Good News Agency – Year II, n° 5
Weekly - Year II, number 5
– 9 March 2001
Managing Editor: Sergio Tripi,
Ph. D.
Rome Law-court registration
no. 265 dated 20 June 2000.
Good News Agency carries positive and constructive news from all over the world relating to voluntary work, the work of the United Nations, non governmental organizations, and institutions engaged in improving the quality of life – news that doesn’t “burn out” in the space of a day.
Good News Agency is distributed through Internet to over 1,400 editorial offices of the daily newspapers and periodical magazines and of the radio and television stations with an e-mail address in 18 countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, and it is available in its web site:
It is a free of
charge service of Associazione Culturale
dei Triangoli e della Buona Volontà Mondiale, a registered non-profit
educational organization chartered in Italy in 1979. The Association operates
for the development of consciousness and supports the activities of the Lucis
Trust, Radio For Peace International, The Club of Budapest and other
organizations promoting a culture of peace in the ‘global village’ perspective
based on unity within diversity and on sharing. Via Antagora 10, 00124
Rome, Italy. E-mail: s.tripi@tiscalinet.it
Contents:
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International legislation
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Health
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Disarmament
and peace
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Environment and wildlife
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Development
cooperation
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Culture
and education
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Solidarity
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CAMPAIGN FOR
THE DEONTOLOGICAL CODE OF THE MEDIA
(TOP)
High
Commissioner for Human Rights welcomes China's ratification of economic, social
and cultural rights pact
2 March - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson today welcomed China's decision to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Speaking in Bangkok at the closing of the ninth Asia Pacific Regional Workshop on Human Rights, Mrs. Robinson expressed disappointment, however, at reports that the ratification was subject to a reservation in relation to paragraph 1 (a), article 8, of the Covenant dealing with trade union rights. “It is heartening to see that China has decided to ratify the Covenant”, said the High Commissioner. “I hope the decision by the National Peoples' Congress is indicative of China's intention to ratify soon the Covenant's sister treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. I also hope that any reservation on article 8 of the Covenant would be withdrawn”.
http://www.unog.ch/news2/documents/newsen/hr01028e.html
The Commission adopted the six
priorities of the political strategy for 2002: euro, sustainable development,
government systems in Europe, broadening of the Community, Mediterranean sea,
and development cooperation. On this last priority Romano Prodi, President of
the Commission, said that, in the context of the strategy of fight against
poverty, the EU will focus its actions on the areas of education and health.
http://www.cocis.it/bollet65.htm
Monitoring groups optimistic of prospects of
International Criminal Court
United Nations, 1 March – Work on the creation of an International Criminal Court (ICC) is going ahead under full steam, said members of groups monitoring meetings here on Tuesday, despite the reluctance of the United States.
While diplomats from all over the world worked in the
basement of the United Nations on the legal and technical difficulties in
setting up a court to judge those accused of genocide, crimes against humanity,
war crime and aggression, William R. Pace, the head of a coalition of more than
1,000 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) supporting the ICC, predicted at a
press briefing here that the court will come into existence “at 10:30 AM on July 17, 2002” exactly four years after 160 nations voted in Rome to
begin the process of setting up the court. “That’s ten to 15 years faster than we predicted four years ago,” he said. And 50 years faster than we expected six
years ago.”
Some 139 countries have signed the ICC treaty and 29
countries have ratified it. The court comes into effect after 60 nations ratify
the statute. The United States--with Iran and Israel--signed the agreement on
Dec. 31, 2000, in the last days of the Democratic administration of President
Bill Clinton but the treaty is known to face serious opposition in the new
Republican administration…
By Robert E. Sullivan © Earth Times News Service
http://www.earthtimes.org/mar/humanrightsgroupsmar1_01.htm
Rome, 2 March - More than 110 countries have adopted a
new Plan of Action against illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, the UN
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a statement released today. The
voluntary agreement aims at preventing, deterring and eliminating illegal,
unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, FAO said.
IUU fishing is found within and outside the exclusive
economic zone (200 miles from the coast), it is not confined to high seas
fisheries, FAO said. In some important fisheries, IUU fishing accounts for up
to 30 percent of total catches, FAO said.
IUU fishing is blamed for overfishing of several high
value fish stocks. In extreme cases, it can lead to the collapse of a fishery
or seriously affect efforts to rebuild fish stocks that have been
depleted.
http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/OIS/PRESS_NE/PRESSENG/2001/pren0111.htm
(TOP)
1 March - Two years after the entry into force of the Ottawa treaty
banning anti-personnel mines, efforts to rid the world of these horrific
weapons has begun to show results. Today, the use, production, stockpiling and
transfer of anti-personnel mines have been outlawed by nearly two thirds of the
world's governments. Tens of millions of anti-personnel mines in storage have
been destroyed. Importantly, governments have increased funding for mine
clearance, mine awareness and victim-assistance programmes. In some severely
mine-infested countries, this has brought relief to the victims themselves as
well as the communities where they live. Life and limb are being saved, victims
are benefiting from better treatment and rehabilitation, and millions of mines
that were ready for deployment will now never find their way into the earth.
However, in order to guarantee that the scourge of mines is forever
eradicated, it is urgent that steps be taken to ensure universal adherence to
and compliance with the treaty's provisions. States that have not yet become
bound by it should do so at the earliest possible date. Likewise, the States
party to the treaty should recall the need to fully meet their obligations and
undertake mine clearance, destroy their stockpiles within the deadlines set,
and aid landmine survivors.
http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/
3.8 Million Euros for mine action in Afghanistan
Islamabad, 23 February - The UN Co-ordinator for Afghanistan today
signed an agreement with the European Union for 3.8 million euros (US$3.44
million) for the Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan. The funds have been
channelled through the United Nations Development Programme. Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC), an NGO
working under MAPA's umbrella, will receive 2.1 million euros. The organisation
will use the funds to clear high priority mined and former battlefield areas in
the provinces of Ghazni, Kabul, Kandahar, and Logar. The project will fund one ATC
site office, nine manual, and two mechanical mine clearance teams. The team
will clear 6,400,000 square metres of mined land.
The 1.2 million euros provided to Halo Trust will fund the clearance of
almost 18,000,000 square metres of mine and battlefield areas in the provinces
of Balkh, Baghlan, Kunduz, and Kabul. Halo Trust will carry out both surveys as
well as clearance. Half a million euros
have also been allocated to UNDP/UNOCHA. This will support prioritisation of
mine action activities and provide quality assurance, auditing, and reporting,
ATC and Halo Trust are two of the fourteen NGOs working under the Mine Action
Programme for Afghanistan.
http://www.reliefweb.int/ocha_ol/index.html
Comoros: unity agreement reached
24 February - A
unity agreement between political leaders on Grande Comoros, Moheli and Anjouan
islands formally reinstates the Comoros as one federated entity after three
years of secessionist strife on the Indian Ocean archipelago, diplomatic
sources told IRIN.
Under the deal
brokered by the OAU and la Francophonie, the community of French-speaking
countries, the parties agreed that Grande Comoros military ruler Colonel Azali
Assoumani would head a transitional administration. The current regimes in
Moroni and Anjouan would remain in place until the June referendum. Diplomatic
sources told IRIN that although the agreement catered for all parties involved,
it should still not be considered a "done deal". A committee co-ordinated
by the international community is to be set up to implement the agreement.
Congo: rival Hema and Lendu communities sign peace pact
23 February - The rival Hema and Lendu communities in the Bunia area of
northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo have signed a pact aimed at restoring
peace to their troubled region. According to sources on the ground, the
agreement was brokered by Congolese Liberation Front (CLF) leader Jean-Pierre
Bemba. The protocol, signed on 17 February, provides for disarmament and an
immediate cessation of hostilities. Training centres for militiamen will be
dismantled, military movements and border crossings controlled, peace tribunals
will be set up and prisons rehabilitated. As the Hema-Lendu conflict was
traditionally sparked by land disputes, the agreement also states that
collective grazing rights in the disputed territory of Djugu will be restored
and a solidarity fund established to rehabilitate areas wracked by the
conflict, in the resurgence of which thousands of people were killed over the
last 18 months.
West Africa: ECOWAS-ICRC cooperation
24 February -
ECOWAS and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have agreed to
exchange information and consult each other on matters of mutual concern, the
ICRC reported.
Under the
agreement, signed on 15 February in Abuja, Nigeria, the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS) and the ICRC may undertake joint activities to
achieve common objectives.
Since 1990,
ECOWAS has played a leading role in settling conflicts in West Africa. ICRC
delegates have begun providing instruction in international humanitarian law
for members of the ECOWAS peace monitoring force, ECOMOG, which is to be
deployed to the borders of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
(TOP)
IFAD to Support USD 107.3 Million for a Poverty Alleviation Project in
China
Rome, 20 February – A USD 107.3 million programme in the People’s Republic of China, the "West Guangxi Poverty-Alleviation Project" will receive a USD 30.4 million loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). A loan agreement was signed today at the Fund’s Headquarters by Mr. Wang Baorui, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Mr. Fawzi Al-Sultan, President of the Fund.The project area comprises 74 townships in 10 counties of the western part of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south-western China.The goal of the West Guangxi Poverty-Alleviation Project is to achieve sustainable poverty eradication for 240 000 vulnerable rural households living in an environment with degraded natural resources.
http://www.ifad.org/media/press/2001/01-09.htm
Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu Urges Support for IFAD's
"Splendid Work"
Rome, 20 February - Nobel
laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has urged the international
community to support "the splendid work" of the International Fund
for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in alleviating "devastating
poverty".
In a videotaped message, presented to the 24th Governing Council of
IFAD, which began its two-day session in Rome on Tuesday, Archbishop Tutu said:
"The international community defeated Hitler’s Nazism, it has defeated
apartheid. The world faces yet another scourge in the devastating poverty
afflicting so many billions of God’s children…(who) have neither electricity
nor water. The international community can yet again help destroy and defeat
this scourge especially by supporting enthusiastically the splendid work of
IFAD in empowering particularly rural women and in supporting local initiatives
for eradicating poverty." He added: "I can assure you that your best
ally in the campaign to defeat poverty, ignorance and disease would be
IFAD."
http://www.ifad.org/media/press/2001/gc-02e.htm
China harnesses the Internet to reduce rural poverty
UNDP is joining with China's Ministry of Science and Technology in a
$2.5 million pilot project to show how new information and communications
technology (ICT) can be mobilized to reduce poverty in rural areas. The
initiative aims to bridge the "digital divide" between urban and
rural areas by setting up information and communication centres in five poor
counties in different areas of the country with varying geographic, social and
economic conditions.
"I am very pleased to launch this pioneering initiative for poverty
reduction in China through establishing community telecentres in poor rural
communities," said Kerstin Leitner, UNDP Resident Representative.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
Rural women
join global markets - UNIFEM and Private-Sector
Support Women Producers of Shea Butter Products at International Trade Fair in
Burkina Faso -
United Nations, New York-- In Burkina Faso, rural women producers of the
valuable emollient shea butter are making a direct link to global markets. In
the 'Third Shea Trade Fair' taking place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from 20
to 23 February 2001, these women producers and traders will market their shea
butter products directly to international companies who use it in high quality
skin and hair products as well as fine pastries and chocolates.
This
year's Fair, the third of its kind, provides yet another opportunity for women
shea butter producers to promote their products, network with each other, and
meet directly with potential buyers. These women have doubled their earnings by
developing ties to companies in Europe and the U.S., and reselling it on the
international market for a significant profit. Because of renewed interest in
natural and biological products, shea butter is being progressively introduced
into industrial markets traditionally occupied by palm oil, cocoa or coconut
oil.
Funded by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and
organized by the
Government
of Burkina Faso in collaboration with the Canadian NGO, Centre d'Etudes et de
Coopération Internationale (CECI) and local partners, the Fair is part of a
larger UNIFEM programme to increase economic empowerment for rural women
producers in the shea sector.
http://www.unifem.undp.org/pr_sheabutter.html
WFP approves new relief and
recovery strategy for Angola
Luanda, February 21 - The United Nations’ World Food Programme is set to launch a new recovery
and relief operation for Angola in the year 2001 that will benefit some one
million people monthly. The operation will become effective on April 1st and
will continue for the next 15 months. The programme represents a change in
focus for WFP operations in Angola as the agency looks to shift its activities
from strictly emergency assistance to encouraging greater self-reliance among
communities currently dependent on large-scale food aid for survival.
WFP emphasized that its new operation will only
succeed in places where the security situation has improved and where targeted
beneficiaries have been provided with sufficient arable land and agricultural
supports, such as tools and seeds.
http://www.wfp.org/prelease/2001/0221.htm
http://www.cocis.it/bollet65.htm
10.91 million dollars loan from IFAD for the rural
poor in Kenya
Rome, 27 February - The International Fund for Agricultural Development
(IFAD) will provide a loan of 10.91 million dollars on highly concessional
terms to finance the newly approved IFAD-initiated Central Dry Area Smallholder
and Community Services Development project in Kenya. The total cost of the
project is 18.08 million dollars. The loan agreement was signed today at IFAD
headquarters by the President of IFAD, Mr. Fawzi Hamad Al-Sultan, and by Mr
Cyrus Tai Gituai, Director, External Resources Department of the Ministry of
Finance and Planning, Government of Kenya.
The project is co-financed by the Belgian Survival Fund (BSF) with a
grant of 185 million Belgian Francs (approximately 4.10 million dollars). The
Government of Kenya will contribute 2.66 million dollars, while the
beneficiaries’ contribution is estimated at 410 000 dollars. Pre-project activities to
assist in timely and orderly start-up of project operations will be covered by
an IFAD Special Operations Facility (of USD 60 000).
http://www.ifad.org/media/press/2001/01-10.htm
UNDP launches major
recruitment drive to boost its anti-poverty efforts
New York, 1 March – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
has embarked on a global recruitment drive to energize its worldwide campaign
against poverty. In an on going ad campaign that is being launched in major
international publications, the organization is seeking to hire more than 60
specialists in areas pertaining to democratic governance, pro-poor policies,
crisis prevention and recovery, energy and environment, information and
communications technology and HIV/AIDS.
At the UN Millennium Summit
in September 2000, world leaders pledged to halve global poverty by 2015, and
UNDP is charged with helping attain this target. As part of an overall
restructuring process, the organization is realigning and refocusing its work
in order to carry out this mission successfully.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/pressrelease/index.html
Water sector training to boost Pakistan's farm output
4 March - UNDP and
Pakistan's Water and Power Development Authority have launched a major agricultural
drainage training programme that aims to improve farm productivity and thus
reduce poverty. The National Drainage Programme, Pakistan's biggest on-going
irrigation activity, is working to restore environmentally-sound irrigated
agriculture by minimizing soil waterlogging and salinity. The $6.8 million
training programme is fully funded by a Japan
Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) loan and is managed by United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). UNOPS will provide training for the country's water
sector officials at both the federal and provincial levels. Over the next five
years, the programme plans 60 overseas seminars and workshops, more than 2,000
domestic courses, about 400 in-country seminars and workshops, and other
capacity building activities in areas ranging from river basin management to
social mobilization. The programme will also provide training for thousands of
farmers, helping to improve irrigation management at the grass-roots level.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
(TOP)
Mauritania: food aid from China
24 February -
China has donated 1,000 mt of wheat, estimated at US $1.4 million, to the
Mauritanian government to help alleviate food scarcities and fight against
malnutrition, AFP reported on Monday. Several Sahelian countries have appealed
for food aid in response to recent shortages. Burkina Faso, Chad and northern
Cameroon are among the countries and areas most severely affected.
Congo: WFP to provide over 130,000 mt of food to the needy
23 February -
The UN food agency, WFP, is hoping to provide a total of 134,565 mt of food to
the "most needy" Congolese, over a two-year period, at the overall
operational support cost of US $112.3 million. "However, only 13,100 mt of
food have been resourced to date," WFP said in its latest emergency
update. It said a total of 74,000 mt of food were required to cover the needs
this year. "In order to achieve the target, WFP needs confirmed monthly
pledges of 10,000 mt for the next six months," it said. WFP formalised its
agreement with the DRC government for the implementation of the first
Protracted Relief and Rehabilitation Operation in the country early this month.
Rotary International launches Volunteer Awareness Campaign
Evanston,
Illinois, USA - The United Nations has declared 2001 the "International
Year of the Volunteer." In
response, Rotary International, one of the largest service organizations in the
world, announced the launch of a new multi-media campaign designed to encourage
people to get involved in their communities.
The campaign highlights the impact a project from Seattle has had on the
world and the volunteers involved, and it centers around a television Public
Service Announcement (PSA) featuring an ongoing project called Computers for
the World. Several high-schoolers stay
after school and with the help of volunteers from the local Rotary club rebuild
and refurbish old computers donated by local businesses. The students then physically take the
computers to place where people cannot afford them. They have been to Russia, Mexico, Mozambique and even delivered
some to underprivileged schools in Seattle.
The students are currently on a trip delivering computers in Guatemala
and another team is developing computer labs in Ethiopia.
The PSA will be
shown in the US, Canada, and Mexico in both English and Spanish in an effort to
reach out to a broad base of community-oriented people. A radio version is
expected mid-year. A website has been set up as part of the campaign to give
anyone interested in getting involved a place to request information or look up
volunteer opportunities in their hometowns.
http://www.rotary.org/volunteer
1 March - With ICRC support,
the Indonesian Red Cross Society is assisting displaced people who have been
fleeing violence between indigenous Dayaks and Madurese settlers in Central
Kalimantan province, on the island of Borneo. The local authorities estimate
that some 22,000 persons have so far returned to their native Madura.
http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/c
East
Timor, 3 March – Almost 500 refugees today came back to Dili from the refugee
camps of Timor West (Indonesia), where they had been sheltered. Representatives
of the UNHCR and OIM (International organization for the migrations) defined
the event “a positive signal in the process of repatriation set up for the
refugees, that had been blocked for some months”.
(TOP)
UN Secretary-General calls on
governments to take up AIDS challenge seeks global commitment to reverse AIDS
spread
New York, 20 February –
Declaring the HIV/AIDS epidemic “the most formidable development challenge of
our time”, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a report released today,
calls on governments to secure a global commitment for intensified and
coordinated action.
The report has been issued in
preparation for the General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, which will
take place in New York from 25 to 27 June 2001. The first round of substantive
negotiations for the Special Session are set to take place the week of 26
February, based on the report.
The report calls for
intensified and broadened political and financial commitments by nations in
their response to the AIDS crisis. Alarmed by the accelerating epidemic and its
global impact, the General Assembly decided in November 2000 to hold a Special
Session on HIV/AIDS at the highest political level. The Session follows calls
for concrete action made in the UN Millennium Declaration, adopted in September
2000 by world leaders at the Millennium Summit.
http://www.unaids.org/whatsnew/press/eng/pressarc01/UNGFIN1.html
Sierra Leone: Polio immunisation in rebel areas
24 February -
Over 1200 vaccinators carried out a polio immunisation exercise on 16-17
February in areas in northern and northeastern Sierra Leone controlled by the
rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), participating UN agencies reported.
UNICEF said
330,000 children in 49 chiefdoms were targeted, and that Vitamin A was also
administered to them during the exercise. The World Health Organisation said
the areas were previously inaccessible to health workers because of the war
between the RUF and the state since 1991.
Guinea: immunisation campaign
24 February - A
campaign to vaccinate refugees and members of host communities against measles
began earlier this month in Guinea, UNICEF reported. UNICEF said it was
providing vaccines, injection supplies and Vitamin A capsules for the campaign,
which targets children between nine months and 15 years old.
UNICEF also
said a UNICEF/FAO assessment identified a dramatic increase in Guinea's
malnutrition rate which is now 9-15 percent. The UN agency said every effort
would be made to reduce the rate. It said the nutritional status of children
aged 0-3 years would be evaluated while adequate micro-nutrients and other
supplies such as therapeutic milk would be given to pregnant women, and
malnourished and/or unaccompanied children.
Scientists say antibacterial is effective against
malaria
4 March - Triclosan--an antibacterial that is frequently added to soaps, toothpastes and mouthwashes--is also effective against malaria, according to two recent independent studies.
Triclosan halted the growth of malaria parasites when
added to cultures of infected human blood cells, according to researchers
reporting in the International Journal for Parasitology. In a separate study
scientists in India reported that four mice infected with rodent malaria, then
given daily injections of triclosan for four days were cured of the disease.
Six infected mice that did not receive triclosan died.
Scientists think that triclosan works by binding to a
specific enzyme, called FabI, that is critical for the manufacture of bacterial
and plant fatty acids. The recent research reveals that some parasites
including malaria use the same enzymes as bacteria and plants to make fatty
acids, so contain FabI. By deactivating the enzyme, triclosan essentially kills
the parasite.
By Pat Hemminger © Earth Times News Service
http://www.earthtimes.org/mar/healthscientistssaymar4_01.htm
(TOP)
Marine reserves called best hope for ocean species
San Francisco,
California, 22 February (ENS) - There is now compelling scientific evidence
that marine reserves conserve both biodiversity and fisheries, and could help
to replenish the seas, says a scientific consensus statement signed by 150 of
the world's leading marine scientists. The statement was released this week at
the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting.
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-22-06.html
Earth Summit 2002
20 February -
South African officials announced yesterday that the next Earth Summit, to be
held in Johannesburg in 2002, will focus on worldwide access to drinking water
and safeguarding children. The summit -- officially called the U.N. World
Summit on Sustainable Development -- has the modest agenda of reviewing
progress since the 1992 Rio summit, looking at the impact of globalization on
development, energy use, and land degradation, and addressing the imbalance
between wealthy industrialized nations in the Northern Hemisphere and poorer
developing nations in the Southern Hemisphere.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9853
Environmentals News, 28 February – EPA (USA Environmental Protection
Agency) Administrator Christie Whitman directed today the new EPA rule to make
heavy-duty trucks and buses run cleaner, vehicles which will be ready by model
year 2007, and will cut harmful pollution by 95%. The Agency will require a 97%
reduction in the sulfur content of highway diesel fuel from its current level
of 500 parts per million to 15 parts per million and once this action is fully
implemented, 2.6 million tons of smog-causing nitrogen oxide emissions will be
reduced each year, and soot, second as a greenhouse effect contributor, will be
reduced by 110.000 tons a year. The final rule and related documents are
available at:
www.epa.gov/otaq/diesel.htm.
Soot data at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/
ITB : WWF calls for a new form
of tourism in the Mediterranean
Berlin, Germany, 1 March – WWF
(World Wide Fund for Nature) officials will be at the ITB (Internationale
Tourismus Borse) trying to convince the tourism industry that a new form of
tourism is needed in the Mediterranean, the leading tourist destination in the
world. More than 220 million people visit the Mediterranean every year and in
20 years is expected to rise to 350 million. According to the WTO (World
Tourism Organization), international tourist arrivals are concentrated along
the coast. Of the total 46,000 kilometers (28,580 miles) of coastline, 25,000
kilometers (15,530 miles) are urbanized and have already exceeded a critical
limit. “It is also one of the most important regions for its outstanding
biodiversity and cultural features," said Peter DeBrine, tourism officer
at WWF's MPO (Mediterranean Program Office).
The Mediterranean
Action Plan, launched by the United Nations, was the beginning of what is now
known as the Barcelona Convention. Today, all Mediterranean states, including
the European Union, are members of the Barcelona Convention but the convention's
six protocols have yet to be ratified by all members.
WWF identified the
13 key marine and coastal areas as important to biodiversity.
http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2001/2001L-03-01-10.html
Clean air: NRDC applauds
Supreme Court decision
Washington, 27 February - The
unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision announced today upholding the principle
that Clean Air Act air pollution standards must be based on health
considerations alone is "a home run for public
health and the environment," according to NRDC (Natural Resources Defense
Council is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and
environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the
environment.). “The
Supreme Court rejected
outrageous industry claims suggesting that the Constitution denies EPA the
authority to protect public health and the environment from air pollution”,
said Hawkins, director of NRDC’s Air and Energy Program.
http://www.nrdc.org/media/#0227air
Beijing promises clean up for 2008 olympic bid
Beijing, China,
22 February (ENS) - The city of Beijing, a finalist to host the 2008 Olympic
Games, has announced new environmental protections. The controls on auto
emissions, water, industrial, and solid waste pollution are intended to
convince an Olympic evaluation committee visiting this week that it is the best
place for the world's athletes to compete.
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-22-01.html
New Jersey
approves new programs and funding for energy savings and renewable energy
Washington, March 2 - The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and a number of
renewable energy companies and environmental groups applauded a March 1
decision by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) approving programs
that will help customers reduce energy use and develop renewable energy sources
such as wind and solar energy systems
http://www.awea.org/
(TOP)
UNESCO and IFJ launch “Women make the news 2001” March 5 to 11
Paris, February 22 – UNESCO and
the international Federation of Journalists (IFJ) are launching the operation Women Make the News 2001 to call on
print, broadcast and electronic media world-wide to place news under the
editorial responsibility of women journalists for a full week (March 5 to 11)
to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.
The Web-based operation is designed to draw attention to the fact that,
although the number of women in the media is increasing, they are all too few
to rise to top positions. By stressing this point, UNESCO is reaffirming the
commitment made at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (China) in
1995 to promote equal professional opportunity for women.
Women Make the News was first launched
on International Women’s Day last year when UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro
Matsuura made an appeal to the world’s media to have women take editorial
responsibility for the day. Many international organizations supported the
initiative and issued messages backing the operation. Massive support was
registered by media organizations. More than 1,000 media from 56 countries took
part in the operation and many asked for a similar, but longer, initiative in
2001.
http://www.unesco.org/opi/eng/unescopress/2001/01-25e.shtml
March 20: World Day
of Planetary Consciousness
March 20th will
mark the first “World Day of Planetary Consciousness” as Sunrise Celebrations
take place planet-wide, beginning with a Maori welcome in New Zealand and
ending with a Polynesian performance in Samoa. The first spring day of the New
Millennium will culminate in a gala event in Hungary featuring messages and participation
from Honorary Members of the Club of Budapest including: The Dalai Lama,
Mikhail Gorbachev, Arthur C. Clarke, Peter Ustinov, Ervin Laszlo, Jane Goodall,
Peter Russell, Edgar Mitchell, Robert Muller, Peter Gabriel and Betty Williams. On this World Day people from many cultures
and nations will unite under the banner of the Planetary Vision Festival 2001
to celebrate the spirit of humanity’s new consciousness that is dawning with
this new era, including in: Auckland, Nelson, Brisbane, Fukuoka, Beijing,
Khatmandu, Delhi, Auroville, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Jerusalem, Delphi, Budapest,
Guardea, Vienna, Lucerne, Paris, Brighton, Sao Paolo, New York City,
Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Toronto, Kansas City, Monterrey, Vancouver, San
Francisco and Apia.
Planetary consciousness is the
knowing as well as the feeling of the vital interdependence and essential
oneness of humankind and the earth. It is the fundamental requirement for a
sustainable and peaceful world in the 21st Century. Planetary Vision Festival 2001 is the first in an annual series
of events and programs celebrating our new planetary consciousness and its
related ethics and actions. Further Planetary Vision Festival world programs this year are the first
World Month of Planetary Understanding (March 21st to April 21st)
and the first World Day of Planetary Ethics (September 22nd)
PVF2001 is being initiated by
The Club of Budapest in partnership with the PVF2001 Founding Alliance. The
Club of Budapest is an international association dedicated to developing new
thinking and ethics that will help address the social, political, economic and
ecological challenges of the 21st Century. Founding Alliance members include:
Associazione Culturale dei Triangoli e della Buona Volontà Mondiale (Italy),
First Steps International (Canada), Global Foundation for Understanding
(Canada), Institute for Ethical Leadership (Canada), Pathways to Peace (USA),
Sister Cities International - Pause for Peace Project (USA), The Club of Budapest USA and Towards the Third Millennium
(Russia and Ukraine). For further information:
Rotary International announces Centers for International Studies in
peace and conflict resolution
As Rotary's
major educational priority going into the new millennium, The Rotary Centers
for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution will provide
opportunities for scholars from around the world to focus on dealing
effectively with the obstacles that currently impede international cooperation
and peace. "For years, Rotary members have dreamed of selecting some of
the world's best and brightest students to attend a Rotary-sponsored academy
dedicated to peace," says Herbert G. Brown, Chairman of The Rotary
Foundation. "The Rotary Centers for International Studies is that dream
come true and one that will live on as a symbol of Rotary's commitment to
peace."
The Rotary
World Peace scholarship will support 70 selected students for a two-year
masters-level degree program at one of the Rotary Centers for International
Studies outside of the candidate's home country. The scholarship will include
funding for tuition, room and board, and other expenses.
http://www.rotary.org/programs/amb_scho/centers/index.htm.
4-27 March - During her
lecture tour in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Paris and Bordeaux,
Prof. Ada Ahroni, President of
IFLAC: PAVE PEACE will be talking about
the IFLAC activities for the building
of peace and will present her latest book, Not In Vain, on the
cooperation between Jews and Arabs in Egypt during the Second world War, to
save Jews from the Nazi Holocaust.
This collaboration had escaped
historical notice, and Prof. Aharoni have been
asked to talk about it at the
"Book Week" in London. Ada Aharoni stresses that “it is important to
show that there was such a cooperation in the past, which gives hope for
the present and future”.
IFLAC is a network of peace
researchers, writers, poets and media working together to foster joint
cooperation for the building of a world beyond war in our global village.
http://techunix.technion.ac.il/~ada/home.html
NGOs meet to give their views on Education For All
Paris, March 2 - UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro
Matsuura today highlighted the role of non-governmental organizations in
achieving the target of providing quality basic education for all (EFA) by the
year 2015, set at the World Education Forum (Dakar, April 2000), as he opened
an NGO Consultation on the Global Initiative to implement this goal.
The meeting, attended by some 40 representatives of
leading international NGOs working in education, was also attended by members
of the international donor community, representing governments of the richest
countries, and international organizations such as the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund. It is being held in the wake of a two-day donors’ meeting on the strategy for international and
inter-agency co-operation in EFA…
http://www.unesco.org/opi/eng/unescopress/2001/01-32e.shtml
The campaign for the
Deontological Code of the Media receives a wide and warm welcome
“Nothing is more powerful
than an idea whose time has come”: the need to establish a new balance in the
world of media is shared by many farsighted people and groups. The Nobel Peace
Laureates who met in Rome on 11-12 November 2000 discussed at length this issue
and expressed their belief that “the modern system of mass media is suffering
from an unprecedented crisis that prevents a correct view of what is currently
happening in the world”. And their conclusion stressed that “the public opinion
has been called upon to make the transformation from passive observer to active
participant, keeper of the truth and responsibility of mass media”.
The Club of Budapest
focussed on the role and responsibilities of the media, and studies in this
direction have been and are being developed by several universities and
research groups.
The launch of our campaign
for the Deontological Code of the Media is receiving a wide and warm welcome
and is soliciting deep interest from service organizations and private people
around the world. Among the many endorsements we received in these first two
weeks, there are: Prof. Ervin Laszlo, scientist and futurologist, President of
The Club of Budapest; Prof. Ada Aharoni, academic researcher and President of
IFLAC: PAVE PEACE-The International Forum for the Culture of Peace (Israel);
Sociocratic Centre of Australia; Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (Italy);
Syntony Quest (USA); Global Vision Network (UK); The REED
Program-Environmentally Clean Communities (USA); Global Resource Bank (USA);
World Business Academy (Brazil); Institute of Noetic Sciences (Brazil); The
William Harris House Initiative of Synthesis and Convergence (Brazil);
Associazione Sipicciano Vive (Italy); Human Species (France); Revelation
Journal (UK); Agenzia di stampa umanista Buone Nuove (Italy); Unione Comunità
Associazioni Immigrati (Italy).
This on-going campaign will
last several months because the Deontological Code of the Media will be
presented to the world publishers when a great number of people and
organizations have endorsed it. We will include progress reports in the next
issues of Good News Agency. As all of us know, each endorsement counts and we
need yours, too. Just fill in your name at the end of the following page and
send it back to us. Together, we can make it.
* * * * * * *
Next issue: 23 March 2001
* * * * * * *
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The building of
a just and peaceful world is man’s duty, just as its destruction could be
determined by man.
In a democratic
environment which tends to assign to the citizen-elector a growing
responsibility for the directions of social development, the formation of a
public opinion which is widely aware of the main events that happen in the
world is the key for directing the efforts of humanity towards a global village
based on unity in diversity and on sharing, fundamental qualities for the
development of a responsible and sustainable social life.
In this
perspective, the importance of the media is fundamental and the consequent
social responsibility of editors cannot be based any longer on the only element
which has so far been unquestioned: the search for company profits through the
maximum possible diffusion of the media. This aim has so far prevailed over
every other consideration, thus taking from the media the responsibility for
the formation of an aware and balanced public opinion.
In pursuing the
maximum possible company profits, the media have placed the accent on the
dissemination of sensational and dramatic news, which appeal to the
characteristics of a public seen as a tangled mass of emotions and mortify the
interest of another part of the public, which has a quite different vision of
life and of the information which describes it. This situation in the world of
information is the most obvious evidence of a human activity which, with some
enlightened exceptions, sacrifices
quality and balance on the altar of quantity and immediate profit,
ignoring those responsibilities of an ethical kind which that very activity of
itself implicitly confers.
Today, however,
the media cannot continue any longer to overlook the positive and constructive
occurrences among that part of humanity - estimated at between 10 and 15 percent of the citizen-elector-contributors
in the developed countries - which has by now adopted a social behaviour in
harmony with the fundamental values of a fair and sustainable social
development. To give voice also to the events which indicate in the world the
response of humanity to the greatest problems of our time is a responsibility
of the media which can no longer be put off, in order to allow public opinion
to be formed on the basis of a range of information corresponding to all
aspects of the reality in which we live.
Therefore, as is
the custom for many other categories of great importance in social life, the
public opinion consisting of that 10-15 percent of the population orientated
towards the construction of a just and sustainable global village asks the
media to adopt and respect the deontological code here laid down.
Deontological
Code of the Media
1. It is
the moral responsibility of the media to pursue the aim of disseminating
information on every aspect of the reality in which we live.
2. The
media must disseminate information with respect and consideration for all the
public.
3. The
information should be organized by distributing the “weight” of the different
sectors so as to respect the right to knowledge of important social groups.
4. The
information must reflect reality with a variety of news which mirrors the
components of reality itself to the extent to which they define it.
5. The
information must seek, as far as possible, the causes of the events in the
determining behaviour of man.
6. The
media have the privilege and the task of also setting the events reported in
the context of their correspondence to the principles of responsibility and the
search for the common good.
7. It is
the privilege, task and responsibility of the media to do their best to
emphasize the connections between the most significant world events.
The
Deontological Code of the Media will be presented to the publishers of the
world’s press, radio and television when it has been signed by a large number
of signatories, such as:
- organizations of the United Nations;
- non-governmental organizations;
- voluntary service associations;
- journalists for whom the mandate of the
editor represents a restraint;
- enlightened editors who have already showed
agreement with the values of the Code;
- people who recognize the necessity and
validity of the Code.
To express your
agreement with this initiative, include your data here below and send this page
to Good News Agency, s.tripi@tiscalinet.it
I support the Deontological Code of the Media:
Name and surname
Organization
(name and address, also e-mail)
Date
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