**Questions and Answers
Question: Just a
question about this business again of the Pakistan Legislature asking
the UN for an investigation into the Bhutto killing. Do you have any
further information on how that process might work on the UN side
once/if you receive a letter?
Deputy Spokesperson: I saw the news item and I can say,
as I mentioned before the briefing, that no letter has been received, so
let us take it one step at a time.
Question: The Survivors Network of Those Abused by
Priests sent a letter to the UN today, calling on the UN to investigate
Pope Benedict’s role on sex crimes against children. They want the UN
to take action on the Pope’s refusal to release documents on these
cases, since the Pope had signed the Charter on the Protection of the
Rights of Children. Have you received this letter
Deputy Spokesperson:
Not that I know of.
Question: Once you
receive it, do you know if the SG will respond to it?
Deputy Spokesperson:
Let me check if such a letter has been received.
[The Deputy Spokesperson later said that no
such letter had been received.]
Question: As you quoted the
Secretary-General regarding the food crisis, which, as you said, could
mean seven years of loss in the fight against poverty worldwide. He also
said that it had larger political and security implications and that the
UN should take short-term as well as long-term measures. Has he seized
the Security Council with this crisis, since it has political and
security aspects, or does he intend to do so in the future?
Deputy Spokesperson: The statement
that he made today went to all Members of the United Nations, that is
all 192 Member States, so hopefully, the message is being heard loudly
and clearly. By the way, it was not the Secretary-General’s quote, it
was the World Bank’s President’s quote on the lost years.
Question: About the peacekeeper who
was killed in Haiti, is there any nationality?
Deputy Spokesperson: I don’t have
it here, but it may be contained in the press release from them, or I
will check for you.
[Later it was announced that the
peacekeeper’s nationality was Nigerian and that a Statement from the SG
was available upstairs.]
Question: On Zimbabwe: the UN is
already involved in Kenya and other places that are having election
problems. Is there any reaction from the Secretary-General on
Zimbabwe? Does he intend on Wednesday meeting…
Deputy Spokesperson: I have nothing
beyond the statement we issued on Friday on Zimbabwe. He is obviously
monitoring the situation very closely.
Question: Has the Secretary-General
received a formal request from the French Government concerning the
formation of an international naval protection force under UN mandate?
Deputy Spokesperson: I will check
for you.
[The Deputy Spokesperson later told the
reporter that no such request had been received.]
Question: On Kosovo, has the SG
heard from the Serbs regarding some claims in Carla del Ponte’s new book
regarding some 300 Serbs that went missing during the conflict and that
they may have been killed for their organs?
Deputy Spokesperson: No, I have not
seen anything like that.
Question: Does the UN have any
update on these peace talks with the Lord’s Resistance Army? There is
something where Chissano was quoted as saying that the talks maybe
falling apart. What is the status?
Deputy Spokesperson: On northern
Uganda, we have been doing our best to support the peace process and the
work of the Chief Mediator of the Government of Southern Sudan, and we
will continue to do so. After what happened, and this is what you
mentioned last week, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy Mr. Chissano
will be making contact with the key parties to assess the situation to
see what can be done. We were obviously expecting a different outcome.
We don’t have, as of yet, a full assessment of the situation. In the
best of cases, this will only be a temporary setback to the process, but
we cannot say at this point. And that is all I have on that. So with
that…
Question: Stephen Lewis, the former
UN Envoy on a variety of issues, gave a speech in New Orleans, very much
criticizing the UN, Mr. Ban and MONUC for not doing enough about sexual
violence in the Congo, for participating in a treaty with N Kunda that
did not really mention the issue. Is anybody within the Secretariat
aware of this speech by the former envoy, and what is the response to
it?
Deputy Spokesperson: The
Secretary-General, as I mentioned to you last week, did issue a report
to the Security Council very recently on the Democratic Republic of the
Congo and it does outline the various challenges that the UN is facing.
As for Mr. Lewis’ statement: as a former UN official, he is entitled to
express his opinion on the subject.
Briefing by the Spokesperson for the
General Assembly President
Good afternoon, good to see you all.
**General Assembly President in Qatar
General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim is
in Qatar on an official visit. Yesterday evening he was the keynote
speaker at the opening of the eighth Doha Forum on Democracy,
Development and Free Trade.
In Qatar he had bilateral meetings with the
Emir and also with the Prime Minister of Qatar. The discussions with
the two focused on the role of Qatar in the work of the United Nations,
especially as regards the activities of the General Assembly, as well as
on the priority issues of the sixty-second session. In particular they
addressed the preparatory process leading up to the review conference on
the implementation of the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for
Development to be held in Doha from 29 November to 2 December this year.
During the opening of the Doha Forum, the
President also met with some of the key dignitaries who took part in
that event, including the Prime Minister of Turkey and the Foreign
Minister of Israel.
In his statement to the Forum, the
President noted that globalization had further accentuated and
strengthened the nexus of relations between democracy, development and
free trade, increasing our mutual interdependence, the complexity and
density of relationships between our economies, societies, politics and
individuals; and the speed at which we need to face changes and interact
with each other. This had led to a proliferation of actors in the
international arena. Influential individuals, civil society groups,
think tanks, corporations and religious institutions operate
internationally and have created new social and economic networks.
The solutions to the global problems we
face today, such as climate change, terrorism and sustainable
development, could no longer be realized within a rigid international
system that puts the interests of States above all others. Therefore
the President called for a new kind of internationalism that puts the
well-being of the individual and communities at its centre. He called
for a change in attitude, a recognition that our shared goals demand
that we think and act not just on behalf of immediate concerns, but
strive for long-term stability and prosperity.
This is precisely why the United Nations
remains relevant and important, according to President Kerim, and why
the General Assembly is the pre-eminent global forum which should be
both a playing field and a catalyst for a new approach to work with each
other and deal with our common problems based on basic human values of
freedom, solidarity, equality, respect, tolerance and shared
responsibility.
He concluded by stressing that, in order to
take full advantage of the opportunities globalization offers and to
overcome the challenges we face, we must ensure that the responsibility
of all States, international institutions, as well as civil society and
the private sector, is to work together in solidarity to provide every
individual with equality of access to rights and opportunities.
**Informal Review Session on Financing
for Development
Member States will hold their next, the
fifth, informal review session devoted to the six chapters of the
Monterrey Consensus tomorrow and Wednesday. This will be focusing on
chapter IV which is on “Increasing international financial and technical
cooperation for development”.
The last informal review session is
scheduled for mid-May. The sessions are chaired by the Permanent
Representatives of Egypt and Norway as facilitators of the process. The
review sessions are an integral component of the preparatory process on
the road to the Review Conference in Doha from 29 November to 2
December. The summaries of the review sessions, some of them are
already up on the President’s website, will form the basis of the draft
outcome document that the General Assembly President is expected to
issue at the end of July.
You will see in the Journal that
there is also an informal consultation on “System-wide coherence”, set
for 17 April. That is a process that is led by the Permanent
Representatives of the United Republic of Tanzania and Ireland. This
upcoming meeting is going to be focusing on governance issues.
**Ad Hoc Committees of the Sixth
Committee (Legal)
The Ad Hoc Committee on Criminal
Accountability of UN Officials and Experts on Mission concluded its
week-long work on Friday adopting its report which includes the a
summary of discussions and a recommendation to the Sixth (Legal)
Committee of the General Assembly to set up a working group at the next
session, the sixty-third session, of the Assembly to continue
discussions on the legal issues concerning this topic.
The Ad Hoc Committee on Administration of
Justice is continuing its work until 24 April.
**The President’s Website
The website of the President has a new
addition.. There is a new letter out by the President sent to Member
States on the preparatory process for the review as regards the
Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, which is set of 10-11 June 2008.
The letter contains some background if you are preparing to cover that
event in more detail.
That is about all I have.
**Questions and Answers
Question: You quoted the President’s
speech in Qatar, saying that he called for new internationalism. Has
the President worked out in his mind or in writing what kind of
internationalism he is advocating. For example, would that cover new
international institutions?
Spokesperson: He is basically
thinking of radical reformation of the institutions that already exist.
And as regards the details, he has been advocating this idea of new
internationalism, a new culture of international relations, ever since
he took his Office on 18 September 2007. If you look at his website,
you will see there are a couple of speeches where this is somewhat
spelled out. The first one is the one that he delivered to the Carnegie
Council. He also talked to the Harvard Business School. Most recently,
he had an Op-ed in the Al-Hayat newspaper. Those give an idea of how he
is approaching this issue in a more flexible, fluid way, where the
individual is more at the centre, rather than States. It is more about
equilibrium of interests rather that balance of power. But I don’t want
to hijack this meeting and go into details, because I know that SRSG
Løj is here to give you a briefing, but we can certainly discuss this
further.
Thank you.
