UN Gazeti

Wednesday 24 September 2008

Issue No. 282

UN Observances

UN IN KENYA

ON A MOONBEAM AND A RAY OF HOPE: A NEW YOUTH INITIATIVE OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL IN KENYA BACKED BY NORWAY AND FINLAND

A UN-HABITAT training school sponsored by the United Nations Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-Moon with generous financial support of Norway and Finland is now teaching young people from the most deprived neighbourhoods of the Kenyan capital how to build better homes.

Known as the Moonbeam Youth Training Centre, it was born after Mr. Ban paid his first official visit to the giant slum of Kibera in January 2007. The Secretary-General said he was appalled at life in Kibera and promised that something had to be done. But he urged young people to be patient.

For more information, visit: http://www.unhabitat.org/

PREPARATIONS IN HIGH GEAR FOR THIS YEAR’S WORLD HABITAT DAY CELEBRATIONS

With just over two weeks left before the observance of this year’s World Habitat Day, preparations for the ceremony are in high gear across the globe.

From Africa through Asia to Europe and the Americas, governments, civic bodies as well as NGOs are laying out elaborate plans to mark this year’s event whose theme is ‘Harmoniuos Cities’ to be celebrated on October 6.

For more information, visit: http://www.unhabitat.org/

KENYA ON PATH TO FULL RECOVERY AFTER POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE, UN DEBATE HEARS

Kenya is making important progress towards reaching consensus on the legal, constitutional and other reforms necessary to avoid a repeat of the deadly post-election violence that swept the country at the start of this year, President Mwai Kibaki told the General Assembly on Tuesday.

Speaking before world leaders gathered for the annual high-level debate, Mr. Kibaki said the Government in Nairobi had made use of the “historic window of opportunity” offered by the national reconciliation accord struck in late February, which ended two months of violence, “to address the major challenges facing our nation.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

UN IN AFRICA

SECURITY COUNCIL DEFERS DECISION ON UN TROOPS FOR CHAD, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

The Security Council yesterday put off until December a decision on the size of a military component to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Chad, for which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has proposed 6,000 troops.

The military addition to the mission, known as MINURCAT, is to replace a European Union force (EUFOR). Both Chad and CAR have been hit by rebel activity and a spill-over from neighbouring Sudan’s Darfur conflict.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

CENTRAL AFRICAN PRESIDENT CALLS FOR STRENGTHENING UN MISSION IN HIS COUNTRY

President François Bozizé of the Central African Republic (CAR) yesterday called for a strengthened United Nations peacekeeping mission in his country, which has suffered from violence and instability in several regions, in the face of the imminent departure of a European Union force (EUFOR).

The UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) currently has 768 personnel on the ground out of the 1,549 authorized in both countries, but in his latest report earlier this month Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proposed sending 6,000 troops to replace the 3,000-strong EUFOR, whose mandate is set to expire on 15 March.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

AFRICAN LEADERS AT UN CALL FOR AGRICULTURAL INVESTMENT TO REPLACE FOOD AID

Investments in the agriculture of developing countries should replace food aid as part of the reforms needed to face the challenges of this century, African presidents told the General Assembly on the second day of its annual high-level debate yesterday.

“We can no longer continue to apply 20th century solutions to the more complex problems of the 21st century,” Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said. “The moment has therefore arrived for an in-depth reform of the mechanism of cooperation for.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

FORMER RWANDAN PROSECUTOR FOUND GUILTY OF GENOCIDE BY UN TRIBUNAL

A former prosecutor was sentenced to life in prison yesterday after being found guilty of genocide, extermination and murder by the United Nations war crimes tribunal set up in the wake of the 1994 killing spree in Rwanda.

The trial chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) found that Simeon Nchamihigo, former deputy prosecutor in Cyangugu Prefecture, instructed the Hutu-dominated rebel group known as the Interahamwe to seek out and kill Tutsis and moderate Hutus with the intent to destroy the Tutsi ethnic group and accomplices of the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

UN AGENCY SAYS OVER 20 REFUGEES FEARED DEAD IN SUDAN RIVER CROSSING

Twenty-one refugees are feared dead after their overloaded boat capsized during a smuggling incident in eastern Sudan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said yesterday.

Among those missing, according to eyewitnesses, are 11 Eritrean and Somali families, including eight women and at least three children. They were part of a larger group that tried to cross the Atbara River – which is near the Shagarab refugee camp in eastern Sudan – in four boats. One of the four boats, which are meant to carry a maximum of 15 people, was packed with 26 and capsized several hundred kilometres from shore.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL RENEWS MANDATE OF SUDAN INVESTIGATOR

The United Nations Human Rights Council ended its ninth session in Geneva yesterday with the adoption of 24 texts, including a decision to extend until June 2009 the mandate of its Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan.

The Council’s President, Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibi, welcomed the adoption of the resolutions and decisions. “The fact that nearly all these drafts were adopted by consensus, in my view, is very significant,” he told reporters in Geneva.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

CURRENT CRISES MUST NOT DETRACT FROM ANTI-POVERTY GOALS, MADAGASCAR TELLS UN

The current global food, economic and security crises should not be used by affluent countries as a rationale for cutting back on pledges of increased aid to needy States, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar’s President told the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate on Tuesday.

Speaking to dozens of world leaders gathered at United Nations Headquarters in New York, Marc Ravalomanana warned that efforts to overcome the crises were threatening to push the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the globally agreed set of eight targets for slashing a host of social and economic ills – to the margins.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

‘PRECARIOUS CALM’ RETURNS TO SCENE OF RECENT CONGOLESE CLASHES

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reports that “a precarious calm” has returned to North Kivu, especially the town of Sake, the scene of recent fighting between Government troops and rebel forces.

The Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) have engaged in some intense clashes in Sake, which is about 20 kilometres from Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

UN AROUND THE WORLD

GLOBAL LEADERS SET TO MEET AT UN TO CHART PROGRESS TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Almost 100 world leaders are converging on the United Nations on Thursday for a high-level meeting to assess how to translate commitments into effective action to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.

The gathering at UN Headquarters in New York, convened by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto, seeks to pinpoint gaps and identify steps to take to accelerate progress towards achieving the MDGs.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

DPR KOREA CUTS OFF UN ATOMIC WATCHDOG AGENCY’S ACCESS TO NUCLEAR FACILITIES

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) will restart nuclear activities at its reprocessing plant in Yongbyon, shut down last year, and is terminating the United Nations atomic watchdog agency’s access to the facilities, it was announced yesterday.

On Monday, Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that the DPRK had asked the body to remove seals and surveillance from the Yongbyon plant.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

SG SAYSNEW ELECTION LAW WILL HELP CONSOLIDATE IRAQ’S POLITICAL PROGRESS

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed Iraq’s new provincial election law, which followed months of intense discussions and will now facilitate the holding of elections in the fledgling democracy.

“This is a very important step forward which should contribute to political normalization in Iraq,” Mr. Ban said in a statement issued by his spokesperson.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

EASTERN EUROPEAN LEADERS VOICE CONCERN ABOUT GEORGIA DURING UN DEBATE

The presidents of three Eastern European countries yesterday spoke out at the General Assembly against the recent conflict between Georgia and Russia, warning that the United Nations’ role in international peace and security has been undermined by what happened last month.

Addressing the Assembly’s annual high-level debate in New York, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said the world “must realise that the principles governing relations between States has been seriously damaged” as a result of the fighting between Georgian, Russian and South Ossetian forces.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

SECOND DAY OF UN EVENT SPARKS FURTHER UPTAKE OF MULTILATERAL TREATIES

Seven Member States participated yesterday in the second day of the 2008 United Nations treaty event, which helps to promote the universal participation of countries in more than 500 multilateral pacts, by signing or ratifying 10 separate conventions, agreements, treaties and optional protocols.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, intended to protect the rights of more than 600 million people across the globe, was signed yesterday by Russia and Ukraine, the later Member State also signing its Optional Protocol.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

CLEAR POLITICAL WILL NEEDED TO MEET DEVELOPMENT TARGETS, CHILEAN LEADER TELLS UN

The current turbulence in international financial markets demonstrates that the world needs a renewed sense of purpose in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their 2015 deadline, the President of Chile told the General Assembly yesterday.

“A better world is possible, but this requires determination to move forward,” Michelle Bachelet told delegates at the annual high-level debate on its second day.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

DOMINICAN LEADER URGES WALL STREET-STYLE ‘BAIL-OUT’ TO REACH UN POVERTY GOALS

President Leonel Fernández of the Dominican Republic yesterday called on the world’s richest countries to provide the same emergency funding to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at slashing global poverty, hunger and other social ills as they have to bailing out failed financial institutions.

“The peoples of the world who suffer from hunger and misery raise their voices to urge the international community to pay the same prompt attention to solving their needs as it has in rushing to the rescue of banking institutions on the brink of collapse,” he told the General Assembly on the second day of its annual high-level debate.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

MEXICO URGES RICH NATIONS TO BACK PROPOSED UN-RUN FUND TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE

Mexico’s President yesterday appealed to wealthy countries to contribute to the setting up of its proposed Green Fund, which would be managed by the United Nations and aim to help poor nations combat the effects of climate change.

Felipe Calderón Hinojosa told the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, taking place at UN Headquarters in New York, that the fund has been proposed to deal with a paradox of climate change – those countries which have contributed the least to the phenomenon are often the most vulnerable to its impact.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

SG SAYS RISING EXTREMISM WARRANTS GLOBAL RESPONSE

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stressed the need for forging common solutions to shared problems, in particular the growing threat of extremism, which like many of yesterday’s challenges affects all countries, large and small.

In ’s world, “extremist violence in one place can have a ripple effect across many others,” Mr. Ban said in remarks to a high-level gathering of representatives comprising the “Group of Friends” of the global campaign known as the Alliance of Civilizations.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

UNESCO CONDEMNS LATEST KILLINGS OF IRAQI JOURNALISTS AND SUPPORT WORKERS

The head of the United Nations agency tasked with preserving press freedom yesterday condemned the latest killings of journalists and media support workers in Iraq and urged the country’s authorities to devise stronger measures to try to protect the media.

Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), issued a statement yesterday in which he condemned the murder of Musab Mahmood al-Ezawi, Ahmed Salim, Ihab Mu’d and Qaydar Sulaiman in Mosul on 13 September.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

NEW UN SCHEME SEEKS TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE FROM DEFORESTATION

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday announced a pioneering initiative aimed at combating climate change through creating incentives to reverse the trend of deforestation, at an unveiling with Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg.

The UN Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) Programme is designed to tip the fiscal balance in favour of sustainable management of forests, simultaneously bringing economic benefits to participating countries and contributing to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news

For more information on the United Nations and its activities, please visit the main U.N. website at www.un.org or the U.N. Kenya website at www.un-kenya.org