Continued efforts made to improve coordination, respond to change.

With lively debate, fewer formal speeches, much reduced dispute and increased cooperation, the Economic and Social Council at its 1994 substantive session (27 June-29 July, New York), responded with effectiveness and efficiency to the call for change from the General Assembly.

The five-week meeting dealt expeditiously with a wide range of subjects, including humanitarian assistance, narcotics drugs, tropical diseases, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and operational activities, said Council President Richard Butler of Australia in concluding remarks.

As proof of its new streamlined efforts, the Council adopted 131 resolutions and decisions during the session, compared to 190 in 1993. The Council's pace had quickened by focusing on action and discussing each subject only once, wherever possible, he said.

A highlight of the session was an endorsement for establishing the joint and co-sponsored UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, to provide global leadership and an internationally coordinated response to the pandemic. In its resolution 1994/24, the Council stressed that the new Programme's activities at the country level should be given priority. The Joint Programme--which is co-sponsored by six UN organizations: UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO), the Programme's administrator--is expected to be fully operational by January 1996.

The Council also asked the General Assembly to consider designating 1998 the International Year of the Ocean (resolution 1994/48) and to proclaim the ten-year period beginning 1 January 1995 as the Decade for Human Rights Education (1994/255).

Four segments

During the 1994 session, the 54-member Council followed a new four-segment format, as called for by Assembly resolution 48/162 on further measures for the restructuring and revitalization of the UN in the economic, social and related fields. The Assembly decided that the Council's Economic and Social Committees would be subsumed into the plenary, and the substantive session would consist of four segments: high-level: coordination; operational activities; and a general segment covering mainly social, humanitarian and human rights questions, and economic and environmental questions.

A three-day high-level segment was convened from 27 to 29 June, where the first intergovernmental discussion of the Secretary-General's "An Agenda for Development" took place. A week-long expert review of the new document took place in June at the World Hearings on Development.

Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, introducing the report on 28 June, said that development had meaning only if it had a true spirit of concern for a fairer distribution of wealth. "Development is part of our duty to future generations", he told the high-level gathering. "No one here can say in good conscience that the world today meets all the requirements of this duty. For too large a portion of humanity, life is just a dead end, and the future is nothing but a gulf of despair." The fiftieth anniversary of the UN, he added, must provide "the occasion to rethink and reinvent our policy towards economic and social development".

Among priorities identified were the needs for: concentration on people rather than on capital goods, roads or bridges; and an action-oriented programme, based on a spirit of partnership, with due attention to national specificities.

"In essence there should be a people-centred approach to development, with more invested in their education, health and welfare", Mr. Butler told the press. The Council had agreed, he said, that the UN "must reach political agreement about the importance of the question of development and the need for greater commitment to it".

The high-level segment, addressed by 62 Member States, also included a one-day policy dialogue on important developments in the world economy between Council members and heads of multilateral financial and trade institutions.

Operational activities

The operational activities segment (30 June-7 July) focused on preparatory work for the triennial policy review of the UN operational activities for development, to be conducted in 1995.

Regarding future operational activities segments, the Council decided that a principal theme or themes will be determined for primary consideration, while up to one day of the segment will be devoted to an informal exchange of views with field level representatives of the UN development funds and programmes, as well as specialized agencies (1994/33).

By another decision, the high-level meeting of the segment in 199 5 would consider as a principal theme the implementation of the Programme of Action adopted by the international Conference on Population and Development. Other themes, including the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development, could also be considered (1994/293).

At the coordination segment (8-13 July), discussion focused on coordinating UN policies and activities, especially those related to science and technology for development, and international cooperation against the illicit production, sale, demand, traffic and distribution of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. Also considered was progress in the areas of humanitarian assistance and the struggle against malaria and diarrhoeal disease, particularly cholera.

On human rights. . .

Jose Ayala Lasso, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in his address to the Council on 15 July, said that creation of his post was "a dream almost as old as the United Nations". Member States had endowed his office with "unprecedented moral and political authority to express the voice of the moral conscience of the humankind", he said. He based his actions on three principles: cooperation at all levels; a comprehensive and integrated approach to the promotion of human rights: and the participation of all actors in programmes, plans and projects to promote human rights at the international, national and local levels.

The Council endorsed continued work on the elaboration of a draft declaration on the right and responsibility of individuals, groups and organs of society to promote and protect universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms (9941/11), and on a draft optional protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1994/250).

The Council also approved: a mandate extension for the Working Group investigating cases of arbitrary detention' convening of a third international workshop on national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights: enlarging the list of forensic experts to help international mechanisms in the field of human rights; creation of a monitoring mechanism to follow up on the question of the independence and impartiality of the judiciary; preparation of a report on the impunity of perpetrators of violations of human rights: and updating the list of states of emergency.

Expert seminars were to be organized on the human rights dimensions of population transfer and on specific economic, social and cultural rights. The Council also endorsed recommendations concerning seminars on extreme poverty and denial of human rights, as well as indigenous land rights and claims.

In another area, the Council approved appointment of a Special Representative to investigate the human rights situation in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, and a Special Rapporteur to establish direct contact with the authorities and people of Zaire.

Mandates were extended for Special Rapporteurs, Special Representatives and independent experts dealing with: the right to adequate housing; elimination of harmful traditional practices affecting the health of women and children: and the human rights situations in El Salvador, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Myanmar, and Cambodia.

On social developmment . . .

The Council asked the Secretary-General to continue to give high priority to monitoring world population trends and policies, and to work on a number of studies related to population issues (1994/2).

Stressing the importance of addressing the economic and social aspects of tobacco production and consumption, the Secretary-General was commended for acting promptly to establish a focal point for multisectoral collaboration on the issue within the UN Conference on Trade and Development, as requested in 1993 (1994/47).

In connection with the World Decade for Cultural Development (1988-1997), the Council invited States and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to integrate cultural factors into all endeavours aiming at social and economic development (1994/32).

The forty-ninth General Assembly was asked to adopt a resolution recognizing 1995 as the year commemorating the millennium of the Kyrgyz national epic--Manas--which is considered the source of the Kyrgyz language and literature, as well as the foundation of the cultural, moral, historical, social and religious traditions of the Kyrgyz people (1994/49).

On women, vulnerable groups . . .

The Council decided that the Commission on the Status of Women shall examine in 1995 the feasibility of introducing the right of petition through the preparation of an optional protocol to the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1994/7).

It approved the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on violence against women and reiterated the importance of maintaining the level of resources devoted to independent research and related training activities which are crucial to the situation of women.

The Secretary-General was urged to examine existing work practices within the UN system in order to remove direct or indirect discrimination against staff members with family responsibilities, as well as to further consider such issues as job sharing, flexible working hours, child-care arrangements, career-break schemes and access to training (1994/6).

The Council authorized establishment of an open-ended inter-sessional working group to elaborate guidelines for a possible draft optional protocol to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, on the sale of children, children prostitution and child pornography, as well as the basic measure needed for their prevention and eradication (1994/9).

The Special Rapporteur on the protection of cultural and intellectual property of indigenous people was asked to expand and update her study, with a view to elaborating draft principles on the protection of the heritage of indigenous people (1994/274). In addition, the Council approved establishment of a unit within the Centre for Human Rights to support activities related to indigenous people (1994/247).

On crime drug control . . .

The Council decided to transmit proposed guidelines on urban crime prevention to the Ninth UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, to be held from 24 April to 5 May 1995 in Tunisia (1994/20). The proposals include taking a local approach to the problems and implementing an integrated action plan involving authorities at all levels.

Acknowledging the sub played by organized transnational crime in illegal migrant smuggling activities in many parts of the world, the Council urged States to take prompt steps to frustrate the objectives and activities of those who organize such smuggling, thus protecting would-be migrants from exploitation and loss of life (1995/14).

The Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal justice was asked to act as a focal point for coordinating efforts to prevent and control organized transnational crime (1994/12). The Secretary-General was requested to cooperate closely with Member States, intergovernmental organizations and other entities to control the proceeds of crime (1994/13).

Member States were asked to give priority to projects on crime prevention and criminal justice (1994/22) and consider the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Expert Group on More Effective Forms of International Cooperation against Transnational Crime, including Environmental Crime (7-10 December 1993, Vienna), which call for sanctions to protect the environment (1994/15).

The Council stressed the need for further coordination and concerted action in translating into practice UN standards and norms in crime prevention and criminal justice (1994/18). The Secretary-General was asked to consistently consider the importance of crime prevention and criminal justice activities in the context of peacekeeping operations and humanitarian assistance in armed conflicts (1994/16) and to seek comments on the desirability of adopting UN minimum rules for the administration of criminal justice as drafted by an expert commission on the subject (1994/17).

The Council strongly recommended that the terms of reference of the Statute of the African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders be updated to enable it to respond effectively to the needs of the region (1994/21).

The Council approved establishment of an ad hoc intergovernmental advisory group and a working group on maritime cooperation related to drug control (1994/232). States were urged to encourage customs authorities to identify movements of illicit drugs, particularly before export and while in transit (1994/4).

The principles of simplicity and efficiency should be paramount in the compilation and dissemination of information on drugs and drug abuse, the Council recommended (1994/3). Criteria and procedures for the affiliation with the UN of institutes or centres and the establishment of UN subregional institutes in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice were adopted (1994/23).

On humanitarian assistance . . .

The Economic and Social Council endorsed the Yokohama Strategy for a Safer World, in particular, its Plan of Action adopted on 27 May by the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction, and decided to convene, not later than the year 2000, a second world conference on natural disaster reduction in order to carry out an overall review of the accomplishments of the Decade and map a strategy for continued disaster reduction activities into the twenty-first century (1994/31).

States were urged to participate in implementing programmes for the recovery and reconstruction of the areas and sectors affected by the cyclones and floods which struck Madagascar in early 1994 (1994/36). Non-Self-Governing Territories were encouraged to strengthen disaster preparedness and management institutions and policies (1994/37).

The Council appealed for intensified assistance to the Government of Lebanon in its reconstruction and development efforts (1994/35), and urged the international community to extend economic and social assistance to the Palestinian people, in cooperation with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, in order to assist in the development of the West Bank and Gaza (1994/29).

The Council called for further information on the rapid response coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance within the UN system and on the shortcomings in the functioning of the Central Emergency Revolving Fund, as well as corrective measures required, before taking action on those issues (1994/291).

On economic development . . .

The Council urged all G of Africa to continue to take measures for the sustained socio-economic development of the region (1994/38) and to recognize the vital importance of developing their information sector (1994/42). It appealed to partners in the operational activities for the development of Africa to consider the priorities assigned to the development of natural resources by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) 1994139). The Council supported efforts of the Commission to provide its Multinational Programming and Operational Centres with the required critical staff and non-staff resources (1994/40), and endorsed a plan of action for the coordination of the Second Industrial Development Decade for Africa and the Second Transport and Communications Decade for Africa (1994/41).

The Council decided that the Commission on Transnational Corporations should become a subsidiary of the Trade and Development Board and be renamed the Commission on International Investment and Transnational Corporations. The work of the reoriented Commission should include promoting an exchange of views and providing guidance to the Secretariat related to international investment, transnational corporations, and the creation of an enabling environment for private sector and enterprise development (1994/1).

On regional commissions . . .

The Council decided to readmit South Africa as a member of the ECA. In addition, it approved admission of Armenia into the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (1994/25) and amended that Commission's terms of reference to include Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands as members.

The Council recommended that the permanent headquarters of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia be relocated to Beirut, Lebanon (1994/43). It decided that the twenty-sixth session of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean should be held at San Jose, Costa Rica, in 1996 (1994/287).