UN DAILY NEWS from the UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE 28 November, 2008

UN DAILY NEWS from the
UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE
28 November, 2008 =========================================================================


DOHA FORUM CRUCIAL TO CRAFTING GLOBAL RESPONSE TO FINANCIAL CRISIS – BAN

A United Nations conference set to begin tomorrow in Doha provides a vital opportunity to plan a globally coordinated response to the financial crisis to ensure the well-being of millions worldwide, especially the poor, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed today.

Such a response “can protect developing countries, underpin our drive to a green economy, and stimulate a commitment to a renewed multilateralism,” Mr. Ban told a news conference in the Qatari capital on the eve of the Review Conference on Financing for Development.

The four-day meeting will focus on ensuring sufficient financing to meet key development goals amid mounting concern about the impact of the current global economic slowdown on poor nations.

“The Doha conference is crucially important for the well-being of people everywhere,” added the Secretary-General, who held a closed discussion attended by about 30 delegations, including 10 Heads of State, government and international agencies, on the implications of the financial crisis.

“It is also very timely, falling just two weeks after the emergency G-20 summit on the financial crisis,” he said, referring to the meeting in Washington on 15 November of the leaders of the so-called Group of 20 nations, aimed at promoting dialogue between advanced and emerging countries on key issues regarding economic growth and stability of the financial system.

One of the main goals of today’s discussion, and of the conference beginning tomorrow, is “to build a bridge between the G-20 and the rest of the world – the full community of nations,” he noted.

A summary of today’s discussion points out that leaders agreed that the Doha conference offers an opportunity “to listen to the perspectives and concerns of a larger group of countries. Broad participation in and support for the designs of reforms will make them more effective and sustainable.”

Mr. Ban told reporters that the financial crisis is not the only crisis the world faces. “We also confront a development emergency and accelerating climate change. These threats are inextricably linked. They must be dealt with as one.”

He emphasized the need for a truly global stimulus plan that meets the needs of emerging economies and developing countries. This includes protecting the poorest, as well as not reneging on commitments regarding official development assistance (ODA), which remains a crucial part of development finance for many countries.

It also includes ensuring resources to help countries meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the anti-poverty targets world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015.

Also vital is to promote development that is sustainable and the fight against climate change. “Investments in green technologies will produce pay-offs in the long-term, in terms of a safer environment and more sustainable growth,” said the Secretary-General. “But the record already shows that green investment can produce jobs and spur growth in the here-and-now.”

He added that reform begins with the financial markets but it cannot stop there. “We also need fresh thinking about our food and energy systems, about financing for development and about our institutions.” This means giving a greater voice in global financial institutions to emerging economies and developing countries.

Ahead of the conference, World Bank President Robert Zoellick called on developed countries to boost aid to developing countries, which are facing a “perfect storm” of slowing world growth, higher interest rates, and a withdrawal of equity and lending from the private sector.

In a paper prepared for the conference, the World Bank says it is imperative that donors meet their previous commitments to debt relief and scaled-up aid.

Representatives of the World Bank will join those of governments, business and civil society at the forum, which is a follow-up to the International Conference on Financing for Development that took place in 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico, and resulted in the adoption of a landmark partnership agreement for global development.

Known as the Monterrey Consensus, the agreement covered a number of topics, including domestic resource mobilization, foreign direct investment (FDI), trade, ODA, debt relief and systemic issues.


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SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS ‘REPREHENSIBLE’ TERRORIST ATTACKS IN MUMBAI

The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in Mumbai that started on 26 November, which included the taking of hostages and caused numerous deaths and injuries in India’s financial capital.

“The members of the Security Council expressed their condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of India,” the 15-member body said in a statement issued to the press last night.

The attacks, which have now stretched into their third day, targeted two major hotel complexes and several other locations in India’s largest city, leaving at least 140 people dead and more than 300 wounded. Rescue operations are still ongoing to try to free the remaining hostages.

Council members “underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice” and urged all States to cooperate with the Indian authorities in this regard.

“All acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation,” the Council reiterated in its statement.

The Mumbai attacks are just the latest in a series of acts of terrorism to strike the South Asian nation over the course of the past year. The north-eastern state of Assam and the cities of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Jaipur and Delhi have all fallen victim to the scourge.


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NEARLY 10,000 CHOLERA CASES NOW REPORTED IN ZIMBABWE, UN SAYS

Almost 10,000 cases and over 400 deaths due to cholera have now been reported in Zimbabwe since the current outbreak of the disease began in August, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Nearly 500 new cases and 23 additional deaths have been reported since yesterday, with the largest increase in cases found in Budiriro and Beitbridge in the country’s south.

The UN continues to support the Government respond to the outbreak through water deliveries, education programmes, procurement of medical supplies and constructing latrines.

OCHA noted that more health professionals are needed to respond, given the scale of the outbreak, and that poor hygiene awareness and solid waste removal are propelling the increase in cholera infections.

Cases of the illness – an acute intestinal infection caused by contaminated food or water – have also been reported in neighbouring Botswana and South Africa, and the health ministries of these two countries and of Zimbabwe have been working with the UN World Health Organization (WHO) to address the spread.

WHO and its partners are responding to cases and supporting treatment centres in 26 districts, and the agency has airlifted emergency supplies from its Dubai warehouse.

The agency has identified several areas where there are gaps, including detection, response organization and surveillance.

It is also planning to dispatch a team – comprising epidemiologists and water and sanitation specialists, among others – to investigate and respond to the outbreak.

For its part, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has over 50 staff dedicated solely to tackling Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak. The agency is working closely with authorities and along with its partners, has asked for $9 million as part of the UN Consolidated Appeal to address water and sanitation issues.


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SOME SUDANESE REGIONS RIFE WITH ARBITRARY ARREST AND DETENTION, SAYS UN REPORT

Arbitrary arrest and detention are rife in many parts of Sudan, and are often linked to further serious violations such as torture, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says in a report released today.

The 51-page report covers the capital Khartoum and other parts of northern Sudan, southern Sudan, and the three central areas of Abyei, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile state. It does not cover the western region of Darfur, which has been the focus of previous OHCHR reports.

According to the report, intelligence and security services, police, and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), as well as the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the country’s south, have all committed violations of Sudanese and international law in the form of arbitrary arrests of civilians, in the length and manner of their detention, and in the physical treatment of detainees.

“In Khartoum and other parts of northern Sudan, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) systematically use arbitrary arrest and detention against political dissidents,” states the report. The NISS has reportedly been responsible for a large number of cases involving ill-treatment and torture, including attempts to intimidate detainees, punish them, extract information or force them to incriminate themselves or others.

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) explicitly limits NISS’ mandate to an advisory role, focusing on information and analysis.

The report also notes that UN human rights officers have encountered many cases in which SPLA soldiers illegally arrested and detained civilians. Some prisoners have been detained for prolonged periods without charge, denied family visits or legal help, and kept in very poor living conditions, with insufficient or inadequate supplies of food, water and medical supplies.

The OHCHR report found “disturbing” patterns of arbitrary arrest and detention by police forces in the South including arrests of family members of suspects to pressure fugitives to turn themselves in.

The report also cites cases of women and children detained as a means of forcing their families to pay compensation in civil disputes, or in relation to dowry payments – especially in Southern Sudan, and cites examples of a 17-year-old girl sentenced to one year in jail in Yei for leaving her husband, and a 16-year old Dinka girl jailed for two months in Bor for running away from a forced marriage.

Impunity was an overarching concern in all of the areas covered by the report. “Even blatantly unlawful arrests rarely result in criminal or disciplinary actions against the officials involved.” However, it also says the problems “are not necessarily intractable,” adding that “reforming institutions is as important as changing individual attitudes.”

At the same time, the report also notes there have been “positive examples of judges, prosecutors, parliamentarians and police officers who have taken effective action against arbitrary arrest and detention.” The report cites cases where judges disregarded written confession statements that had allegedly been obtained under torture and acquitted defendants who had retracted their confessions in court.

OHCHR adds that the Government of National Unity and the Government of Southern Sudan have taken some positive steps to address the human rights concerns in the report. The Government of National Unity, for example, has announced its intention to table legislation to establish an independent human rights commission.

Meanwhile, the Government of Southern Sudan has established a human rights commission and is in the process of enacting legislation linked to its proposed functions.

OHCHR provides 28 specific recommendations designed to assist the authorities in their efforts to address the concerns identified in the report.


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‘WE ARE GOING WHERE OTHERS DO NOT WANT TO GO’ – UN PEACEKEEPING CHIEF

The 18 United Nations peacekeeping operations worldwide are carrying out their work well under circumstances that are often extremely difficult and in areas where no other major organizations or countries are prepared to be involved, the head of the world body’s missions says.

“We are going where others do not want to go,” Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy says in an extended interview with the UN News Centre to mark the first of its Newsmaker profile series. “Sometimes we are easy scapegoats. [But] on the contrary, on my field visits I see missions that in the vast majority of cases are being executed well.”

Mr. Le Roy, who took up his post in August, last month visited the Darfur region of western Sudan – now home to the joint UN-African Union mission known as UNAMID – and then this month travelled to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the UN mission known as MONUC is responding to fierce recent fighting that has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians.

In the interview he notes the scale of the task facing UN peacekeeping missions, which collectively have about 110,000 personnel and a budget of more than $7 billion.

“That is huge. There has been a very great increase in our engagements in recent years. Some think that we have perhaps reached the limits. Of course, it is the Security Council that decides on the missions and troop levels it gives us.”

Mr. Le Roy says the recent decision by the Security Council to boost MONUC’s numbers by another 3,000 troops and police officers “is clearly very important to help us fulfil our mandate,” especially in North Kivu province, the scene of much of the recent fighting.

But he adds that the mission’s current total of blue helmets – about 17,000 – is comparatively small given the sheer size of the DRC, one of Africa’s largest countries.

In Darfur, the Under-Secretary-General says the administrative problems experienced by UNAMID, which replaced an under-resourced AU-only monitoring mission at the start of the year, are in the process of being resolved.

“On the other hand, the logistical aspect remains extremely complicated: the region is 2,500 kilometres from its nearest port and there are very few access roads.”

He adds that the mission is still waiting on 18 transport helicopters and six attack helicopters from Member States, despite earlier authorization for the craft from the Security Council.

“The States we have asked say they don’t have any available. It’s very damaging because that diminishes the effectiveness of the force. We sincerely hope that certain countries will supply us with these helicopters.”


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INFRASTRUCTURE SHARING IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS NEEDED TO OFFSET INVESTMENT DROUGHT – UN

Strategies for sharing among telecommunications and information and communication technology (ICT) providers are needed to offset an investment drought stemming from the deepening global financial crisis, according to a new United Nations report.

“Sharing strategies are increasingly necessary to ensure that operators can deploy their networks at low cost while guaranteeing that consumers have access to affordable services,” UN International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Telecommunication Development Bureau Director Sami Al Basheer said on the release of the agency’s annual report.

“Now, more than ever, sharing strategies make sense as operators are forced to reduce the costs of network deployment as they compete for scarce investment funds. This is a forward-looking perspective in light of the current financial and economic uncertainty.”

Such strategies include sharing civil engineering costs in deploying networks, promoting open access to network support infrastructure (poles, ducts, conduits), essential facilities (submarine cable landing stations and international gateways), and access to radio-frequency spectrum and end-user devices.

The report – Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2008: Six Degrees of Sharing – details a set of regulatory strategies designed to lower the costs of network rollout. It notes that 2008 has been marked by unparalleled numbers of voice and Internet consumers in both the developing and developed world, the result of network growth and expansion.

The “Six Degrees of Sharing” theme was first discussed in Thailand during the ITU’s 2008 Global Symposium for Regulators last March. Few observers could then have anticipated the rough ride that would be in store for financial markets later this year.

Yet, the guidelines announced in March seem almost prophetic in today’s circumstances. Taking a broad and innovative view of sharing, the world’s regulators sought to capture the productivity of global networks and use it to expand the scope of opportunities for service and content providers and, ultimately, consumers.

Developing countries embraced sharing to make more affordable the expansion of ICT networks to rural and under-served areas. Many developed countries are looking at sharing to reduce the cost of rolling out ultra high-speed broadband networks that reach customers’ homes and apartment buildings.

What had been foreseen as ideal strategies to extend broadband network access in developing markets may now be viewed as a prescription for the entire world. If the sources of capital for network investment suffer a temporary drought, policymakers could take steps to make their markets more amenable to the shrinking pool of investment.

Such measures could include lowering investment barriers that inhibit capital flows from one country to another, reducing regulatory barriers (high licence fees or market-entry bans) that represent hostile environments for capital investment and market growth, and sharing essential facilities, such as cable landing stations, local switching centres or fibre backbone networks.

Other steps are: adopting rules to provide for infrastructure sharing, particularly “passive” sharing of towers, ducts, rights-of-way and other support facilities; overhauling and streamlining cross-agency processes to create a ‘one-stop shop’ for various network-related authorizations, such as land management, port access, environmental and safety permits; and adding innovative spectrum management mechanisms that promote increased sharing and efficient use of spectrum.


Regulatory frameworks could be amended to eliminate discriminatory rules that favour one company or industry over another in a converged services market and government policies and rules would be to ensure maximum ability for incumbents and market entrants to choose between different opportunities for business plans and long-term strategies, including resale, wholesale, and niche markets.


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VOTER REGISTRATION FOR CôTE D’IVOIRE POLL PROCEEDING WITHOUT MAJOR INCIDENT, UN REPORTS

Identification and voter registration in Côte d’Ivoire is progressing without major incident for long-delayed elections, a key element in resolving a political crisis that in 2002 divided the West African country into a rebel-held north and Government-controlled south, the United Nations has reported.

The operation is attracting large crowds in Abidjan, the country’s largest city, in the south and in Bouaké, the former rebel stronghold, the UN Mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) said.

UNOCI hopes the population will participate just as eagerly when the operation spreads to other parts of the country in line with the deployment of identification teams, spokesman Hamadoun Touré told a news conference in Abidjan yesterday.

The mission will continue with its electoral assistance and logistical and material support by “making its vehicles and staff available in order to accelerate the identification and voter registration operation so that it takes place under the best possible conditions,” he said.

He urged the Ivorian authorities to continue along the right track and remain focused on the remaining stages so that they should lead to a definitive end to the crisis.

The identification and registration processes were launched in mid-September in preparation for the elections then slated for 30 November but the polls have now been delayed again for the third time since the signing of the north-south peace pact last year.


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UNDERSTANDING MOST RECENT HIV INFECTIONS CRUCIAL FOR FURTHER PREVENTION, UN REPORT SAYS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) today called on countries to realign their prevention programmes by better understanding how the most recent infections were transmitted and the reasons why they occurred.

“Not only will this approach help prevent the next 1,000 infections in each community, but it will also make money for AIDS work more effectively and help put forward a long-term and sustainable AIDS response,” UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said in a report issued to mark the 20th anniversary of the first observance of World AIDS Day.

Findings from countries that have conducted studies on the modes of transmission and developed incidence estimates have highlighted three broad trends. First, patterns of epidemics can change over time and therefore such analyses must be undertaken at regular intervals.

Second, in many sub-Saharan African countries with high HIV prevalence, new infections occur mainly as a result of having multiple sex partners and among discordant couples – that is where one partner is HIV positive and one is HIV negative.

Third, in many countries, even with high HIV prevalence among the general population, substantial numbers of new infections might also occur in populations at higher risk of exposure to HIV, including sex workers and their clients, injecting drug users, and men who have sex with men, groups who often receive little attention in prevention initiatives.

“There is no single magic bullet for HIV prevention, but we can choose wisely from the known prevention options available so that they can reinforce and complement each other and cut back the wave of ongoing new HIV infections that is stripping away gains in treatment,” Dr. Piot said.

Even though the number of new HIV infections has fallen in several countries, there are five new HIV infections for every two people put on treatment. As reported earlier in 2008, some 3 million people are now receiving antiretroviral treatment in low- and middle-income countries.

The global financial crisis could lead to funding cutbacks, which, in turn, will have harmful impacts throughout the developing world generally and in the AIDS response in particular.


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UN AID AGENCIES BRING RELIEF TO FLOOD-HIT NORTHERN SRI LANKA

Three United Nations agencies are offering relief to tens of thousands of Sri Lankans who have been displaced from their homes after floods struck at least five districts in the north of the island nation this week.

Aid agencies held a coordination meeting in the town of Jaffna today to plan their response to the floods, which follow several days of heavy rains, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.

Sufficient stocks of relief items, including food and shelter materials, are available across the Jaffna peninsula to help affected families for the next few days. The region is already affected by the conflict between Government forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is coordinating the distribution of non-food relief items and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is providing dry rations at the request of local authorities. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is assisting with water and sanitation services.

OCHA reports that the floods are worst in five districts: Jaffna, Mannar, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu in Northern province, and Trincomalee in Eastern province. Three reservoirs are at risk of overflowing, and vehicle movements across the north are being obstructed by flood waters and bad road conditions, thus hampering the progress of humanitarian convoys.


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UN-BACKED FORUM URGES COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY TO FIGHT SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN

A United Nations-backed forum to combat the sexual exploitation of children today called for a comprehensive strategy comprising laws, policies, regulations and services across all social sectors as well as a shift in social attitudes and practices, such as child marriage.

“There is no single intervention that protects children from sexual exploitation,” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Nils Kastberg said at the end of World Congress III Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Rio de Janeiro. “Building and strengthening child protection systems is critical and requires action from all actors to provide children with the protection they deserve.”

Representatives of 137 governments, meeting with children, international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private sector companies, conceded that ending the scourge is a long and difficult battle, but the Congress organizers said countries are in a better position now to win the fight as a result of days of work in developing a blueprint for action.

The Rio Declaration and Action Plan to Prevent and Stop the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents calls on governments to enact laws that protect all children in their jurisdiction, including undocumented migrants or those who have been trafficked so that every child is provided protection under the law. Governments are also asked to pass laws that do not criminalize children for crimes they have committed as a result of their sexual exploitation.

On prevention, the Rio Action Plan stresses the need for a comprehensive strategy and the involvement of all social sectors, especially social welfare, education, health, security and justice, to support prevention and respond to risks.

Unlike previous World Congresses, where the recommendations of young participants were prepared separately, in Rio de Janeiro the young people participated fully in the drafting of the action plan.

Studies indicate an increase in the sexual exploitation of the young and UNICEF noted that predators continue to use new tools to target children, including cyberspace and new generation mobile phone technologies, with adults preying on children in chat rooms and using the Internet to post or download pornography.

The gathering was co-sponsored by UNICEF, the Brazilian Government, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes), a global non-profit network of organizations and individuals set up in 1991, and the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Seven years after the last World Congress in Yokohama, Japan, which focused exclusively on commercial sexual exploitation of children, the current Congress also discussed strategies for combating non-commercial forms of child sexual exploitation, including the sexual exploitation of children in their homes, by religious leaders, teachers, peacekeepers and armed groups in war zones.

The First World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children took place in Stockholm in 1996, resulting in the ‘Stockholm Declaration and Agenda for Action,’ which was adopted by 122 countries. This committed countries to develop strategies and plans of action with agreed-upon guidelines and 161 countries have now signed on.


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MINISTERS AT UN MEETING URGE NATIONS NOT TO SLASH EDUCATION BUDGETS AMID FINANCIAL CRISIS

With hundreds of millions of people around the world with little or no access to education, participants at a United Nations conference in Geneva urged governments not to cut funding for this critical sector amid the current financial turmoil.

Participants at the week-long International Conference on Education, which ended today, voiced concern at the impact of the global financial crisis, warning that it “will have a disproportionate impact on the poor – those who carry the least responsibility for these events.”

According to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which organized the conference, the hundreds of millions around the world with little or no access to education include 75 million out-of-school children – more than half of whom are girls and one third are disabled.

Many of these children are working and many belong to indigenous groups and linguistic minorities, or are living in conflict and post-conflict situations. There are also some 776 million adults who lack basic literacy skills.

In the current economic environment, providing quality education was all the more important since education was crucial to reducing poverty and improving health and livelihoods, stressed the participants, which included ministers, education experts and civil society representatives.

“Funding for education should be a top priority and… the financial crisis should not serve as a justification for a reduction in the allocation of resources to education at both the national and international levels,” they stated.

The conference recommended a number of steps that governments could take to improve their education systems and ensure more inclusive education. These include equipping teachers with the skills and materials they need to teach diverse populations, and promoting the greater participation of those concerned in decision-making.


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IN NORTHERN KYRGYZSTAN, UN REFUGEE AGENCY FUNDS SCHOOL AND SANITATION PROJECTS

The United Nations refugee agency is supporting school and sanitation projects in rural areas of northern Kyrgyzstan that have served as home to former refugees from neighbouring Tajikistan.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported today that it has recently expanded a pre-school and opened a public bathhouse in the district of Ivanovka, which is located in Chui province.

The projects are part of UNHCR’s support to the local community, which has taken in the former Tajik refugees – despite limited resources – and is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz returnees and local villagers.

UNHCR representative Hans Schodder said about $100,000 was spent by the agency on the projects as part of a wider effort to support the greater integration of refugees in the poor Central Asian country.

More than 20,000 Tajiks fled to Kyrgyzstan after civil war erupted in their homeland in the early 1990s. Most eventually returned home, but about 9,500 have been successfully naturalized by the Kyrgyz Government.

Ivanovka is also home to Kayrlyrmans, ethnic Kyrgyz who returned to the region after the country declared independence in 1991, as well as numerous stateless people following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

UNHCR estimates that Kyrgyzstan is also host to at least 1,000 asylum-seekers and refugees, mainly from Afghanistan.


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JUSTICE ESSENTIAL TO BREAKING CYCLE OF CONFLICT IN DR CONGO, UN RIGHTS CHIEF SAYS

Outbreaks of bloodshed will continue to occur in the far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where in the past few months escalating conflict has uprooted a quarter of a million people, unless impunity is ended for those guilty of the worst violations, the top United Nations human rights official said today in Geneva.

“The DRC runs the risk of becoming a case study in how peace processes can go awry without the will to make justice and accountability an integral part of these processes,” Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a special session on the human rights situation in the east of the vast African nation.

The DRC has been trying to consolidate stability following a brutal six-year civil war – widely considered the most lethal conflict in the world since World War II – that ended earlier this decade and cost 4 million lives in fighting and attendant hunger and disease. Serious unrest has continued sporadically in recent years, despite the official end of the war.

Fighting has stepped up in recent weeks between Government forces (FARDC) and a rebel militia known as the Congress in Defence of the People (CNDP), led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda, mainly in North Kivu province, which borders Rwanda. Other armed groups, including the Mayi Mayi, have also been involved in deadly clashes, some of which have been along ethnic lines.

Ms. Pillay told the 47-member Council today that her office has documented a worsening human rights situation in North Kivu, with executions, kidnappings and looting occurring daily.

“The prevailing culture of impunity contributes to this wide range of serious human rights violations,” she said, adding that “unparalleled violence” against women continues, with rape being a particular concern.

The High Commissioner said Government forces had been involved in pillaging, rapes and killings in Goma, North Kivu’s capital. But such acts are not confined to North and South Kivu provinces, she underscored, pointing to the violations committed by other “brutal forces” in the region, including Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

“Past peace agreements have enabled well-known perpetrators of atrocities to be integrated into the army and police,” Ms. Pillay said. “This has exacerbated the current climate of impunity in the DRC, empowered human rights violators and further endangered the Congolese population.”

Four UN human rights experts today voiced their serious concern over violations in the country’s east, calling on warring parties to respect human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as abide by ceasefire commitments and allow aid workers access to the vulnerable.

“The international community has a responsibility to protect and should provide MONUC, the peacekeeping mission of the United Nations in the DRC, with the capacity to protect civilians at risk, where and when State authorities fail to do so,” according to a statement by Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Yakin Ertürk, Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences; Margaret Sekaggya, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; and Walter Kälin, the Secretary-General’s Representative on the human rights of IDPs.

In a related development, former Nigerian president and the Secretary-General’s envoy Olusegun Obasanjo will be returning to the region today to resume diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict in the DRC’s east.

It was announced today that he is slated to visit Kinshasa tomorrow and Goma on Sunday, with other regional stops planned along the way.

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today reported that it has begun the voluntary transfer of displaced Congolese from camps in Kibati, on Goma’s northern outskirts.

The agency’s vehicles will take the first group of people with special needs such as disabilities and chronic illnesses will be transported to Muganga I camp, one of four sites in the area.

This is the first of several movements which will continue through the weekend, UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler told reporters in Geneva, and about 1,000 are expected to be moved to the camp by next week.

Shelter and basic services will be provided at the camp, and the new arrivals will join 25,000 other IDPs who have been sheltering there since 2006.

Ground has been broken on construction at Mugunga III, a new site proposed for voluntary relocation of the displaced who will travel from Kibati on foot.

Mr. Spindler also said that thousands of Congolese refugees have fled across the border to Uganda in the past two days to escape a new round of fighting and attacks by armed assailants in Rutshuru in North Kivu.

UNHCR staff have reported that 13,000 IDPs had entered the south-west Uganda border town of Ishasha, while 10,000 people crossed into the country today. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern that the new arrivals may be carrying diseases, such as cholera, with them, and has been distributing clean water there.

After the latest influx, there are now 150,000 refugees in Uganda, one-third of them from the DRC, Mr. Spindler said.

For its part, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that relief has been reaching South Lubero, nearly 200 kilometres north of Goma, but cautioned that inaccessibility in certain areas could lead to an increase in malnutrition cases.


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UPSURGE OF FIGHTING IN SOMALIA AMONG HEAVIEST IN RECENT MONTHS, UN REPORTS

The past week has seen some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, in recent months, with at least 55 civilians estimated to have been killed and more than 80 others wounded, according to local hospital records cited by United Nations humanitarian officials.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 100,000 additional people have been forced to flee Mogadishu since 1 September in upsurge of fighting in a country that has been riven by factional conflicts and has not had a functioning central government since 1991.

Some 45,000 of those recently displaced moved to relatively safer areas in Mogadishu itself, while others sought safety along the Afgooye corridor, adding to a population of more than 360,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who live in appalling conditions there, UNHCR said. An estimated 250,000 people have been displaced from Mogadishu this year alone.

During the past week, NATO and Dutch naval frigates successfully escorted three vessels through pirate-infested waters with 18,730 metric tons of UN World Food Programme (WFP) shipments to Mogadishu and the coastal town of Marka. WFP distributed food to nearly 360,000 people in various parts of the Horn of Africa country.

The agency has found that large areas of cultivated farms in the Lower and Middle Juba regions have been flooded and crops damaged. Food reserves stored in underground pits were also destroyed.

But the outlook for the ongoing short rainy season (September-December) is promising and expected to be normal throughout Somalia, according to a UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) analysis. Grazing and water availability has improved countrywide and the cereal crop harvest is expected to be good in the main producing areas of the south.

Depending on the outcome of the cereal harvest and prices in areas of good crop production, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance could decline over the coming six months.

On the political front, UN officials have welcomed the signing of a power-sharing decision in neighbouring Djibouti between the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and one of its Islamist opponents, the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS), to set up an inclusive and enlarged government and Unity Government.

“We are pleased to be supporting this initiative,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said. The UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) is facilitating a three-day workshop in Djibouti ending today to flesh out the decision.

“This is the first of many dialogues on a long journey gathering various stakeholders in the complex process of bringing peace and stability to Somalia, UN Development Programme (UNDP) country director Bruno Lenmarquis said.

The Independent Expert on human rights in Somalia Shamsul Bari also welcomed the power-sharing decision as well as one on the establishment of a commission of inquiry and an international court to address gross human rights and international humanitarian law violations.


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SOUTHERN SUDAN NEEDS MORE HELP TO REBUILD EDUCATION, ROADS, HEALTH CARE – UN AID CHIEF

The United Nations relief chief today wrapped up a two-day visit to southern Sudan by calling on international donors to help the region develop basic education and health-care services and quickly build up its road system as it recovers after two decades of civil war.

John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, met President Salva Kiir and other senior officials in the Government of Southern Sudan, which was set up as a result of the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement that ended the north-south civil war.

Mr. Holmes and Mr. Kiir – who met in Juba – discussed the scale of the south’s continuing development needs, as well as mutual concerns about the full implementation of the peace deal, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Mr. Holmes – who is also the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator – also assured southern Sudanese officials of the UN’s ongoing humanitarian support and urged donors to get behind construction and development initiatives.

Southern Sudan is lacking in basic infrastructure as a result of the prolonged civil war, and Mr. Holmes stressed that the capacity of the Government in the region must be built up so it can take over health-care, education and other services.

“A lot of has been achieved since I was last in Juba less than two years ago, but a huge amount remains to be done,” he said. “The UN must be here for the long haul, to support Government leadership, while the international community as a whole has to keep up its spending. Too much rests on the development of the south and the continued health of the north-south relationship for there to be any other option.”

Health care is a particular concern, with southern Sudan experiencing some of the worst child and maternal health indicators in the world, due in part to exceptionally low immunization rates. One in seven women, for instance, dies as a result of causes related to childbirth.

“It is simply unacceptable in the 21st century that women continue to die in childbirth at such rates, and that children and adults die needlessly of preventable diseases like malaria.

“Distributing mosquito nets to all the population, training enough staff and qualified midwives, and getting them out to the rural communities who are in dire need of primary health care: these must be top priorities.”

Mr. Holmes visited Agok, home to some 30,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled Abyei, a town in an oil-rich area of central Sudan that remains in contention between the north and south despite the peace accord.

During their discussions the Under-Secretary-General and Mr. Kiir also emphasized the importance of a rapid solution to the separate conflict still engulfing the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a notorious rebel group that has waged war against Ugandan Government forces since the mid-1980s and is accused of recruiting children to serve as soldiers or sexual slaves, have long operated out of southern Sudan, which borders Uganda.

Mr. Holmes and Mr. Kiir strongly urged the leadership of the LRA to follow through on promises to sign a peace agreement tomorrow.

The UN relief chief is now in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, for meetings with Government officials, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). He has already visited Darfur and neighbouring Chad on this visit.


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UNICEF RAISES ALARM ABOUT CONDITIONS IN NORTHERN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is voicing concern that security in the strife-torn north of the Central African Republic (CAR) has started to worsen, with fresh fighting between Government forces and rebels uprooting thousands more civilians in the deeply impoverished country.

Two separate attacks took place last week between the military and rebels, and one of the clashes led to half of a town’s population escaping into the nearby bush, UNICEF reported in a press release on Wednesday.

The agency warned that the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) – already estimated to be more than 200,000 – could swell even higher because of the recent security incidents.

This will further strain the capacity of aid agencies in the CAR, one of the poorest countries in the world, to reach and support IDPs and other conflict-affected civilians.

The Government and rebels are slated to hold two weeks of peace talks in the capital, Bangui, starting next Friday, and UNICEF said it is concerned that the latest insecurity could jeopardize those talks as well as the release and reintegration of child soldiers serving with rebels.

“UNICEF hopes the CAR’s ongoing political dialogue will pave the way for peace and recovery, but right now the country is on the edge,” said Mahimbo Mdoe, UNICEF’s representative in the CAR.

“Since the beginning of the peace dialogue, many positive developments for women and children have flourished. More fighting can only undermine this progress. It is time for the international community to pressure all the parties to show restraint.”

Last year the Security Council authorized the establishment of a multi-dimensional UN presence (known as MINURCAT) in the CAR’s north and in eastern Chad, where related fighting and instability has uprooted hundreds of thousands of civilians.


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MALAWI’S PRESIDENT AWARDED UN PRIZE FOR ENHANCING NATION’S FOOD SECURITY

The President of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika, has been honoured by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for his efforts in achieving food security and in transforming the economy of his nation, among the poorest in Africa.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf presented President wa Mutharika with the Agricola Medal – the agency’s highest award – yesterday during a ceremony in the Malawian capital, Lilongwe.

Mr. Diouf noted that in 2005, thanks in a large part to the adoption of an Agricultural Input Subsidy Programme piloted by the Government of President wa Mutharika, Malawi was able to restore national food security by increasing access to fertilizers and improved seeds by poor farmers and other vulnerable population groups.

In addition, despite sharply rising food and energy prices earlier in the year, and the negative impact of climate change, Malawi has been able to contain food prices to the extent that economic growth for this year is expected to be around 8 per cent.

Malawi was also one of the few countries to have surpassed the agreement reached among ministers at the 2003 Maputo African heads of State and government conference for a minimum budget allocation of 10 per cent for agriculture, by allocating as much as 16 per cent to the sector, said the Director-General.

Agriculture is crucial to the population of 13.2 million in Malawi, a largely rural and landlocked country in Southern Africa, where some 35 per cent of the population was undernourished in 2004.

Previous recipients of the Agricola Medal include Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, former French president Jacques Chirac, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Pope John Paul II, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, former Spanish prime minister José María Aznar, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German ex-president Johannes Rau of Germany.


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WORLD’S FASTEST ANIMAL, IN RACE FOR SURVIVAL, TO GET ADDED UN-BACKED PROTECTION

The critically endangered cheetah, the world’s fastest land animal, is set to obtain added international protection next week at a United Nations-backed conference seeking to strengthen conservation of species that often cross national borders.

The cheetah, which reaches speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour but is now racing against extinction with only about 10,000 adults surviving, is among some 30 endangered land and marine animals on the agenda of the 9th conference of parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).

“Species that migrate across countries and continents are facing ever greater hurdles from loss of habitat and feeding grounds to unsustainable use and the unfolding and often complex threats emerging from climate change,” said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) which administers the CMS.

“Indeed the world is currently facing a sixth wave of extinctions mainly as a result of human impacts. Urgent and accelerated action is needed to ensure that a healthy, productive and functioning planet is handed on to the next generation,” he added.

More than 100 government representatives at the five-day conference, beginning Monday in Rome, will consider proposals to strengthen conservation by putting the animals on CMS appendix I, listing them as in danger of extinction, or appendix II, listing them as suffering from unfavourable conservation status and in need of international cooperation. Some of these animals are important economically, providing a significant source of tourism revenue.

Proposed steps range from tackling over-hunting to removing physical obstacles on the animals’ migratory paths such as border fences to calling for regional agreements for protection.

Migratory animals to be considered include:

The cheetah, which has suffered a dramatic 90 per cent decline over the past century, becoming extinct in 18 countries of its original range, with less than 10,000 adults surviving in Africa and a meagre 50 in Asia, mainly around Iran's Kavir desert, due to severe habitat loss, over-hunting and poor breeding in captivity.
The Saiga antelope, which used to roam the Eurasian steppes but is now on the brink of extinction for the second time in just 100 years. After being nearly exterminated in the 1920s, numbers went up to 2 million thanks to Soviet conservation efforts, but have now shrunk to just 50,000 due to hunting and obstacles on migration routes. Today they are confined to isolated pockets in Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia.
Barbary sheep, agile climbers of the Sahara and Sahel region of Africa, are now also threatened by unsustainable and illegal hunting. The species is proposed for appendix I, committing all parties to prohibit hunting and removing obstacles to their migration like fences or habitat conversion.
The African Wild Dog has been eradicated from Western and most of Central Africa, with fewer than 8,000 estimated to survive due to conflict with humans and other animals, as well as infectious diseases. Fences on migration paths also endanger them. The proposed Appendix II listing would call on nations to establish regional agreements for their protection.
Other animals include seven species of whales, dolphins and porpoises, such as the reclusive Irrawaddy dolphins which used to inhabit coastal areas and estuaries throughout south-east Asia. Today, habitat loss, live capture, entanglement in fishing nets, electrocution and boat collisions put the survival of the remaining small populations at risk.

The Black Sea Bottlenose Dolphin, unique to one of the most degraded marine environments in the world, has also suffered from uncontrolled hunting and by-catch, despite the ban on cetacean fishery in the sea since 1983, while the West African Manatee, one of the world’s most camera-shy species, has been endangered by their only significant threat, humankind, due to poaching, habitat loss and other environmental impacts.

Other animals on the agenda include three shark species, spiny dogfish, and seven birds, such as the Saker falcon, prized as hunting companions by royalty and the aristocracy in Central Asia; the Egyptian vulture, poisoned by feeding on carcasses of feral animals laced with pesticides; and the Peruvian tern, threatened by disturbance in its breeding grounds from human activity.

“The Convention on Migratory Species is an important part of our international cooperative response to such challenges. It reflects the shared responsibility of nations for these species as each year they attempt their epic journeys across continents and oceans,” Mr. Steiner said.

Robert Hepworth, Executive Secretary of UNEP-CMS, added: “Many migratory species are now important parts of the local and international economy, generating income and supporting livelihoods via industries such as tourism. For example, an estimated 150,000 people visit the Serengeti (in Tanzania and Kenya) annually in order to see its famous wildlife. Based on 2003 figures, the park generates income of $5.5 million from tourists.”


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PANAMA: UN FOOD AGENCY PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO THOUSANDS OF FLOOD VICTIMS

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is rushing assistance to about 15,000 people along Panama’s Caribbean coast, where floods following a week of heavy rains have destroyed homes, roads and other infrastructure and left locals in urgent need of help.

The number of Panamanians affected by the floods could rise to 25,000, WFP reported yesterday, as aid agencies struggle to reach more isolated indigenous communities along the coast. The national Government has declared a state of emergency in all affected areas along the coast.

WFP is distributing enough high-energy biscuits from its Central American emergency response hub in El Salvador to feed up to 15,000 people for a period of four to five days.

The biscuits, which require no cooking or other preparation, contain fortified food of a high nutritional value and have been made specifically to feed people caught up in emergencies, many of whom have lost their crops and animals, as well as access to kitchens and clean water.


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