United Nations Daily Highlights, 07-03-05

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From: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: [email protected]

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY MICHELE MONTAS

SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON

U.N. HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Monday, March 5, 2007

BAN KI-MOON WELCOMES SIGNING OF COTE D'IVOIRE PEACE ACCORD

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomes the successful conclusion of the dialogue on the Ivorian peace process and the signing of an agreement between President Laurent Gbagbo and Guillaume Soro in Ouagadougou on 4 March 2007, under the facilitation of the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), President Blaise Compaor�.

The Secretary-General commends President Compaor� for his effective facilitation role and assures him and the Ivorian leaders of the commitment and readiness of the United Nations to assist in the implementation of the agreement.

The Secretary-General notes that the Ouagadougou agreement builds upon Security Council

resolution 1721 (2006) and previous peace agreements with the aim of resolving the protracted political stalemate.

The Secretary-General is especially pleased to note that the agreement addresses the key issues that had blocked progress on identification of the population, disarmament, reform and restructuring of the armed forces, restoration of State authority throughout the country, reunification of the country and the preparation of the voters list, in order to ensure credible, free and fair elections.

The Secretary-General stresses that this agreement was drawn up by the Ivorian leaders themselves, which places on them a special responsibility to implement it in full and in good faith.

He looks forward to further discussions with President Compaor� and the Ivorian leaders on details of the provisions of the agreement and the role the United Nations is expected to play.

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES FIGHT AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro spoke this morning at the International Conference on Trafficking in Women and Girls, which the UN Office on Drugs and Crime helped to organize.

She said that trafficking respects no borders and the response therefore requires cross-border cooperation. She also encouraged parties to join the Global Initiative to fight Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery, which is being launched by the UN this year in Vienna.

MANHUNT CONTINUES IN TIMOR-LESTE

The UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) reports that on Saturday that U.N. police and International Security Forces (ISF) initiated an operation in Same, targeting the fugitive Maj. Reinado and his supporters.

The Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Timor-Leste, Atul Khare, in a press conference yesterday said that UNMIT, in consultation with the Government of Timor-Leste and the ISF has considered all possible options to achieve Reinados surrender to justice.

UNMIT expresses regrets that the efforts to ensure a peaceful judicial path have not been successful, stressing that it is Reinados disregard for the laws of Timor Leste and the wellbeing of its population that have brought us to this point.

U.N. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR DARFUR TO BRIEF THE SECURITY COUNCIL

There are no meetings or consultations of the Security Council planned for today.

The Secretary-Generals Special Envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, will be briefing the Security Council in consultations tomorrow morning and then speak to reporters afterwards.

SPECIAL ENVOY GAMBARI MEETS WITH SAUDI ARABIA KING

Ibrahim Gambari, who traveled to Saudi Arabia over the weekend as a Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, had an audience in Riyadh on Sunday with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud.

Gambari delivered a message from the Secretary-General. Their discussion focused on a range of regional issues, as well as on Saudi Arabias relations with the UN.

Gambari has since spoken with the Secretary-General by phone and will be able to fully brief him on all of his discussions upon his return to New York. While in Saudi Arabia he will continue contacts with senior government officials and will travel to Jeddah later in the week to meet with the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

U.N. ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY BOARD MEETS IN VIENNA

The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) met earlier today in Vienna and considered, among other issues, the status of implementation of safeguards in both Iran and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

In his address to the Board, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said that the situation in Iran remains a stalemate. He said that although the Agency has verified the non-diversion of Irans declared nuclear material, Irans lack of transparency continued to hinder the Agencys ability to reconstruct the full history of the countrys nuclear programme and some of its components.

On the DPRK, ElBaradei told the Board that he had been invited by the Government to visit the country in the wake of the 13 February Beijing agreement at the Six-Party Talks.

U.N. SPECIAL REP FOR CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT IN DR CONGO

The Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, is currently in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The objective of her mission is to work towards ensuring greater protection for children in the immediate post-conflict phase and peace consolidation process.

UNICEF CHIEF SPEAKS U.N. COMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN

UNICEF head Ann Veneman today addressed the 51st Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which is meeting here at Headquarters. She said that violence against women and girls is one of the most extreme forms of inequality.

She also said that education is key to addressing discrimination and violence against girls and to helping achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Educated girls are better equipped to protect themselves against life-threatening diseases and more likely to give birth to healthy babies, she said.

UNESCO IN NEPAL LAUNCHES HIV/AIDS EDUCATION TOOLKIT

The UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Nepal announced today that it has launched a program toolkit for Ministries of Education on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.

The HIV and AIDS situation in Nepal is categorized as a concentrated epidemic, spreading rapidly amongst its most-at-risk groups, and by adapting an advocacy toolkit to the Nepali context, UNESCO hopes the toolkit can be used as additional efforts to limit the spread of HIV.

According to UNESCO, there are 8,500 new HIV infections everyday in the world and in 2005 alone, nearly 3 million people died from AIDS-related causes, contributing to the more than 20 million deaths since the first AIDS diagnosis in 1981.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

TREND TOWARDS MORE AND MORE AFGHAN PROVINCES CULTIVATING OPIUM MAY BE BROKEN: Divergent trends characterize opium cultivation in Afghanistan this year, with a pronounced divide between the troubled south of the country and the more stable centre-north, according to a survey by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Afghanistan's Ministry of Counter Narcotics. "The trend towards more and more provinces in Afghanistan cultivating opium may be broken," UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said. "We are witnessing divergent trends. This is a moderately good sign."

BAHRAIN PRIME MINISTER RECEIVES HIGHEST UN-HABITAT AWARD: Prime Minister of Bahrain, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa has been awarded UN-HABITAT Highest Award, a Special Citation of the Habitat Scroll of Honour, for his impressive efforts in lifting the living standards of all Bahrainis through an active focus on poverty alleviation and modernization while preserving the cultural heritage of his country."