Good News Agency – Year III, n° 16
There were lights and
shadows at the World Summit - amply covered by the media…
However, the range of good news reported here from all over the
world is tangible evidence that the process of development is
definitely being pursued by the peoples of the planet, by their institutions
and by their groups, thus giving voice to a new public opinion. And
this is a fact that will also one day produce a more determined
political will.
Weekly - Year III, number 16 –
6 September 2002
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
published in English on one Friday and in Italian the next. It is distributed free of charge through Internet to the editorial offices
of more than 2,400 media in 46 countries, as
well as to 1,000 NGO.
It is a service of Associazione Culturale dei Triangoli e della
Buona Volontà Mondiale, NGO associated with
the United Nations Department of Public Information.
International legislation – Human rights – Economy and development – Solidarity
Peace and security – Health – Energy and Safety – Environment
and wildlife
Religion and spirituality – Culture and education
Senior Judges adopt
ground-breaking action plan to strengthen world's environment-related laws
World Summit on Sustainable
Development given pioneering principles for fighting poverty and delivering environmental
justice
Johannesburg/Nairobi, 27
August - An action plan to strengthen the development, use and enforcement of
environment-related laws has been drawn up by over 100 of the world's most senior
judges in a move that signals a new era in the quest to deliver sustainable
development.
The High Court and Supreme
Court judges, whose action plan or "programme of work" was announced
today at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), believe a key to
improving the adoption and implementation of environment-related laws hinges on
improving the capacity, training, funding and education of legal experts
particularly in developing nations. (…)
The so called Johannesburg
Principles on the Role of Law and Sustainable Development (see notes to editors
for the full text and declaration) were adopted last week at the Global Judges
Symposium organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The
pioneering principles have been kept confidential until today so that they can
be delivered first to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the WSSD. (…)
21 August - Leading experts
and members of civil society organizations from the Arab world met earlier this
month in Casablanca, Morocco, to discuss critical impediments to women's
citizenship in the region and ways to overcome them. They focused on three
areas where women are unable to claim their full rights as citizens: voting and
nationality, family laws, and social security legislation and practices. The
UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States
(RBAS) and Maroc2020, a leading Moroccan civil society group, co-sponsored the
event. (…) Participants brainstormed on strategies to help women gain full
rights as citizens. They cited the importance of using non-governmental
organizations as partners to promote policy debates, the vital need for
action-based research, and the importance of raising awareness and educating
the media. (…)
The workshop is part of a UNDP
initiative on governance reform in the Arab world. "Mainstreaming gender
in all of our activities is one of the most important aspects of our
work," said Adel Abdel Latif, regional coordinator of the Governance
Programme in Arab States. Also, the UNDP- sponsored Arab Human Development Report, released last
month, highlights the lack of women's empowerment, together with political
freedom and knowledge, as a major deficiency in the Arab world.
The meeting identified key
elements for a regional project on gender and citizenship, focusing on
nationality laws and civil registration procedures, that RBAS will carry out in
partnership with the International
Development Research Centreof Canada and civil society groups from the
region.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
28
August - Armed with $4 million, the state of Nevada is preparing for the legal
battle of a lifetime: the effort to keep the federal government from
establishing a high-level radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain. Charles
Cooper, one member of the high-profile legal team retained by the state, said
yesterday that he was "very encouraged" about Nevada's prospects of
prevailing in court. The team of attorneys has declined to reveal
its plan, but options include challenging the constitutionality of the 1982
Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which provides the framework for siting and
developing nuclear waste dumps. Even without a constitutional challenge, though,
the dump could be derailed by the courts: other pending legal actions
against Yucca Mountain include lawsuits against the U.S. EPA over groundwater
protection, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission over licensing and safety
issues, the Department of Energy over site suitability rules and the project's
environmental impact statement, as well as against President Bush and DOE
Secretary Spencer Abraham for backing the Yucca site in the face of scientific
uncertainty about its safety.
http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=411
Meeting at UN,
states elect 12 experts to monitor women's anti-discrimination accord
New York, Aug
30 - Meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York, countries party to a
major international treaty protecting women's rights have elected a dozen
experts to serve on the committee monitoring implementation of the accord. In
two rounds of voting on Thursday, the States parties to the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women elected 9 new members
and re-elected 3 current members to the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women. Although nominated by governments, the 23 expert
members of the Committee serve in their personal capacity.
Often described as an
"international bill of rights for women," the Convention provides for
equality between women and men in the enjoyment of civil, political, economic,
social and cultural rights. The Committee is mandated to consider reports from
the treaty's 170 States parties and to make suggestions and general
recommendations in response. (…)
Geneva, 29
August - A group of 279 Ethiopian prisoners of war
returned to their country on 29 August under the auspices of the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). (…)
With
this release operation, the last prisoners of war registered and regularly
visited by the ICRC in Eritrea have been released and repatriated. Pending
individual cases of presumed or alleged prisoners not visited by the ICRC will
be followed up as required with the Eritrean authorities. Since a peace
agreement was signed between Ethiopia and Eritrea in Algiers on 12 December
2000, as many as 997 Ethiopian and 937 Eritrean POWs have been repatriated
under ICRC's auspices.
Under
the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war, which was referred
to in the Algiers Agreement, all prisoners of war must be released and
repatriated without delay after the close of hostilities. The ICRC promotes
application of and compliance with the Geneva Conventions and has been
entrusted by the Algiers Agreement with supervising the release and
repatriation of the prisoners of war.
http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/5DGDFZ?OpenDocument&style=custo_final
August
28: Children in Charge at WSSD
On August 28th children will
present a side event "Children: Vital Partners in Globalization and the
Preservation of the Earth" at Sandton Convention Centre during the World
Summit on Sustainable Development The side event is being organized by a
partnership of four different organizations: Ark of Hope (USA), Peaceways-Young
General Assembly (international), Gauteng Alliance for Street Children (South
Africa), and the International Save the Children Alliance (international).
The colourful Ark of Hope, a
wooden chest filled with books made by children and the Earth Charter (www.earthcharter.org) scribed on papyrus, will be carried in by
HIV/AIDS orphans from the Diepsloot camp in Johannesburg. Two of
the young people, Cloete Mbaduli and Samuel
Sebatalo Moyo, will talk about the meaning of the Earth Charter. (…)
Blessing David
and Temidayo Israel-Abdulai, children from Nigeria, will represent
the well over one million children worldwide involved in Peaceways-Young
General Assembly, an international organization that has been designed, established
by charter, and is run by children themselves on a global scale. The Young
General Assembly aims to strengthen the goals of the United Nations through the
participation of children. (…)
30 August - UNDP launched a
series of strategic partnerships at the World
Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg yesterday to
promote local community participation in sustainable development. The
partnerships aim to mobilize human, institutional and financial resources for
initiatives in water, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity (WEHAB) -
areas UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has outlined as the focus of WSSD.
Speaking at the launch, UNDP
Associate Administrator Zéphirin Diabré pointed out that the greatest successes
in sustainable development have occurred at the local level. "Over the
last decade, UNDP has observed that throughout the world, communities have been
courageously and effectively working to eradicate their own poverty while
protecting the environment that sustains them," he said. (…)
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
Islamabad, 30 August (IRIN) -
The European Commission (EC) has resumed its assistance project known as TACIS
(Technical Assistance to CIS) to Tajikistan following a four year suspension,
an EC official confirmed to IRIN on Friday. "This time there will be a
regional strategy for all of the Central Asian Republics," team leader of
the Tacis project in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, Pierre-pul Antheunissens
said.
The programme was suspended in
1998 after two French programme experts were taken hostage by a terrorist group
- one died during the rescue operation. The programme has been resumed in the
light of events in the region post 11 September, Antheunissens said.
Launched by the EC in 1991, the TACIS
Programme provides grant-financed technical assistance to 13 countries of
Eastern Europe and Central Asia and is aimed at enhancing the transition process
in these countries. With a budget of 150 million euros (US $147.719055 million)
for a three year period for all of the five Central Asian Republics (CAR's),
there will be a regional and national approach. (…)
UNESCO launches the world's
largest encyclopedia on sustainable development
Johannesburg/Paris, August 29
-UNESCO will launch the largest and most comprehensive encyclopedia ever
published on sustainable development on September 3, at the World Summit on
Sustainable Development. With contributions from more than 5,000 scientists,
this Internet-based resource will be regularly updated and made available for
free to universities in the least developed countries. It aims to provide the
knowledge base required for sustainable development in all its myriad aspects,
from ecological issues to human security.
The Encyclopedia of Life
Support Systems (EOLSS) is the result of an unprecedented global effort and a
decade of planning. Never before has an encyclopedia gone beyond ecological
sciences to cover all aspects of sustainable development. EOLSS is the only
series to comprehensively examine the origins and threats facing all the
systems that support life on Earth - from the climate to the world's oceans,
forests, water cycle and atmosphere. The contributions offer step-by-step
explanations on how to apply the abstract or pure sciences such as mathematics
, to assess environmental pollution or to predict food consumption patterns.
However, technical solutions alone won't resolve the current ecological crisis.
EOLSS therefore covers a diverse range of social issues - from international
human rights law and poverty eradication to the psychology of religion. (…)
http://www.unesco.org/bpi/eng/unescopress/2002/02-58e.shtml
Local Sustainable Development:
a decade of lessons learnt
28 August 2002: A workshop
jointly organized by UNDP and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) yesterday reviewed
a decade of achievements in local dialogue, partnerships and initiatives in
sustainable development.
The side event at the World Summit for Social Development in Johannesburg
summed up lessons learnt from the Local Initiative Facility for Urban
Environment (LIFE) and Local Agenda 21 (LA21).
Started at the 1992 UN
Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, LIFE and
LA21 have demonstrated the importance of local participation in bettering the
lives of the poor. LIFE has supported the same 12 developing countries since
1992, chalking up an in-depth, long-term experience.
LIFE was one of the first UNDP
programmes to provide direct funding — through small grants of up to US$50,000
— to community-based organizations, NGOs and local governments. It also
promotes local-to-local dialogue and partnerships among key actors and deploys
an innovative “upstreaming—downstreaming—upstreaming” approach to improving the
living conditions of the urban poor and influence policies that promote
participatory local governance. (…)
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
Nine
countries achieve freshwater milestone and set example for sustainable
development at World Summit
Johannesburg, South Africa, 27
August - WWF, the conservation organization, today publicly lauded the
commitment of nine countries for their contribution of more than 500,000
hectares of wetlands each, thus securing access to water and its myriad
indispensable benefits for people and nature.
Wetlands are crucial for flood
control, water purification and food supply, yet half of the world's wetlands
have been destroyed in the last 100 years alone. Such loss is directly related
to the type of catastrophic flooding seen recently along the major rivers of
Central Europe. In 2002, Algeria, Argentina, Bolivia, Chad, China, Guinea,
Peru, Tanzania and Zambia have together committed to conserve 22 million
hectares of wetlands by including them in a special list under the Ramsar
Convention on Wetlands ; this number equals 25 per cent of the total
area registered under Ramsar between 1974 and 2001. (…)
http://www.panda.org/news/press/news.cfm?id=3117
FAO launches global study "World agriculture: towards
2015/2030"
Global
food production will continue to outstrip population growth –
Serious
food security and environmental problems in many countries need to be urgently
addressed
Rome, 20 August - Globally there will be enough food for a
growing world population by the year 2030, but hundreds of millions of people
in developing countries will remain hungry and many of the environmental
problems caused by agriculture will remain serious, according to the summary
report of "World agriculture: towards 2015/2030", a study launched
today by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Population
growth will slow down and many people will be better fed. As a result, the
growth in demand for food will be lower. The pressure emanating from
agriculture on natural resources will continue to increase, but at a slower
pace than in the past.
For many of the currently more
than 1.1 billion people that are living in extreme poverty, economic growth
based primarily on agriculture and on non-farm rural activities is essential to
improve their livelihoods, the report said. The majority of the poor live in
rural areas. Promoting agricultural growth in rural areas and giving rural
people better access to land, water, credit, health and education, is essential
to alleviate poverty and hunger. (…) The report is available at:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/y3557e/y3557e00.htm
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA,
August 30 - Eighteen thousand people in the Pebane District will directly
benefit from the Integrated Food Security Initiative that the Adventist
Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) office in Mozambique began implementing in
July.
The three-year program
includes components addressing agriculture, marketing, and health and nutrition
issues. Strategies that promote community involvement are at the core of the
project. Clients are participating in every step of the planning process, from
identification of needs and possible solutions through offered services to
evaluation of project progress and achievements.
The agricultural component
will increase availability of certain food crops as well as improve client
access to food through the production of cash crops. ADRA is selecting and
training farmers to establish on-farm demonstration plots for improved crops
and techniques. (…)
Participants are being chosen
based on need, with 20 percent of the clients to be households headed by
females. Pebane District is located along the Mozambique Channel in the
northeast corner of Zambezia Province. The Australian Agency for International
Development (AusAID) has funded this integrated program through ADRA’s office
in Australia. (…)
http://www.adra.org/ADRANews/083002.html
30 August - The World Food
Programme (WFP) in Zambia is planning an urban school feeding programme to help
keep AIDS orphans in class, and support AIDS-affected families struggling to
cope with the impact of the disease and rising food prices.
Extended families, the last
line of defence for the poor, are under pressure in Zambia. Households are
stretched by the increasing numbers of AIDS orphans, and the impact of the
current food crisis in which 2.3 million people are in need of food aid.
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=1427
29 August - Last week the ICRC provided emergency humanitarian aid for 1,766 people
who had fled to Turbo, Riosucio and Montaño following armed clashes between
members of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the ACCU
(Peasant Self-Defence Force of Córdoba and Urabá) in the Truandó and Chintadó
river basin in western Colombia. A
total of 3,260 parcels were distributed to 390 families sheltering along the
Atrato river, who had previously received assistance under the ICRC's overall
programme for displaced persons in the country.
An
ICRC mobile health team is also active in the region, caring for civilians
whose access to public health services has been cut off by the fighting. In the
first six months of 2002, the team provided some 4,000 people with medical and
dental consultations and vaccinations. It also carried out disease-control, health
and sanitation activities.
ICRC
delegates regularly monitor the situation of civilians in this region, where
the fighting began to escalate in early 2002. They also maintain contacts with
all the parties to the conflict in order to promote compliance with the rules
of international humanitarian law.
http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/5DGKKN?OpenDocument&style=custo_final
WFP offers web users a chance to help the hungry
Rome, 22 August - The United
Nations World Food Programme launched an online donation feature on its web
site on Thursday, giving individuals the chance to make their own contribution
to the Agency's global fight against hunger. Visitors to the How to Help
section on WFP's web site www.wfp.org can now use
their credit cards to help the aid agency feed hungry people around the world.
(…) With a donation of just US$100, WFP
can provide 5,000 cups of rice; US$1,000 will pay for 2,000 pounds of high
energy biscuits, vital in the early stages of an humanitarian disaster when
people are on the move and unable to cook food; and, US$10,000 will buy a
medium-sized warehouse for storing food aid. (…)
To date, WFP's US$ 507 million regional appeal has raised just US$ 118
million -- 23 percent of the total amount needed for the Agency to feed
millions of hungry people in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and
Zimbabwe. (…) There are 300 million undernourished children worldwide and
school feeding helps improve their nutrition and encourages them to attend
school. It takes just US$34 to feed a child for an entire school year.
WFP is entirely reliant on voluntary contributions to finance its
humanitarian and development projects. The vast majority of donations, whether
cash, food or services, comes from donor governments but, in recent years,
there has been growing interest from private individuals in contributing to the
agency's work. (…)
http://www.wfp.org/newsroom/subsections/year.asp?section=13#
Annual
UNDPI/NGO conference ‘Rebuilding Societies Emerging From Conflict: A Shared
Responsibility’ to be held 9-11 September in New York at UN Headquarters
New York, 3 September - The fifty-fifth Annual Conference of
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), entitled “Rebuilding Societies Emerging
from Conflict: A Shared Responsibility”, will take place at United Nations
Headquarters in New York from 9 to 11 September. The Annual Conference, which has become the premier NGO event at
the United Nations each year, is organized by the United Nations Department of
Public Information (DPI) in partnership with the NGO/DPI Executive
Committee. "Rebuilding countries
emerging from conflict is a theme about which there is a great deal to learn
and many opportunities for joint action, pooling the resources and expertise of
the United Nations, governments and NGOs", says Secretary-General Kofi
Annan in his message to the Conference. (…)
Speakers at the five plenary panels and 30 NGO midday workshop will
include senior United Nations officials from offices such as the Department of
Peacekeeping Operations, the Department for Disarmament Affairs, the Department
of Political Affairs, the Office of Legal Affairs, the Office of the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the
United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund, the
United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Volunteer Programme and the
World Bank; government representatives; and NGO representatives from
organizations such as Oxfam, the International Rescue Committee and Médecins
sans Frontières.
Topics to be addressed by the Conference's plenary panels include
re-establishing the rule of law and good governance in post-conflict societies;
restoring social services; economic recovery; psychosocial reconciliation; and
the process of military demobilization. (…)
Over 1,700 NGO representatives associated with DPI and in consultative
status with the Economic and Social Council from about 90 countries around the
world are expected to attend the Conference, which will explore the role of the
international community in supporting societies emerging from conflict. Focusing on those contemporary examples that
have been the subject of concerted United Nations involvement, the Conference
will examine the common experiences of these efforts, their successes and
shortcomings, and the best practices that people have developed to live
together peacefully.
www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/55conf.htm
Conference on the Fifth
Anniversary of the 1997 Mine Ban Convention
“The Future of
Humanitarian Mine Action,” is an international conference to be held on 12 – 14
September 2002 in Oslo, Norway on the fifth anniversary of the successful text
negotiations that took place during the Oslo Diplomatic Conference in 1997. The
conference is a collaboration between the International Peace Research
Institute, Oslo, Norwegian People's Aid and the Norwegian Red Cross, with
support from the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The conference will bring
together representatives of organizations and research institutions
involved in humanitarian mine action, as well as state representatives and
individuals who were instrumental in that process.
The purpose of the conference
is to establish a platform for future policy and practice based on the lessons
learned in mine action over the past five years. The conference will focus on
field-based mine action projects as a component of broader humanitarian
assistance efforts, of peace-building initiatives, and of longer-term
development programs. (…)
The Conference will be closely
coordinated with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) which
will launch the Landmine Monitor Report 2002 in Oslo on 13 September.
http://www.icbl.org/cgi-bin/go.cgi?0=http://www.prio.no/amac/futureofhma.asp
Peace One Day - 21 September:
the first ever day of global ceasefire and non-violence
If you build
a house you start with one brick, if we want peace we must start with one
day…and that day has arrived. Three years ago a young British filmmaker Jeremy
Gilley had an idea to create a starting point for peace – a global cease-fire
day. In September 1999 at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, Peace One Day
was launched to a mere handful of individuals, organisations and press. For the next two years, Jeremy Gilley
travelled the world building the case for the Day, documenting the entire
journey on film. Progressively, he
gained support from some of the world’s most influential figures including, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Shimon Peres,
Secretary General of the League of Arab States Amre Moussa, UNHCHR Mary
Robinson and many others.
On the 7th
September 2001, UN GA Resolution 55/282 was unanimously adopted by UN member
states at the General Assembly, formally establishing an
annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on the United Nations
International Day of Peace, fixed in the global calendar on 21 September. The idea had become a reality. Peace One
Day now has the support of countless individuals and organisations across the
world. (…)
Peace One Day is an independent, apolitical,
non-sectarian organisation, with no affiliation to any governmental,
non-governmental, regional or religious organisation.
The Earth Charter at the Peace
Summit, Vermont, USA, 28 September
A Peace Summit, organized by
Children of the Earth and fifteen non-profit organizations, will take place in
three different sites in Vermont on 28 September. Two Congressmen, Dennis
Kucinich and Bernard Sanders, who co-sponsored the US Congressional Bill
proposing the creation of a Department of Peace (and a National Peace Academy)
as a cabinet level US agency, will address both youth and the public in two
separate forums. Dr. Steven Rockefeller, member of the Earth Charter
Commission, will present the Earth Charter.
The Earth Charter will be
discussed as a document of principles upon which a National Peace Academy could
be built. This event will be broadcast on an international webcast to more than
20 cities in the US and 5 or more countries. Voters at 22 town meetings
throughout Vermont already endorsed the Charter last March. For more
information on this event, please contact Children of the Earth at coevt@aol.com
or visit their website www.shiesl.com/peace
"A new global ethical framework
is needed to guide our decisions and actions ensuring the common good. Use the
Earth Charter as an instrument to understand and achieve a more sustainable
future; think globally and act locally to express unity in diversity!”
www.earthcharter.org" - info@earthcharter.org
Islamabad, Pakistan, 2 September - In recognition of
the leadership and commitment to polio eradication by the government of
Pakistan, Rotary today presented President Pervez Musharraf with the Polio
Eradication Champion Award.
Abdul Haiy Khan, Rotary's National PolioPlus Chairman
for Pakistan, presented the award to President Musharraf at the Secretariat of
the Chief Executive during the launch ceremony of the national immunization day
(NID). Within the next few days, approximately 30 million Pakistani children
under the age of five will be vaccinated against polio.
As one of the 10 remaining polio-endemic countries,
Pakistan has made steady progress toward eradicating polio in the last two
years. Cases in Pakistan have been reduced to 116 in 2001, down from 199 cases
in 2000 and 558 in 1999.
The award is in special recognition of President
Musharraf's efforts to strengthen the Federal and provincial authorities and to
ensure that sufficient government funds are available at levels that will
support community mobilization during NIDs. (…) In addition to thousands of
hours of local volunteer service provided by the nearly 2,000 Rotary club
members in Pakistan, Rotary has provided over US$13 million in support of polio
eradication efforts in Pakistan.
Rotary's Polio Eradication Champion Award was
established in 1995 to acknowledge world leaders who have made outstanding
contributions toward the goal of global polio eradication by 2005. (…)
Bangui, 30 August - The United
Nations Population Fund has agreed to finance the Central African Republic's
(CAR) US $5.5-million project on family welfare and reproductive health.
In a departure from past
practice, the money would be disbursed directly to women's NGOs rather than to
the government, the agency's official in charge of programmes concerning
population and development, Adam Ahmat, told IRIN on Thursday.
Under the agreement, signed on
Wednesday in the CAR capital, Bangui, doctors to be sent by the agency to urban
and rural hospitals will try to prevent mother-to-child HIV infection. The
agency will also provide counselling. Ahmat noted that at least 14 percent of
pregnant women in the country were HIV-positive.
In addition, the agency will
carry out anti-AIDS campaigns directed at the youth. This will be done through
appropriate programmes in primary schools and seminars for adults. The UN will
support projects aimed at promoting gender equality, including efforts to
eradicate harmful practices such as female circumcision. (…)
"This is a step in the right
direction, but new measures are needed and expected," UN drug control
office chief says
Vienna, 27 August - The
first-ever comprehensive opium poppy survey for Myanmar indicates
the production of about 828 metric tons of opium in 2002, which is less than
the estimated production in the previous year.
"This decline is a step
in the right direction. There is the evidence that the government is aware of
the damage caused to the country by opium cultivation. New measures are needed
and expected," said Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the UN
Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP), introducing the survey
results in Vienna today.
The Myanmar Opium Survey is
the first to be released in the 2002 series of ODCCP surveys on opium
cultivation in the three leading opium producing countries in the world.
Surveys on Afghanistan and Laos will be released in mid-September. (…)
http://www.undcp.org/odccp/press_release_2002-08-27_1.html
23 August - With almost half
of the country's population using public transport, South African commuters
have become a large mobile audience for interactive HIV/AIDS prevention
campaigns.
According to a study conducted
by the Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE), the
commonly held assumption that South Africans have not responded to HIV/AIDS
prevention campaigns is incorrect. People have started to change their sexual
behaviour, partly as a result of education campaigns run on the public
transport system.
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=1417
23 August Key NGOs in the
Republic of Congo (ROC) have stepped up outreach and education drives to combat
the spread of HIV/AIDS in the impoverished central African country.
The Association Panafricaine
Thomas Sankara (APTS) leads neighbourhood campaigns against AIDS. The group
uses trained outreach officers to inform and educate youth against the spread
of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=1419
Geneva, August 22 - The World
Health Organization and the World Trade Organization Secretariat published
today a joint study of the relationship between trade rules and public health.
The 171-page study WTO Agreements and Public Health explains how WTO Agreements
relate to different aspects of health policies. It is meant to give a better
insight into key issues for those who develop, communicate or debate policy
issues related to trade and health. The study covers areas such as drugs and
intellectual property rights, food safety, tobacco and many other issues which
have been subject to passionate debate. In this joint effort, the first of its
kind, WHO and the WTO Secretariat endeavour to set out the facts. (…)
The study explains that
countries have the right to take measures to restrict imports or exports of
products when this is necessary to protect the health of humans, animals or
plants. When liberalizing services, they retain the right to regulate in order
to meet national policy objectives, in areas such as health. Eight specific
health issues are covered - infectious disease control, food safety, tobacco,
environment, access to drugs, health services, food security as well as some
emerging issues, such as biotechnology – and, in each case, examples of
challenges and opportunities in implementing coherent trade and health policies
are provided. (…)
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/releases/who64/en/
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Report
finds NGOs and community based organizations can work together to jumpstart and
sustain new energy enterprises
Johannesburg, South Africa, 30
August - A report jointly released today by the United Nations Foundation and
the UN Environment Program (UNEP), at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development details how an innovative approach is bringing affordable, clean,
and efficient energy technology to the rural communities in Africa, Brazil and
China.
Many of the world's poorest
communities still rely on traditional forms of energy, mostly woodfuels, dung
and crop wastes. These energy resources are often expensive, inefficient, and
damaging to the health of humans and the environment. The resulting pollution
is estimated to cost $150 ? $750 billion per year globally. (…)
The report, "Open for
Business: Entrepreneurs, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development,"
details the findings of the $8.6 million partnership between the UN Foundation
and the UNEP. Their partnership, the Rural Energy Enterprise Development
initiative, or REED with U.S. non-profit clean energy investor E+Co is
currently being applied in Brazil, China and five African countries to provide
clean energy as a basis for long-term, sustainable development.
These
organizations work with E+Co locally to deliver the business development
services new entrepreneurs need to start their new enterprises and succeed. In
Africa, these include businesses offering energy efficient cook stoves,
windpump repair services, the supply and service of solar home systems and
energy efficiency services.
30 August - Along with
emissions from power plants, pollution from vehicles is the major air-pollution
culprit. But that could change if cars ran on sugar, as a team of
scientists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison has proposed. In a
paper published in yesterday's edition of the journal Nature, the scientists
detailed a technique for breaking down a glucose solution into hydrogen and
carbon dioxide. The hydrogen would then be pumped into a fuel cell that
would power a car or truck, and the carbon dioxide would be released into the
atmosphere. That might sound like a recipe for more global warming, but
the scientists say the process does not produce any more CO2 than would be
released into the air as the sugar sources biodegraded naturally. The
process is still in the early research stages, but its implications are
potentially huge as the automotive industry seeks out clean, renewable energy
sources.
http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=426
Vienna, 30 August - Energy
Ministers and high-level delegations from the IAEA's 134 countries will come
together on 16-20 September for the 46th Regular Session of the IAEA
General Conference at the Austria Centre in Vienna. A wide range of issues will
be addressed in the areas of nuclear security, safeguards, safety and nuclear
science and technology. Media planning to cover the General Conference are
requested to fill in the accreditation form, which is available on-line at http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/About/Policy/GC/gcAccredit.shtml. (…)
This year's parallel Scientific Forum will focus on three issues: "Nuclear Power - Life Cycle Management; Managing Nuclear Knowledge, and Nuclear Security." The Forum will be held on 17-18 September in Room C at the Austria Centre. The Scientific Forum Agenda is on-line at:
http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Meetings/2002/gc02sfpr.pdf. (…)
http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Press/P_release/2002/med-advise_024.shtml
Activists applaud commitment
and steps towards Zero Waste at Earth Summit
Johannesburg, South Africa, 27
August - The United Nations, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)
Civil Society Secretariat, and the South African Government are together
implementing huge steps towards designing waste out of the system of the 2002
Earth Summit Civil Society Global Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa (August
19-September 4). At the "Zero Waste, Not Incineration Forum" on 27
August, activists voiced hopes that the waste reduction systems would be
implemented as planned by the Global Forum management, whose targets include:
reduce total potential waste by 80 to 90%; reduce water and energy consumption
by 20%; zero waste to incinerators. (…)
Earthlife Africa (Johannesburg
Branch), with the support of GAIA, the Global Alliance for Incinerator
Alternatives, has been working to design waste out of the Earth Summit, and
reuse, recycle and compost as many discards as possible. Zero Waste refers to a
range of policies and practices designed to achieve a sustainable use of
materials and the minimum of waste discarded.
Earthlife Africa is a
volunteer driven South African organization that has been active on environmental
and social issues since 1988. GAIA is an international alliance working on
waste reduction, with over 265 members in more than 55 countries.
World's
largest tropical forest park created in the Amazon, with WWF help
Brasilia, Brazil, 23 August –
WWF welcomes the creation of Tumucumaque National Park, in the Amazon - the
world's largest tropical forest protected area - for the implementation of
which the conservation organization will provide US$1 million.
Located in the Brazilian state
of Amapá, and bordering French Guyana and Suriname, Tumucumaque National Park
covers 38,867 square kilometres (almost the size of Switzerland) and will
ensure full protection of an important part of the Amazon Forest. Many species live there that are found
nowhere else in the world, especially fish and aquatic birds, as do jaguars,
numerous primates, sloths, paccas and agoutis, freshwater turtles and the harpy
eagle.
The borders of the park were
strategically designed to protect its high biodiversity and were conceived by
WWF-Brazil and Ibama (the Brazilian environmental agency), under the guidance
of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment.
(…)
http://www.panda.org/news/press/news.cfm?id=3108
New York, September 11: Invitation to a Celebration of Remembrance and Hope
The Interfaith Center of New
York and The Temple of Understanding request your presence at the Annual
Interfaith Service of Commitment to the Work of the United Nations, a
celebration of remembrance and hope dedicated to the victims of violence
everywhere, to mark the opening of the 57th Session of the United Nations
General Assembly
Special guests include: the
President of the General Assembly Mr. Jan Kavan; Secretary-General Kofi Annan
and Mrs. Nane Annan; September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
at 8:30 a.m., Btholomew's Church, Park Ave. at 51st Street Please be seated by
8:15 AM. The service will conclude before 10 AM.
For security reasons, no
packages will be allowed in the church.
The Interfaith Center of New
York, 40 East 30th Street, New York, NY 10016, 212-685-4242
Pause
The World Day – September 2
New York, 28 August - We are asking the entire
world to Pause. This special day is entitled "Pause the World"
and will be observed on September 2. The date is significant because it
will bring recognition to the United Nations General Assembly at the World
Summit for Sustainable Development (Rio+10), to be held in Johannesburg, South
Africa on this date, and the Earth Charter, Values and Principles: 1.
Respect and Care for the Community of Life 2. Ecological Integrity 3.
Social and Economic Justice 4. Democracy,
Nonviolence and Peace.
9/2/02 is also Labor Day in
America (USA is supposed to Pause!). This date will now become the day
for our annual event, we plan a concert later in the month or early
October. An important way to participate in Pause The World Day is to
stop what you normally do and give attention to humankind, the animal kingdom,
the environment and for peace on Mother Earth. Please join us in celebrating
this day, endorse the Earth Charter (www.earthcharter.org), partake in activities that are being
organized, or do your own thing to show your love for the Earth and our fellow
brothers, sisters, animals and all living things. (…)
The LIVE Mega concert in NY
Central Park being planed late September early October will feature the
contribution of famous singers, actors and entertainers from many countries.
20 August - An innovative UNDP
initiative has worked for the past five years help the media in Pakistan
examine the way women are portrayed and develop more balanced and positive
approaches. The project has trained 400 media professionals, helping them
develop ways to present women in Pakistan in a new light in programmes aired by
the Pakistan Television Corporation and ensure that
all the corporation's productions are sensitive to the issue of gender and
avoid reinforcing biases against women.
The media in Pakistan often
portray both women and men in ways that reinforce prejudices, researchers have
found. Women are frequently presented as weak, dependent and uninformed, while
men are usually portrayed as aggressive, manipulative and insensitive.
The project has established a
system to monitor how women are portrayed on television. It commissions TV
productions on gender issues, has helped integrated gender issues into
television training curricula and has brought together media professionals to
examine and address issues concerning gender and media. The initiative is also
helping organize regional and international film festivals dealing with gender
themes. (…)
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro
Matsuura, on the occasion of International Literacy Day, 8 September 2002
International Literacy Day is
an occasion to celebrate the importance of literacy to individuals, communities
and societies everywhere and to affirm the centrality of literacy within all
struggles for sustainable human development. It is also an opportunity to send
a message of hope and encouragement to the estimated 862 million adults, of
whom about two-thirds are women, whose illiteracy currently excludes them from
full participation in society. (…)
As we make the final
preparations for the United Nations Literacy Decade, we must draw upon the
lessons of experience. We know, for example, that one size does not fit all:
instead of standardized programmes, more customized approaches are needed. We
know that women and men have different needs and that these differences must be
reflected in learning content and processes. We know that learning is most
fruitful when it is an enjoyable experience undertaken with others. We also
know that literacy is best acquired in connection with practical purposes and
uses, such as building livelihoods, solving problems, and accessing new
information - in short, ways in which people empower and transform themselves
and their society.
Today, it is increasingly
recognized that there are multiple 'literacies' which are diverse, have many
dimensions and are learned in different ways. In all cases, however, each kind
of literacy must lead to sustainable and meaningful use - this must be our goal
for the forthcoming Literacy Decade. (…) The complete message is available at
the site:
http://www.unesco.org/bpi/eng/messages/2002/02-16e.shtml
World Day of Planetary Ethics:
September 22/23
September 22/23, the first
spring day in the southern hemisphere, marks the second annual “World Day of
Planetary Ethics.” On this special day, people from cultures and nations
planet-wide will unite under the banner of the Club of Budapest’s “Planetary
Vision Festival” to celebrate a new ethics for humanity through local dialogues
and positive actions for a sustainable and peaceful future. (See
www.PlanetaryVision.net).
The central theme of this
World Day is “You Can Change the World”, in support of the global initiative
being launched by the international Club of Budapest (www.club-of-budapest.org). A major
program under this initiative, “Best Practice Projects for a Sustainable
World”, will annually recognize the planet’s most ecologically and socially
sustainable projects.
Planetary Vision Festival 2002
is an annual series of global events and programs celebrating our new planetary
consciousness and its related ethics and actions.
IFLAC: Peace Poetry and
Conflict Resolution – Haifa, Israel, 22 September
IFLAC:
The International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace, will be
holding a Peace Poetry and Conflict Resolution seminar on September 22.
It will be attended by Israeli and Palestinian poets, as well as Peace
Poets and Peace Researchers from several other nations.
Among
the poets that will be participating and will read their poems are:
Ada Aharoni, George Farah, Judith Zilberstein, Mahmoud Zeidan, and others.
http://tx.technion.ac.il/~ada/home.html
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