenophobia were the “wellsprings of many conflicts in the world” and were “evils which we must combat with all our power.” At a debate held on 26 March, which focused on tolerance and respect, Nobel Peace Prize Laureat Desmond Tutu said that “religion, which should encourage tolerance, respect, compassion and peace, had far too frequently done the opposite.”
A resolution (2001/5) on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, introduced by Kenya and adopted by the Commission without a vote, calls upon states “to bring to justice the perpetrators of crimes related to racism, racial discriminated and xenophobia.” It recommends that the World Conference Against Racism “pay particular attention to the situations of children and young people, indigenous people, and migrants.”
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The Commission consolidated its work programme on economic, social and cultural rights, which has become more important since the creation of a series of new mechanisms from 1998 onward (see NGLS Roundup 30). However several NGOs expressed concern that at this year’s session there had been a “concerted attempt” by some Member States to weaken achievements in this area, while others considered that the final outcome was positive overall. Some observers said a weakening may have occurred in relation to the status of the right to adequate housing. Resolution 2001/28 refers to adequate housing only “as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living.”
The UN Special Rapporteur on the subject described this as a regression from commitments made at the 1996 Second UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II). He noted these commitments include recognition of the right to adequate housing as a fundamental human right. However at the session in Geneva and at the initiative of Mexico, resolution 2001/34 on women’s equal ownership of, access to, and control over land and the equal rights to own property, and to adequate housing, refers explicitly to the need for “states to design and revise laws to ensure that women are accorded...the right to adequate housing.” In the final stages of negotiations, the United States proposed alternative wording, but the representative of Mexico said the proposal was a “direct attack on one of the most important economic, social and cultural rights, namely the right to adequate housing.” The European Union representative said the paragraph in question should not be reopened for discussion and weakened. The resolution was finally adopted by consensus.
Resolution 2001/33 on access to medication in the context of pandemics such as HIV/AIDS was regarded by many observers as a major breakthrough at the session. The resolution was initiated by Brazil, which is currently in dispute with the United States at the World Trade Organization (WTO) regarding its intellectual property law on compulsory licensing. Generic AIDS treatments could fall under the law, which the United States claims is in breach of the WTO agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs). Resolution 2001/33 calls upon states at the international level “to ensure that their actions as members of international organizations take due account of the right to everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and that the application of international agreements is supportive of public health policies which promote broad access to safe, effective and affordable preventative, curative or palliative pharmaceuticals and medical technologies.”
The resolution was adopted by 52 votes, with one abstention (the United States). The US representative said his country was strongly committed to addressing the AIDS pandemic internationally, but argued that an over-emphasis on the use of pharmaceuticals detracted from the more fundamental need for primary prevention. He said the draft resolution appeared to question the validity of internationally-agreed protection of intellectual property rights, which could have the unintended consequence of discouraging investment in important research needed to find cures.
Many observers noted that resolution 2001/30 represented a major step forward in advancing efforts to improve the “justiciability” of economic, social and cultural rights by way of an optional protocol to the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Such an instrument would allow for individual and group complaints at the international level when domestic remedies have failed. In the resolution, the Commission decided to appoint an independent expert to examine the question. It also mentions the possibility of follow-up actions including establishment of an open-ended working group of the Commission. Nathalie Prouvez of the International Commission of Jurists said that “this is a major breakthrough from what seemed just a few weeks ago a complete impasse on the issue.”
The resolution contains a range of other decisions and recommendations related to economic, social and cultural rights, including a call on all states “to ensure that the Covenant is taken into account in all of their relevant national and international policy-making processes.” It encourages the Committee that oversees implementation of the Covenant to continue enhancing its efforts to cooperate with UN agencies and other bodies, and to continue drafting general comments (which act as guidelines to state Parties on implementation of the rights enshrined in the Covenant).
The resolution was adopted by consensus, but the United States requested a separate vote on a paragraph concerning the draft optional protocol. The vote on the paragraph was 44 in favour, two opposed (Saudi Arabia and the United States) and seven abstentions (China, India, Indonesia, Libya, Malaysia, Pakistan and Qatar). The US (which is not a Party to the Covenant) said it opposed appointing an Independent Expert to look into the optional protocol because economic, social and cultural rights were meant to be progressively realized rather than immediately “actionable” on the part of citizens against their government. India expressed doubts that there would be a Working Group on this question.
Expansion of the Commission’s work on economic, social and cultural rights was manifest in a number of other resolutions. These included extending the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food to cover the issue of drinking water, and requesting the UN Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights to assess the need to develop guiding principles on implementation of existing human rights norms and standards in the context of the fight against extreme poverty.
The Right to Development
In resolution 2001/9, the Commission decided to extend the mandate of the Independent Expert on the Right to Development by requesting him to prepare a preliminary study on the impact of international economic and financial issues on enjoyment of human rights.
These issues include international trade, debt and “good governance and equity at the international level.” It also extended the Expert’s mandate for three years and extended the mandate of the open-ended Working Group on the Right to Development for one year. The resolution was adopted by 48 in favour, two against (the United States and Japan) and three abstentions (Canada, Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom).
Human Rights of Women
Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Rapporteur on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, drew attention to the particular vulnerabilities of women and girls in conflict and refugee situations. She also expressed concern about abuses committed against women and girls by UN peacekeepers during field operations. Under an agenda item on the rights of women, the Commission adopted resolution 2001/49 entitled Elimination of Violence Against Women, which was introduced by Canada and adopted without a vote.
In it, the Commission welcomes the prosecution of gender-related crimes and crimes of sexual violence in the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The resolution also welcomes inclusion of gender-based crimes in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and urges states to ratify or accede to the Statute.
Resolution 2001/48 on Traffic in Women and Children urges governments to sign and ratify the recently adopted UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
Rights of the Child
The Commission adopted its annual omnibus resolution 2001/75 on the Rights of the Child. The text, introduced by the European Union on behalf of it and the Group of Latin American States, was shorter and more concise than in previous years. However, NGOs raised concerns about what they described as weakening of some language in the resolution. They said this was partly due to the “consensual dynamic” that is implied by a negotiating process between a relatively large number of countries. The resolution, among other things, urges states to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its two optional protocols. It calls upon them to adopt measures to prevent all forms of violence against children including harmful traditional practices, child labour and sexual exploitation, and it urges them to end the use of children as soldiers.
The Commission also adopted resolution 2001/29 on the Right to Education, in which it calls upon states to “give full effect to the right to education without discrimination of any kind,” eliminate obstacles limiting access to education, notably for girls and children in particularly difficult circumstances, and “ensure that primary education is compulsory, accessible and free of charge.”
Other New Thematic Mechanisms
The Commission decided to appoint for a three-year period a new Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People. The mandate will focus on, among other things, “gathering and exchanging information and communications…and formulating recommendations and proposals to prevent and remedy violations of [indigenous people’s] human rights and fundamental freedoms.” The Commission also decided to appoint an Independent Expert on enforced disappearances.
Election of New Commission Members
In May the Economic and Social Council elected six new members of the Commission on Human Rights to replace those whose mandates will expire on 31 December 2001. It elected Armenia, Austria, Bahrain, Chile, Croatia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Sweden, Togo and Uganda, and re-elected France, Mexico, Pakistan and the Republic of Korea. They will commence their terms on 1 January 2002. The United States, one of the candidates in the Group of Western European and Other States, did not receive enough votes to be re-elected. This was the first time since the Commission’s inception in 1947 under US leadership that the United States will not be a member of the Commission on Human Rights.
Contact: Maria-Francesca Ize-Charrin, Secretariat of the Commission on Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/917 9260, fax +41-22/917 9011, e-mail <mize-charrin.hchr@unog.ch>, website (www.unhchr.org).
FAO/NGOS PREPARE WORLD FOOD SUMMIT: FIVE YEARS LATER
Meeting at its 27th session from 28 May to 1 June 2001, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) discussed, among other things, arrangements for the upcoming five-year review of progress made toward the goal of the 1996 World Food Summit to halve the number of hungry people in the world by 2015.
Delegates from 117 out of the 129 countries represented on the CFS participated in the meeting in Rome (Italy), as did representatives of 34 NGOs and a number of UN member countries and inter-governmental organizations. The meeting was chaired by Aidan O’Driscoll (Ireland).
For its standing item, “Assessment of the World Food Security Situation,” the meeting had before it a report (CFS:2001/2) of the FAO secretariat, which confirms that nearly 800 million people worldwide cannot meet their daily food requirements and draws attention to the causes and effects of food insecurity in developing countries. In the discussion, attention was drawn to the precarious food security situation in the Palestine territories. The CFS adopted additional indicators, proposed by the secretariat, for monitoring world food security; these will be used in future assessment reports.
Impact of HIV/AIDS
Deaths caused by HIV/AIDS in the most affected African countries will reduce the agricultural labour force by as much as 26% by 2020, according to the FAO secretariat. In a report entitled The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Food Security (CFS:2001/3), it says that since 1985 some seven million agricultural workers have died from AIDS in 25 severely-affected African countries. An estimated 16 million more deaths are reported likely in those countries in the next two decades.
“Throughout history,” notes the report, “few crises have presented such a threat to human health and social and economic progress as does the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”
HIV/AIDS can have devastating effects on household food security and nutrition. A downward spiral of the family’s welfare begins when the first adult in a household falls ill. The report notes that in addition to increased spending for health care and decreased productivity, food production and income drop dramatically as more adults are affected. Once savings are gone, families seek support from relatives, borrow money or sell their productive assets.
The report cites a study in Uganda, which showed that 65% of AIDS-affected households were obliged to sell property to pay for care. Children are often forced to discontinue schooling, as the family needs help and cannot pay for school expenses. Time dedicated to childcare, hygiene, and food processing and preparation is sacrificed. When the AIDS patient dies, expenditures are incurred for the funeral, and the productive capacity of the household is reduced.
“Agricultural skills may be lost since children are unable to observe their parents working,” says the report.
HIV/AIDS takes an especially heavy toll on the poor. Affected rural families often transfer to non-farm jobs. Some people migrate in search of employment or look for quick money, which may lead to such high-risk behaviour as drug abuse and commercial sex work.
In its deliberations, the CFS agreed on a set of guidelines for governments when dealing with HIV/AIDS and food security. Agricultural extension programmes will have to encourage the use of labour-saving tools and crops, while nutrition education strategies will have to respond to the needs of those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
During the CFS both developed and developing countries recognized that the impact of HIV/AIDS on food security is a major issue. While it was not referred to in the World Food Summit Plan of Action of 1996 it will likely figure prominently at the World Food Summit: five years later, to be held in November 2001.
World Food Summit: Five Years Later
Both developing and developed countries have failed to demonstrate their commitment to set aside the resources required to achieve the eradication of hunger in all its dimensions, according to FAO. Background reports to the CFS on Fostering the Political Will to Fight Hunger (CFS:2001/Inf.6) and Mobilising Resources to Fight Hunger (CFS:2001/Inf.7) say there is a strong global consensus that the main goal of development is elimination of poverty, whose most appalling manifestation is lack of access to adequate food.
However “there has been a conspicuous lack of focus within poverty reduction strategies on food security issues,” according to FAO. Concern over hunger tends to be confined largely to highly visible emergency situations, but the bulk of the world’s undernourished people face food shortages day-in, day-out throughout their lives. For this reason, FAO observed, the fight against poverty must begin with the fight against hunger.
“The great danger,” said FAO, “is that the debate on poverty reduction strategies will continue, delaying commitment to even the most obvious of actions, while more than 800 million people, many of them children, are deprived of the opportunity to live a full life.”
There is also a real risk that the very success of the agricultural revolution of the 20th century and the current general adequacy of world food supplies may encourage widespread indifference toward the need for urgent solutions to chronic hunger. Getting rid of hunger is a precondition for success in poverty alleviation and broad-based economic growth, stressed FAO.
The potential for achieving the World Food Summit goal of reducing the number of undernourished people in the world by half by no later than 2015 “remains good.” But this will require that the eradication of hunger be adopted as a specific and high-priority objective nationally and internationally within poverty reduction strategies. Though governments of 186 countries adopted the goal in 1996, recent data indicate that the number of hungry people in the world is declining by only eight million people a year, not by the 20 million a year necessary to meet the goal.
The CFS discussion of preparations for the World Food Summit: five years later was based on another secretariat report entitled Arrangements for the World Food Summit: five years later (CFS:2001/5). The CFS confirmed that the event will take place at FAO headquarters in Rome from 5-9 November 2001, and heads of state or government and high-level ministers will be invited to participate in the plenary debate and in more informal roundtables that will address the results achieved, the obstacles met and how these can be overcome.
It was agreed that the outcome of the event would take the form of a Resolution negotiated by participating governments. The Committee also proposed that provision be made for a multi-stakeholder dialogue as a parallel event. The dialogue, which will involve governments, NGOs, civil society organizations (CSOs) and the private sector, will report orally to the Summit’s plenary.
NGO Preparations
A group of around 30 NGOs and civil society organizations-- representing development NGOs, farmers organizations, indigenous peoples, women, youth, thematic and regional networks involved in food security and agricultural issues--met during the CFS to prepare civil society activities in the build-up to and during the upcoming Summit review. As the core NGO planning committee, they will be coordinating a series of national and regional consultations and preparing thematic case studies before the event.
A parallel NGO Forum will be organized in Rome during the Summit under the auspices of the Association of Italian NGOs. Those NGOs that are accredited to the conference will also have access to meeting facilities inside the official conference venue.
The NGO core planning committee has issued a “call for action and mobilization,” inviting civil society organizations around the world concerned with food security to gather in Rome during the Summit. Since the Summit immediately precedes the fourth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), to be held in Doha (Qatar) on 9-13 November 2001, the call for action is entitled “Let the hunger debate be the human bridge between Rome and Qatar.”
The call for action notes that “for a huge number of people living all around the world, the most fundamental right, the right to food, is denied.” It argues that “the majority of those who are hungry world-wide are peoples and families who live as farmers and producers of food.”
Yet the current system of agricultural policies, which it says places emphasis on market liberalization and industrialized agricultural systems, is destroying the livelihoods of small farmers. “Displacement from the land,” notes the call for action, ”growing problems of farm debt, poisoning and new diseases are all aspects of these growing difficulties for farmers.”
It further notes that “other global processes related to trade and debt are driving increasing hunger at the same time and they are not linked at all with the WFS.” In particular, it expresses concern that current patterns of agricultural trade liberalization create food insecurity, and further liberalization will increase the number of “unneeded” farmers because such policies are primarily based on the search for “lowest cost” producers. It thus calls on international civil society to act together to “demand that food security be a global priority under which all international processes must fit.”
The coordination structure set up by the core NGO planning committee includes: an international focal point, which is also the coordinator of the Italian NGO host committee (see contacts below); regional focal points for Africa, Asia-Pacific, Near East, European Union and East and Central European countries, and Latin America and North America.
There are major constituency group focal points including for farmers, indigenous peoples, sustainable agriculture/food security NGOs, trade unions, international NGOs, and youth organizations.
The NGO meeting also identified five strategic issues that will be subject to case studies and thematic events during Forum events. These are:
--the right to food (in relation to international arrangements, other relevant policies and domestic social policies);
--food sovereignty (defined as “the right of the peoples of each country to determine their own food policy”);
--agricultural production models (agro-ecological, organic and other sustainable alternatives to the current industrial model including their impact on food safety);
--access to resources (land, forests, water, credit, genetic resources, land reform and security of tenure); and
--democracy and civil society involvement (including the relationship between national democratic processes and international economic mechanisms).
Thematic focal points have been identified for each of these issues.
Contacts
For information on the World Food Summit: five years later and NGO accreditation--Nora McKeon, NGO Programme Officer, Unit for Cooperation with Private Sector and NGOs, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, I-00100 Rome, Italy, telephone +39-06/5705 3852, fax +39-06/5705 5175, e-mail <tcdn-ngo-cso@fao.org>, website (www.fao.org/worldfoodsummit).
For information on NGO parallel events and preparations--Antonio Onorati, Coordinator, Host NGO Committee, c/o Crocevia, Via Francesco Ferraironi 88/G, I-00177 Rome, Italy, telephone +39-06/241 3976, fax +39-06/242 4177, e-mail <mc2535@mclink.it>.
FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE TO BE HELD IN MEXICO
The Financing for Development Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), which held its third meeting from 2-8 May 2001 in New York, announced that the International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD) will be held in Monterrey (Mexico) from 18-22 March 2002. Go Between summarizes highlights of the PrepCom meeting.
The FFD Conference is expected to include a high-level official meeting on 18 March, a ministerial-level segment on 19-20 March, and a segment at the Summit level with participation of heads of state or government on 21-22 March. The PrepCom said it will finalize the nature of the outcome of the Conference no later than its resumed third session, scheduled for 15-19 October 2001.
Nitin Desai, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, said a gap existed between the consensus on development that emerged in the 1990s and on the means of its implementation. He observed that the world was looking to bridge this gap through a consensus defined by governments, and not by experts. Mr. Desai stressed that “a political statement of principles reflecting such a consensus, by itself, will not meet expectations. Some commitments are also necessary.”
Mohammad Ali Zarie-Zare (Iran), speaking on behalf of the Group of 77, called for a political declaration as part of the outcome. He said it should contain a specific timetable for achieving the Conference goals, and a follow-up mechanism should also be established.
However the European Union (EU), represented by Ambassador Ruth Jacoby (Sweden), said it would not be useful to plan an automatic follow-up in five or ten years. Instead existing bodies such as the Economic and Social Council, UN General Assembly and meetings of the Bretton Woods Institutions and World Trade Organization (WTO) should take this up. Ms. Jacoby also said the EU favoured an innovative approach, to replace a conventional plan of action, of Member States and institutional actors outlining ways in which they would contribute to implementation of the Conference goals.
John Davison (United States) said that the PrepCom should work toward adopting some type of political declaration of shared goals and values. It should avoid a traditional programme of action, he urged, and bring together different initiatives from different stakeholders.
“If regional groups are working on trade initiatives, they should be encouraged to bring those to Monterrey,” he said. “Similarly if nations are working on individual initiatives, they should bring those to Monterrey, as should the private sector and civil society.” Some type of compilation of those actions and outcomes would be the best possible outcome of the Conference, Mr. Davison suggested.
Panel with Business Interlocutors
In order to increase interest and contributions of the private sector in the Financing for Development process, a panel composed of business interlocutors and unions was held during the PrepCom.
Some panel members stressed the importance of sound, stable domestic environments that were free of excessive volatility in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). One suggested that risk and volatility were not necessarily a bad thing for the private sector; the key was developing financial instruments that could take advantage of such volatility.
Proposals for further action by panellists included: organize a business forum in conjunction with the FFD Conference, which would have its conclusions fed into the inter-governmental deliberations; include elements of the FFD dialogue in the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos (Switzerland); organize multi-stakeholder roundtables on enhancing the development impact of investment; and convene groups of experts on FFD-related issues.
In order to maintain participation of the private sector, the PrepCom decided in its final resolution that the coordinating secretariat “in full consultation with the bureau [will] advise, assist and monitor a programme of work developed with the business sector....This programme of work may run from May 2001 to the conference and may include workshops, seminars, roundtables, forums and other forms of input.”
Co-Chair Summary
At the conclusion of the PrepCom its Co-Chairpersons Jorgen Bojer (Denmark) and Asda Jayanama (Thailand), issued a statement summarizing the substantive discussions held in informal closed meetings. They referred to the Financing for Development process as an evolving “coherent assemblage” of governments and international institutions supported by civil society and the business sector. Different parts of the international community, they said, were being brought together through the FFD process and a number of policy priorities were emerging.
The statement said that discussions, held on the basis of a working paper (A/AC.257/24) of facilitator Mauricio Escanero of Mexico, resulted in policy priorities that included the following.
Mobilizing Domestic Resources
--Ensure good governance, a sound macro-economic framework, and the formulation of a medium-term fiscal framework;
--Develop an efficient and equitable tax system;
--Develop a well-functioning financial system and financial innovations to widen access of finance, and involvement of civil society and the private sector, in the provision of infrastructure and social services;
--Ensure access to financing for groups usually excluded from the formal financial sector; and
--Enhance national and international efforts to combat corruption of all origins.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Other Private Flows
--Involve the business sector more in the FFD process, and with it look at the issue of risk and what determines perceptions of risk and examine how business can be encouraged to act in socially and environmentally responsible ways;
--Explore the usefulness of bilateral and international investment agreements in promoting the flow of FDI and enhancing its development impact; and
--Assess the volatility of international capital flows and effectiveness of policy tools to mitigate it.
Trade
--Link international trade negotiations to development goals;
--Develop appropriate arrangements for capacity building in areas such as implementation and negotiation in trade matters;
--Explore the role of international cooperation in facilitating access of developing countries to market instruments to deal with commodity price fluctuations; and
--Develop institutional arrangements for UN/WTO dialogue.
International Financial Cooperation through, Inter Alia,
Official Development Assistance (ODA)
--Seek to generate strong political will in all countries to mobilize necessary ODA resources, possibly through a global outreach campaign;
--Reach agreement on a performance-based approach;
--Enhance mutual accountability, emphasizing development outcomes and simplifying procedures; and
--Work toward greater flexibility in aid provision, including untying aid and increasing responsiveness to individual country circumstances.
Global Public Goods Provision and Financing
--Recognize the existence of regional public goods.
Innovative Sources for Development Financing
--Conduct the analysis requested at the five-year review of the World Summit for Social Development (WSSD+5), held in Geneva in June 2000, to examine innovative sources of funding with attention to applicability and realism.
Debt
--Focus on prevention of external debt problems in the future;
--Achieve levels of debt obligations that are within the capacity of countries to service in the long-term;
--Improve supervision of private financial institutions, both domestic and foreign;
--Involve private creditors in the resolution of debt crises; and
--Consider the use of a mediator to bring together all interested parties from creditor and debtor sides.
Systemic Issues
--Develop appropriate arrangements for capacity building of developing countries in making international finance and trade policy;
--Strengthen regional cooperation and coordination arrangements between global and regional institutions in monetary and financial matters;
--Further explore possible modalities for increased international cooperation on tax matters; and
--Develop a differentiated approach to implementation of standards and codes, taking into account the development needs and capacities of developing countries.
NGOs Begin Organizing for Mexico
NGOs took advantage of the PrepCom to begin thinking about their involvement in the FFD Conference. In one planning meeting, representatives from a group of Mexican NGOs expressed their interest in serving as a facilitating group for an NGO Forum that is planned to precede the Conference. The group, which had carried out consultations in Mexico prior to the PrepCom, consists of the following NGOs and networks: Women’s Eyes on the Multilaterals, Millennia Feminista, Women’s Latin American Network to Transform the Economy, National Action Network for Free Trade Agreements, Social Watch Mexico, and Equipo Pueblo.
It was decided that these organizations and networks would constitute the Steering Committee of the NGO Forum. They have already communicated to the Mexican government their interest in holding a Forum, which will be international in character and located near the official Conference site.
Organizational Matters
The PrepCom elected Ambassador Jacoby as Co-Chair to replace Ambassador Bojer, whose tour of duty in New York is ending. Ellen Loj will be the Danish representative in the Bureau. Elected Vice-Chairs of the PrepCom were Ivan Simonovic (Croatia) and Yoshiyuki Motomura (Japan). Ambassador Bojer said that while he regretted leaving the FFD process, he found great consolation in the fact that the Conference would be a high-profile event and would have some impact. “The Conference is emerging as a confidence-building measure between North and South,” he said, “and one that will contribute to guiding and harnessing globalization.”
The PrepCom, which will resume its third session in New York from 15-19 October 2001, will consider a “concise first draft” of the facilitator. This “concise first draft” will assist in moving the process toward the final preparatory phase and will take into account the substantive interactive dialogue and all other inputs including a compilation of initiatives and themes submitted by governments (see NGLS Roundup 71). The PrepCom has asked that the draft be prepared by 15 September 2001.
Contacts
Federica Pietracci, Financing for Development Secretariat, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, Room DC2-2018, New York NY 10017, United States, telephone +1-212/963 8497, fax +1-212/963 0443, e-mail <pietracci@un.org>, website (www.un.org/esa/ffd).
Laura Frade, Women’s Eyes on the Multilaterals, A.C. Calle Chapultepec No. 257, Creel, Chihuahua, Mexico, telephone +52-145/60134, e-mail <alcadeco@infosel.net.mx>.
Areli Sandoval, Social Watch Mexico, c/o Equip Pueblo, Francisco Field Jurado No. 51, Col. Independencia, Mexico, telephone +52-5/390015, e-mail <pueblodip@laneta.apc.org>.
SMALL ARMS PREPCOM CONVENES FINAL SESSION
The third and final Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for the UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects met in New York from 19-30 March 2001. The PrepCom worked to strengthen a revised draft Programme of Action (POA) that had emerged from discussions at the second PrepCom (see NGLS Roundup 67).
The Small Arms Conference will address the pressing need to end human suffering caused by the proliferation of small weapons, while at the same time preserving the sovereign right of states to safeguard their national security.
The third PrepCom adopted decisions including a recommendation that the Conference, to be held at UN headquarters in New York from 9-20 July 2001, be convened at the ministerial level. The PrepCom also decided on modalities for the participation of NGOs.
Although extensive debate was held on the draft POA and wide support expressed for it, a final text was not approved.
The PrepCom heard representatives from 17 NGOs, most of which were members of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) bringing together over 320 civil society organizations in over 70 different countries. The PrepCom was also briefed by representatives of various units of the UN system and regional organizations.
Draft Programme of Action
The draft POA, divided into four sections, begins with a preamble that many delegations thought could serve as a political declaration rather than requiring a separate document. Subsequent sections cover preventing, controlling and curbing the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons; implementation, including international cooperation and assistance; and follow-up.
Each section contains commitments and proposes specific mechanisms for accomplishing the agreed-upon objectives at the regional, national and local levels. The mechanisms include coordination bodies, identification systems, tracking procedures, survey methods, legal remedies and destruction policies concerning the weapons. Plans for implementation of the mechanisms include international cooperation and assistance.
The draft POA also recommends follow-up steps including a progress review, no later than 2006, of the Conference and biannual meetings of states to consider national and regional implementation of the POA.
Regarding the preamble, some delegates called for stronger language concerning the impact of trafficking in small arms on civilian populations, especially children. Canada and Japan both felt that elements on human security were missing from the draft, and proposed amendments on the plight of populations besieged by criminality and conflicts. Uganda said the negative effect of small arms on women’s development was also an issue that should be addressed by the preamble.
Others, including Pakistan and Syria, wanted reference to the root causes of conflict including poverty and the legacy of colonialism. Jordan, which felt it was necessary to examine deep-seated causes of the illicit trade in small arms, noted that illegal trade was not always the cause of conflicts but the result of them.
Many delegations stated that the preamble was a good basis for productive work and stressed the importance of avoiding any serious or major changes to it. Others felt that the goal was to achieve a “realizable” compromise.
The United States and the Russian Federation stressed that the text should confine itself to the issue stipulated in its mandate: eradication of the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. For success in that effort, they felt, there was a need for a strong consensus. They said this could not be obtained with controversial additions, especially if they were thought to threaten the right of sovereign nations to self-defense.
Regarding section II of the draft POA on preventing, combating, and eradicating the illicit small arms trade, Sweden on behalf of the European Union (EU) and associated states made recommendations on such issues as development frameworks; the firearms protocol; measures to prevent diversion of arms; the right of states to re-export weapons; measures to prevent arms falling into the hands of children; the surplus of light weapons; disarmament, demobilization and reintegration; the role of civil society; and confidence-building and exchange of information on exports and imports.
Other amendments called for included emphasizing a universally recognized and user-friendly marking system was needed, which clearly indicated the country of origin and a numerical identification of small arms; and requiring the Security Council to incorporate measures to stem proliferation of small arms in post-conflict situations. Changes were proposed to address laws and administrative procedures, and their implementation and enforcement; penalization of certain activities connected to illegal trafficking; the promotion of steps toward prohibition of trade and private ownership of light weapons; and promoting a culture of non-violence. Amendments were also proposed vis-à-vis strengthening export control procedures, dangerous stockpiling, and political guidance for Interpol.
Canada, the EU and India said there was a need to better define what should be considered “surplus” in terms of stockpiling. The US declared that it would not “seriously consider the prohibition of unrestricted trade and private ownership of small arms and light weapons specifically designed for military purposes.” However, several states supported such limitations. It was also proposed that an additional paragraph be included on the reintegration of war-affected children.
Addressing section III on implementation, international cooperation and assistance, Brazil warned against approaches and language that might be interpreted as making development assistance contingent upon certain performance by states on small arms issues. It said that efforts to address illicit light weapons should not impact current social and developmental processes. Canada stressed that global, legally-binding instruments needed to be mentioned in other paragraphs. Japan underscored differentiating bilateral, subregional and regional cooperation from the kind of cooperation that implied assistance to individual states.
Regarding section IV on follow-up to the conference, many speakers stressed that follow-up was essential, with some underscoring the importance of building contact networks on the small arms issues at all levels of implementation.
Other Issues
Peggy Mason (Canada), Chairperson of the Group of Governmental Experts, presented the final report of the Group on the feasibility of restricting manufacture and trade of small arms and light weapons to manufacturers and dealers authorized by states.
The representative of Canada, Robert McDougall, noted that although prices were at an historic low the social, economic and political cost of small arms was at an all-time high. Scarce government funds were diverted, natural resources mortgaged, and relief supplies often stolen to finance purchases, he said.
Emphasis was also given to the plight of children in situations of armed conflict, and the link to illicit small arms traffic. Ambassador Camillo Reyes of Colombia said he would push this point forward by calling for a ban on the sale or supply of arms to children or controlling manufacturers that design especially light weapons.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stressed that the Conference had a legislative mandate to cover this issue, as stated in the Omnibus Resolution on the Rights of the Child passed by the General Assembly in 2000. UNICEF also expressed support for a theme day around both the Conference and the General Assembly Special Session on Children from 19-21 September 2001, including activities such as testimony from child soldiers, high-level panels, and the launch of an interim study on the issue.
NGO Participation
After much discussion throughout the preparatory process, the decision on NGO participation was adopted without a vote. The PrepCom decided that attendance would be open to “relevant NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC” in accordance with the provisions of resolution 1996/31. NGOs would also be invited to attend, provided that requests to do so were submitted along with information about the organizations showing their relevance and competence regarding the scope and purpose of the Conference. The PrepCom Chairperson would subsequently provide the Committee with a list of organizations for consideration on a no-objection basis.
According to the decision, representatives of such accredited NGOs would be allowed to address the PrepCom and the Conference during one meeting specifically allocated for that purpose. They would also be provided, upon request, with documents related to the Conference. For further information, see website (www.un.org/Depts/dda/CAB/smallarms/ngo.htm).
Following the decision on NGO participation, the PrepCom heard statements on the draft POA from NGOs. The IANSA Women’s Caucus brought a gender perspective to the deliberations by showing how women and girls are affected by the proliferation and diffusion of small arms. Among other things it said that “throughout the world women consider the presence of small arms in the household to be threatening and endangering, while men feel more secure in the presence of arms.” It also addressed the process of economic globalization and “the ongoing systematic impoverishment and erosion of security in countries in the global South.”
The Women’s Caucus called on the Conference to: support local and regional responses to small arms proliferation within a substantive framework of international cooperation and commitment; take measures on civilian possession of small arms and light weapons; focus on the diversity of people affected by the production, trade and misuse of small arms and on multiple dimensions of the crisis such as the crippling of public health and the need for sustainable peace-building, humanitarian intervention, urban harmony and human rights; and ensure that the POA contains the strengths and visions of many regional agreements and consolidate those efforts.
At the close of the PrepCom, NGOs expressed frustration at the lack of consensus among governments and said they were not doing enough to control small arms. The Conference, said Salpy Eskidjian of the World Council of Churches, “must produce legally binding measures and a clear timetable or resign itself to just talk and no action.”
IANSA is planning a world-wide campaign before and during the Conference to urge governments to recognize the human cost of small arms trafficking and to act. The group is urging governments to prevent and combat the spread of small arms through six core demands: an international convention on arms trafficking; an international convention to mark and trace small arms; international criteria governing small arms exports based on international law, including human rights; destruction of surplus government weapons and collection of illicit arms from communities affected by armed violence; controls on the possession of weapons by civilians; and increased resources and funds to build the capacity of governments to implement new controls.
Contacts
Conventional Arms Branch, Department for Disarmament Affairs,
S-3170I, United Nations, New York NY 10017, United States, telephone +1-212/963 3768, fax +1-212/963 1121, e-mail <mcnab@un.org>, website (www.un.org/Depts/dda/cab).
International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), Box 422, 37 Store Street, London WC1E 7BS, United Kingdom, e-mail <contact@iansa.org>, website (www.iansa.org).
Conference documents including speeches, conference room papers and draft texts are available through the Small Arms Survey database at website (www.smallarmssurvey.org).
ECOSOC HOLDS SPECIAL HIGH-LEVEL MEETING WITH BWIS
The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) held their fourth annual joint high-level meeting on 1 May 2001 in New York following the annual Spring Meetings of the BWIs. The May meeting gave Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) representatives, among others, the opportunity to share information in a free-flowing discussion.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan addressed the meeting--which included senior government officials responsible for foreign affairs, development cooperation, finance and economic affairs--and observed that the relationship between ECOSOC and the BWIs has moved from being pro forma to proactive. He noted that the Bank and IMF executive boards had hosted both ECOSOC ambassadors and the bureau of the Financing for Development Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), and that all institutions had collaborated in an unprecedented way on his report to the PrepCom. Mr. Annan said that the most important aspect of the meeting was the mixing of ministers: economic, foreign affairs, finance, development cooperation, and others. This “has consigned to the past the unjustified and unhelpful compartmentalization of our work into separate realms,” he said. He said the result was a more cohesive approach and a convergence of views and “even a new politics of development.”
Gordon Brown, Chairperson of the International and Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (UK), reported on the meeting of the IMFC, held in Washington DC on 29 April 2001. He said that in the face of slowing growth worldwide, the committee believed international cooperation needed to be strengthened. In particular, the advanced economies would have to be be vigilant and forward-looking to create the conditions needed for international macro-economic growth; maintain the momentum in financial architectural reforms; pursue open trade talks this year; and address debt relief, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability.
Yashwant Sinha, Chairperson of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee and Minister of Finance (India), said in its meeting of 30 April 2001 the Committee had taken note of the poorest countries, particularly in Africa and had stressed the importance of combating communicable diseases, forgiving debt, and using trade opportunities to augment their development efforts. The Committee had also discussed improving the financial stability of middle-income countries and reducing their external vulnerabilities.
J.O. Sanusi, Chairperson of the Group of 24 (G-24) and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said that because of developing countries’ reliance on primary commodities, a global slow-down in growth would particularly impact them. Therefore, it was especially important for donor countries to increase their official development assistance (ODA) contributions, urgently implement debt relief measures, and allow additional countries to qualify for relief as soon as possible with simplified requirements. He also noted the importance of trade for developing countries, and in this connection said that many developing countries had implemented trade reforms but were still facing protectionist practices in developed countries.
“For countries to be part of the solution, they need to be part of the decision,” said Paul Martin, Minister of Finance (Canada) and Chairperson of the Group of 20 (G-20), which represents 65% of the world’s population and 60% of the world’s poor. He noted that it was promoting consistency in financial management without imposing a “one size fits all” model on all countries.
Mr. Martin identified four priorities for development: achieving consensus on financial standards and codes and implementing them; differentiating between the theory and the realities behind globalization; employing case studies of countries adjusting to globalization in order to assess their policy choices; and going beyond the “narrow Washington consensus” to what Mr. Martin labeled as the Montreal Consensus. Referring to a meeting of the G-20 in October 2000 in Montreal, Mr. Martin said the Group believed that growth without education and social safety nets left populations open to exploitation.
Andrew Crockett, Chairperson of the Financial Stability Forum and General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements, said implementation of codes and standards needed to be appropriate for each country in terms of priorities, timing, buy-in, monitoring and assessment, and that these could not be imposed. Mr. Crockett addressed the question of representative participation in the Forum and the role of regional groupings. He said it was important that countries felt a sense of ownership over adopted codes and standards; it was therefore necessary to explore means to involve all those with an interest. Whether this could be done in a body of universal membership was an important question requiring further study, he noted.
Following the open session, panellists and government representatives met in two closed roundtable sessions in which they discussed: development financing, in particular poverty eradication; ODA and debt; and movement toward a development-friendly international financial system--public and private responsibility in the prevention of financial crises.
In his closing remarks, ECOSOC President Belinga Eboutou (Cameroon) said that discussions had been characterized by outstanding quality and depth. “I hope that ECOSOC will remain the structure for dialogue between the UN and the Bretton Wood Institutions,” he said, “and that the goodwill and positive attitude evident throughout the discussion will be maintained in the future.”
Contact: Johan Scholvinck, Chief, Policy Coordination Branch, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), 1 UN Plaza, Room DC1-1418, New York NY 10017, United States, telephone +1-212/963 4667, fax +1-212/963 3351, e-mail <scholvinck@un.org>, website (www.un.org/esa/coordination/ecosoc).
PREPARATIONS FOR ECOSOC 2001 HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT ON AFRICA
As part of the 2001 substantive session of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), held from 2-27 July in Geneva, a high-level segment from 16-18 July was convened to discuss the role of the UN system in supporting efforts of African countries to achieve sustainable development. Go Between reports on some panels held in preparation for the high-level segment.
The series of panel discussions were held at UN headquarters in New York and organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). The panel discussions were sponsored by relevant UN agencies and brought together ministers, heads of UN agencies, academics and NGO representatives to discuss central challenges in the socio-economic development of Africa.
Issues addressed included rural poverty, agriculture and sustainable food security, poverty eradication, health, governance, and higher education in Africa in the information age.
The Challenge of Poverty
A panel on Peoples of the United Nations Facing Up to the Challenge of Eradicating Poverty, held on 29 March, was sponsored by Centro Ricerche Febbraio ’74 (CERFE), an international research institute in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council.
Discussions focused on different approaches to the study of poverty and social exclusion, strategies for combating poverty and social exclusion, and the role of actors involved in implementing such strategies.
Panellists were Alfonso Alfonsi, Vice-President of CERFE; Abdelhamid Aouad (Morocco), Minister for Economic Forecasts and Planning; Deepa Narayan, World Bank Senior Advisor; and Atila Roque (Brazil), member of the Social Watch Coordinating Committee. They underlined the heterogeneous nature of poverty and social deprivation, and the diverse characteristics of groups of the poor. In order to meet the needs of each group, panellists said it was necessary to formulate and implement anti-poverty strategies that were developed taking into account their differences.
They also said empowerment of the poor is crucial in the combat against poverty. This entails, among other things, facilitating relations between the poor and the state, and between the poor and the rest of civil society.
The Challenge of Health
On 8 February the World Health Organization (WHO) sponsored a panel on the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health. The Commission was launched by WHO to work to clarify the relation between health, economic development and poverty reduction (see Go Between 85).
Another panel on 17 April, entitled The Economics of Health, was sponsored by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Panellists were Zephirin Diabre, Associate Administrator of UNDP; Jeffrey Sachs of the University of Harvard; and Ebrahim Samba, Regional Director of WHO for Africa.
They pointed out that poor health is among the greatest threats to development. The African health crisis including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria was a worldwide problem that needed collective efforts and resource mobilization.
In fighting these, panellists called for:
--resources (the estimated amount needed is US$10 to US$20 billion a year);
--a global coordinated effort, including the development of a global fund for strategic use for disease control;
--partnership with African local entities; and
--mobilizing scientific expertise and paring local experts with global experts.
Higher Education and the Information Age
A panel on 10 May, entitled Higher Education in Africa in the Information Age, was sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Panellists included K. F. Seddoh, Director of the UNESCO Division of Higher Education; George Eshiwani, Vice-Chancellor of Kenyatta University and President of the Association of African Universities; Ann Floyd, Professor at the Open University of the United Kingdom; Ahmadou Lamine Ndiaye, Vice-Chairperson of the United Nations University (UNU) Council; and William Saint, World Bank Principal Education Specialist of the Africa region.
They stressed that higher education in Africa risked being marginalized if excluded from the rapid development of information and communication technologies. Although international efforts have been made to bridge the ever-widening digital divide between Africa and the developed world, even greater initiatives were needed.
To prevent a deepening digital divide, panellists called for broad regional information-sharing and collaboration in developing a common information policy, and increased capacity building and human resource development in information and communication technologies.
Contact: Ajit Yogasundram, Programme Officer, ECOSOC and Interorganizational Cooperation Branch, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, Room DC1-1434, 1 United Nations Plaza, New York NY 10017, United States, telephone +1-212/963 5737, fax +1-212/963 7454, e-mail <yogasundram@un.org>, website (www.un.org/esa/coordination/ecosoc/dev_afr/index.htm).
ILO STUDY: FORCED LABOUR AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING ON THE RISE
Forced labour, slavery and criminal trafficking in human beings--especially women and children--are on the rise worldwide and taking new and insidious forms, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). Go Between summarizes the highlights of the recent ILO report entitled Stopping Forced Labour.
Although such ancient, barbaric practices as slavery and feudal bondage appear to be declining under the impact of national and international legislation and government action, they are still present. The report notes that the phenomenon of trafficking for forced or compulsory labour is growing so fast that most countries in the world fit into one of three categories: sending countries, transit countries and receiving countries.
Main destinations may be the urban centres of the richer countries--Amsterdam, Brussels, London, New York, Rome, Sydney, Tokyo--and the capitals of developing and transition countries. But the movement of trafficked persons is highly complex and varied, observes the report. Countries as diverse as Albania, Hungary, Nigeria and Thailand can act as points of origin, destination and transit at the same time.
“The growth of forced labour worldwide is deeply disturbing,” said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. “The emerging picture is one where slavery, oppression and exploitation of society’s most vulnerable members--especially women and children--have by no means been consigned to the past.”
He stressed that in light of these findings, “the entire world needs to re-examine its conscience and instigate action to abolish forced labour and the often terrible living and working conditions that accompany it. There is no excuse for forced labour in the 21st century.”
Slavery is still found in a handful of countries. The wholesale abduction of individuals and communities in conflict-torn societies such as Liberia, Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Sudan is not uncommon, according to the report. The forced recruitment of children for armed conflict, deemed one of the worst forms of child labour, is also on the rise.
Slavery-like conditions and debt bondage await many workers who fall prey to coercive recruitment practices in rural areas, especially for work on agricultural plantations or in domestic work. Poverty, unemployment, civil disorder, political repression and gender and racial discrimination make for an all-too-propitious environment for traffickers’ exploitation of vulnerable persons, the report warns.
Europe in particular “has seen an explosion of trafficking since the break-up of the former Soviet Union,” and large-scale sweatshop activities involving clandestine migrants have been found in Europe and North America. In border regions of Southeast Asia “coercion, deception and the selling of minors result from direct recruitment from the village,” the report says, with the sex sector fuelling much of the activity. In the Balkans and Eastern Europe, trafficking in women is on the rise. Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Kosovo region are emerging as “significant destination points” on the way to Europe. In Israel “there has been an influx of women brought in by many criminal networks,” observes the report. And the United States is thought to be the destination for 50,000 trafficked women and children each year, with the sex sector as well as domestic and cleaning work (in offices and hotels, etc.) fuelling much of the demand.
While there is universal consensus on the definition of forced labour (essentially work performed under compulsion and subject to a penalty), some of the forms it takes are still sources of policy debate. Among the most contentious issues are those involving compulsory participation of citizens in public works in the context of economic development, a practice still prevailing in a number of Asian countries and African countries.
The report highlights what it describes as a number of successes of the international supervisory machinery and coordinated ILO programmes to bring relevant problems to light and help resolve them. For example, some countries are taking a cross-ministerial approach involving justice, customs, social security and labour in pursuing clandestine operations that rely on trafficked labour.
An essential first step in eliminating forced labour is through assistance to governments in identifying the nature and dimensions of the problem, both within and across their national borders. The complicated mixture of social and economic conditions that permit forced labour to breed present a daunting task for any one country to tackle alone, notes the report.
The complexity of the phenomenon requires a combination of anti-poverty and labour market regulatory measures. Long-standing problems of forced labour might be linked with agrarian institutions requiring reform as regards sustainable agriculture, productivity and human rights concerns. Trafficking in persons, while displaying forced labour dimensions, also needs to be addressed from other perspectives.
The report concludes by calling upon governments and social partners in all countries “to deepen understanding and redouble efforts to eliminate this terrible blight on human freedom in all its forms.”
Contact: Department of Communication, ILO, 4 route des Morillons, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland, telephone +41-22/799 7940, fax +41-22/799 8577, e-mail <presse@ilo.org>, website (www.ilo.org).
PUBLICATIONS AND ONLINE
e.quality@work: An Information Base on Equal Employment Opportunities for Women and Men
This information base, produced by the Gender Promotion Programme of the International Labour Office (ILO), sets out international policy instruments including international labour standards. It also covers national legislation, practices and institutional arrangements introduced by governments, trade unions and public and private sector enterprises. The information base, available both online and on CD-ROM, covers topics such as international treaties and guidelines, anti-discrimination legislation, affirmative action policies and programmes, family-friendly measures, equality clauses in collective agreements, equal pay provisions and sexual harassment laws, as well as health and safety and protective provisions.
Available from: Gender Promotion Programme, Employment Sector, ILO, 4 route des Morillons, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland, e-mail <genprom@ilo.org>, website (www.ilo.org/genprom/eeo).
IFAD Publications
The following publications were produced as part of the 2000 Annual Report of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
IFAD Update
The IFAD Action Plan for 2000 to 2001 has a strong emphasis on “impact.” This issue is covered in a recent volume of IFAD Update. The bulletin looks at topics such as emphasizing impact through a livelihoods framework, targeting poor communities in Côte d'Ivoire, using nutrition surveys, and participatory evaluation.
Participatory Approaches for an Impact-Oriented Project Cycle
This publication summarizes the findings of an IFAD workshop held in November 2000 on project management methods and approaches that support impact planning, monitoring and achievement. It also provides case studies that illustrate applications of some of the techniques discussed.
Rural Finance for the Poor: From Unsustainable Projects to Sustainable Institutions
This booklet addresses the issue of sustainable financial resources for the rural poor. It looks at, among other things, micro-savings, micro-credit, micro-insurance, and micro-finance institutions; progress and shortcomings in achieving rural micro-finance; stakeholder participation; and the role of donors. The booklet also provides examples of successful rural finance projects.
Available from: IFAD, Via del Serafico 107, I-00142 Rome, Italy, fax +39-06/5459 2141, e-mail <ifad@ifad.org>, website (www.ifad.org).
Debating Development
This collection of articles examines the relevance and role of NGOs, and it suggest ways they can work to better shape the way the international community understands and responds to poverty and injustice.
Available from: Oxfam, c/o BEBC, PO Box 1496, Parkstone, Dorset BH12 3YD, United Kingdom, fax +44-1202/712930, e-mail <bebc@bebc.co.uk> or Oxfam, Stylus Publishing LLC, PO Box 605, Herndon VA 20171-0605, United States, fax +1-703/661 1547, e-mail <styluspub@aol.com>, website (www.styluspub.com).
Earthscan Publications
The Virtuous Spiral: A Guide to Sustainability for NGOs in International Development
This book offers practical guidance on how NGOs working in international development can achieve sustainability. It identifies three interdependent factors: the impact of an organization’s work must be enduring, continuity of funding must be ensured, and the organization must remain viable. Based on research carried out on organizations worldwide, the book also offers practical examples and explains difficult trade-offs.
Towards Financial Self-Reliance: A Handbook on Resource Mobilization for Civil Society Organizations in the South
This guide on mobilizing funds and other resources is designed for managers of civil society organizations, citizens’ movements, cooperatives, trade unions and other grassroots organizations, primarily in developing countries. It examines earned income, local foundations, governmental sources, foreign agencies, the corporate sector, micro-credit, the Internet, and social investments.
Available from: Earthscan Publications, 120 Pentonville Road, London N1 9JN, United Kingdom, telephone +44-20/7278 0433, fax +44-20/278 1142, e-mail <earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk>, website (www.earthscan.co.uk).
Kabissa-fahamu Newsletter
This weekly electronic newsletter, designed for people in Africa who have difficulty accessing the Internet, provides direct links to online documents that can be read using a web connection or by e-mail with the Kabissa “web to e-mail” server. Topics covered include conflict, emergencies, rights and democracy, health, education and social welfare, gender, environment, media, development, the Internet and technology, fundraising, advocacy resources, jobs, books and arts.
To subscribe, send an e-mail to <majordomo@kabissa.org> or use the form on website (www.kabissa.org).
Website for the World Summit for Sustainable Development
This website provides information on the Summit, to be held in Johannesburg (South Africa) from 2-11 September 2002. The site contains documents from the first session of the Summit Preparatory Committee as well as links to reports of the 1972 Conference on the Human Environment, and the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.
Website (www.johannesburgsummit.org).
Planet Ark Foundation Website
The Planet Ark Foundation's website hosts the daily World Environment News from Reuters. The site also contains a searchable database for thousands of environmental news stories. Interested subscribers can also receive World Environment News headlines by e-mail.
Website (www.planetark.org).
CALENDAR
CHILDREN
Special Session on Children
--General Assembly Special Session on Children, 19-21 September, New York
DISARMAMENT
--UN Conference on Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, 9-20 July, New York
--Ad Hoc Group of States Parties to the Convention on Biological Weapons, 24th session, 23 July-17 August, Geneva
--Conference on Disarmament, 3rd part, 30 July-14 September, Geneva
--Preparatory Committee for the Second Review Conference of States Parties to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, 3rd session, 24-28 September, Geneva
ECOSOC/GENERAL ASSEMBLY
--Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Substantive session, 2-27 July, Geneva
--General Assembly High-Level Dialogue on Strengthening International Economic Cooperation for Development Through Partnership, September (2 days), New York
HUMAN RIGHTS
--Human Rights Committee, 9-27 July, Geneva
--Working Group on Indigenous Populations, 23-27 July, Geneva
--Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 59th session, 30 July-17 August, Geneva
--Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, 64th session, 13-17 August, Geneva
--Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 26th (Extraordinary) session, 13-31 August, Geneva
--Working Group on the Right to Development, September, Geneva
--Working Group on the Declaration of Indigenous Peoples, 15-26 October, Geneva
Rights of the Child
--Committee on the Rights of the Child, 28th session, 24 September-12 October, Geneva
Racism
--World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, 31 August-7 September, Durban (South Africa)
INTERNATIONAL LAW
--Preparatory Commission for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, 8th session, 24 September-5 October, New York
NARCOTIC DRUGS
--International Narcotics Control Board, 72st session,
29 October-15 November, Vienna
REFUGEES
--Meeting with NGOs, 24-26 September, Geneva
--Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Executive Committee, 52nd session, 1-5 October, Geneva
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Framework Convention on Climate Change
--2nd sessional period (to act as the 7th session of the Conference of the Parties), 29 October-9 November, Marrakech
TOBACCO
--Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, 3rd session, 22-28 November, Geneva
TRADE, FINANCE AND DEVELOPMENT
Financing for Development (FFD)
--Preparatory Committee for Financing for Development event, 3rd session (2nd part), 15-19 October, New York
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank
--Annual meetings of the World Bank Group and IMF, 2-4 October, Washington DC
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
--Trade and Development Board, 48th session, 1-12 October, Geneva