Economic and Social Council holds second session in Geneva; impact of changes in Eastern Europe discussed.

Economic and Social Council holds second session in Geneva 

In a session devoid of confrontation and marked by "a greater convergence of views and a pragmatic approach", according to Council President C.R. Ghrekhan of India, the Council adopted 171 resolutions and decisions on subjects ranging from transnational corporations and African fisheries to acquired immunodeficiency syndrom (AIDS) and the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Many had been previously discussed and approved by Council subsidiary bodies such as the Commission on Human Rights and the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control. That allowed the Council to focus a great deal of time and energy on a few key issues.

The state of the world economy, recent UN efforts to regain momentum for development in the third world and the impact on developing countries of the transition in Eastern and Central Europe were among those that commanded the widest attention.

The early resolution of the debt problem and the reversal of negative trends in the transfer of resources were also recognized as major issues.

Other key issues discussed were the centrality of the human factor in development, the protection of the environment as a necessary element of sustained development and the role of the UN system in the world of the 1990s and, in this context, the revitalization of the Council itself.

In a report, Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar recommended that the Council "provide more analytical and more focused documentation", and give "more professional and functional consideration to issues on its agenda".

"Extraordinary

developments..."

In the opening address, Mr. Perez de Cuellar told the Council that "the extraordinary developments in the political arena that have dramatically narrowed the ideological differences between East and West have the potential for helping to achieve greater harmony in international economic and social relations".

He urged the body to see how "this renewed political will can make a positive contribution to the elaboration of the international development strategy for the fourth United Nations development decade". The Secretary-General also stressed that the external debt of developing countries--one of the most crucial issues of the 1980s for them--now stood at $1,200 billion, a crippling weight on their economies.

The Council reviewed the conclusions of the World Economic Survey 1990, an annual analysis of the global economic situation, in its traditional debate on international economic and social policy. This survey examined the external economic factors and the social situation in the developing countries, inflation, stabilization and economic reform in China, Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and Viet Nam. It also analysed the factors behind the prolonged economic expansion in the developed market economies.

In summarizing the debate, Council President Gharekhan said that developing countries, while welcoming the changes in Eastern Europe, were apprehensive about the diversion of development resources to that region. Industrialized countries, on the other hand, reiterated their commitment to economic and technical cooperation with the South.

Against apartheid

The Council condemned those transnational corporations that continued to collaborate with the South African regime, in defiance of UN resolutions and international public opinion. It also condemned the decision of the United Kingdom to lift unilaterally the ban of the Commission of the European Communities on new investments in South Africa and called on that country to rescind its decision without delay.

Food aid to Palestinians

The World Food Programme was requested to provide food assistance to the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory. The Secretary-General was asked to prepare a report on Israeli land and water policies in the occupied Palestinian and other Arab territories.

Drug abuse control

A report by the Secretary-General on the UN system-wide action plan on drug abuse control was also reviewed by the Council. The report dealt with the UN Fund for Drug Abuse Control and the role of the UN system's drug control units.

In 1989, the Fund implemented 115 projects in 50 countries, with a budget of $62 million divided in the following manner:

* 34 percent to reduce illicit supply;

* 33 per cent to reduce illicit demand;

* 25 per cent to strengthen control measures; and

* 0.8 per cent to research.

The Council affirmed the need for the full implementation of the Global Programme of Action on international co-operation against illicit production, supply, demand, trafficking and distribution of narcotic drugs.

Capital punishment 

The Council reviewed a report of the Secretary-General on capital punishment, the latest in a series of five-year reports. The report analyses the use of and trends in capital punishment since 1984, as well as legal changes and other initiatives on the subject. In the period under review, an increasing number of countries had abolished capital punishment. Other countries had adopted a policy of reducing the number of capital offences or had reported not imposing death sentences on offenders.

Chernobyl nuclear

accident

Gerald Hinteregger, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), reported on the Chernobyl accident, listing the aid received thus far from agencies and programmes.

M'Hamed Essaafi, United Nations Disaster Relief Co-ordinator, told the Council that despite the post-accident decontamination and agro-chemical and land improvement operations, the situation in the Chernobyl disaster are remained serious. In the Byelorussian SSR alone, radioactive contamination of varying density had occurred in a territory inhabited by 2.2 million persons and including 27 cities and towns.

The Council urgently appealed to all Member States and the United Nations system to continue or initiate efforts to mitigate the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident.

Screw-worms, locusts,

grasshopper infestations

The Council welcomed the establishment by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) of the Screw-worm Emergency Centre for North Africa to co-ordinate an eradication campaign. FAO was urged to strengthen its campaign to eliminate the screw-worm from North Africa and the Mediterranean parts of Europe and the Near East, through the sterile insect technique, the only available and proven eradication method.

FAO was also asked to help countries control the desert locust and to reinforce existing structures and current technologies which contribute to preventive control, such as ARTEMIS (Africa Real Time Environment Monitoring using Imaging Satellites).

Fisheries in Africa

African States were urged to develop join research programmes to evaluate and monitor shared fishery stocks. The goal was to better integrate the fishery and aquaculture sector into national economies. An intra-african information network on fishing vessels operating illegally should be set up and, taking due account of international law, legal measures to exclude such vessels should be proposed. In other economic-related action, the Council urged all Governments to implement the guidelines for consumer protection and to co-ordinate consumer protection policies and programmes.

Economic and

Humanitarian assistance

The Council called on all States to contribute to the reconstruction of Yemen and to continue assistance to displaced persons in the Sudan through Operation Lifeline Sudan.

Expressing its awareness of the deteriorating socio-economic conditions of the Lebanese people and the magnitude of their unmet needs, the Council appealed for "continued and intensified mobilization of all possible assistance to the government of Lebanon in its reconstruction and development efforts'.

The Government of Iran should also receive all possible assistance for the reconstruction of the stricken areas in northern Iran.