UN Highlights

On 1 April, the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that the Iraqi crisis has highlighted the significance that Governments and citizens around the world place in the United Nations. He pledged that UN humanitarian aid would flow back into Iraq as soon as practicable. He pointed out the fact that the people around the world had joined with Governments in a plea for a peaceful settlement of the crisis by the United Nations. He noted that these expectations were an indication of the central role the Organization is expected to play now and in the future.

Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Annan said he was pleased that both the United States and the United Kingdom agreed on the need to push ahead with the so-called Road Map plan drawn up by the Quartet, comprised of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and the Russian Federation. The plan calls for the Israelis and Palestinians to take a series of parallel steps over the next three years towards realizing the vision of two sovereign states, living side-by-side in peace and security.

On 1 April, the United Nations office of the Iraq Programme (OIP), which is overseeing the humanitarian Oil-for-Food programme, has identified over $1 billion worth of goods and supplies as potential priorities for delivery to Iraq over the next 45 days. The deliveries would come under the recent adjustments to the suspended programme, which allows Iraq to use part of its oil revenues to buy humanitarian supplies and on which 60 per cent of the population depend as its sole source of food. The programme was temporarily halted on 17 March following the withdrawal of all UN staff from Iraq on the eve of hostilities until last Friday, when the Security Council adopted a new resolution giving Secretary-General Kofi Annan more authority to administer the operation for the next 45 days. The initial assessment by the OIP and UN relief agencies has identified more than 450 contracts for medicines, health supplies, food, water and sanitation and other materials, as priorities for shipment, the Office said. The contracts are held by suppliers from some 40 countries representing almost every region of the world.

On 31 March, at the WTO/UNESCAP meeting held in Beijing, Mr. Kim Hak-Su, the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), emphasised the importance of full membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) by Asian and Pacific states that had yet to join. The two-week meeting brings together more than 20 of the top trade negotiators from the ESCAP region. More than half of ESCAP’s 52 members had yet to gain membership to the trade forum, which continued to be an issue of major concern, Mr. Kim said. In order for trade, development and peace to flourish in today’s troubled world, actions must centre on cooperation and persuasion, he continued. There is a clear need to re-establish the primacy of multilateral cooperation as embodied in the United Nations Charter.

Referring to the November 2001 declaration of the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, which provides the mandate for negotiations on a range of subjects, he said that members of ESCAP should ask what we can do ensure that the WTO Doha Development Agenda works for the region and determine ESCAP’s role in pursuit of trade and development.

Announcements

Please note that the weekly Planning Committee meetings of the Annual DPI/NGO Conference (8-12 September) have been changed to 1:15-2:45 p.m on Thursdays during April. Today the meeting will be held in Conference Room 6.

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