Mit - Index

Mit - SINFO 2008 04 - 8 - Index

European Affairs State Secretary Janez LenarËiË was endorsed
by the 56 members of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) to win the post of its Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
LenarËiË, who is to take the post on 1 July, was accepted over
five candidates from Belgium, Italy, Greece, Switzerland and
Turkey. The silent procedure for his appointment ran out at noon
on Wednesday and by that time none of the OSCE members
opposed his appointment, the office added.
LenarËiË has already served as the head of the Slovenian mission
to OSCE between 2003 and 2006, and chaired its Permanent
Council during Slovenia 2005 stint at the helm of the organisation.
He will replace Austria's Christian Strohal.
LenarËiË is to continue performing his duties as European Affairs
State Secretary until the end of Slovenia's six-month stint at the
helm of the EU. Thereafter he will assume the highest-ranked
post that any Slovenian had so far held in the OSCE.
In presenting his bid, LenarËiË said that ODIHR must remain
impartial and cannot serve as a tool in the hands of an individual
participating country.
≈It is and can only be the tool of the OSCE as a whole. It can
only fulfill its mission when it acts professionally and with equal
determination whenever and wherever in the OSCE region its
mandate requires.«
≈ODIHR should be fully responsible and cannot be ambivalent
in relation to its mandate and its mission. It cannot and must not
be ambivalent in the face of human rights violations, erosion of
democracy or of the rule of law,« stressed LenarËiË.
tHE uNItED NatIoNS SEcurIty
couNcIl oN tHE DaNGErS of Small
armS aND lIGHt wEaPoNS
On May 1st, he UN Security Council held a debate on the issue of
small arms and light weapons, which each year kill approximately
half a million people across the world. Among more than 50
other speakers, the Slovenian UN Ambassador, Sanja ©tiglic,
spoke on behalf of the European Union. In the opening session,
Hannelore Hoppe, Deputy to the High Representative for
Disarmament Affairs, presented the UN Secretary-General's
first-ever report on small arms and light weapons to the Security
Council. The report finds that these types of weapons are used
in most global conflicts, including civil wars, terrorism, organized
crime and criminal warfare. The reports emphasize the need
for co-operation between the Security Council and the UN
General Assembly to end the flow of arms to conflict regions.
“We have all witnessed how these weapons have been used to
maim and kill; plunder and rape; install fear and insecurity; block
humanitarian aid; hold communities to ransom; destroy the social
fabric of entire countries; and how their excessive accumulation
and misuse has hindered stability and development in every
way possible,” said Hoppe. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon's
report offers some suggestions for more efficient work, such as
connecting individual economic embargoes with arms trade and
disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, and the greater
use of Interpol capabilities, among others.
The Slovenian Ambassador stated that the vast majority of global
conflicts are fuelled by easy access to small arms and light weapons.
The EU believes hat states must focus on strengthening physical
safety and improving the management of arms stocks, destroying
arms surpluses, marking and tracing arms, strengthening export
controls and the control of intermediary activities within the
arms trade. It is especially important that a stop be put to
the black market in arms. According to the Ambassador, the
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2WEEKLYreport
European Union, in December 2005, developed a strategy for
the fight against illicit arms and stockpiling of small arms and
light weapons. The EU is also the largest financial supporter of
a program for the destruction of arms in Africa and continues
to be prepared to assist states, regions and non-governmental
organizations with respect to all aspects of the fight against the
illicit trade and misuse of this weaponry. Most other speakers
emphasized the need for co-operation among states and
various organizations that are involved with these issues. Some
speakers also emphasized the lack of international legally binding
agreements, and expressed the hope that progress in this area
would be made at the Review Conference on the Implementation
of the Program of Action taking place in July.
uN commISSIoN oN SuStaINablE
DEvEloPmENt oN fooD SHortaGE
On 6 May the two-week session of the Commission on
Sustainable Development began in the UN Headquarters in New
York. Among other issues, the session also discussed the current
food shortage and high global food prices. The Slovene Minister
of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Iztok Jarc, participated in part
of the session.
The session lasted until 16 May, when the high-level final meeting,
where fifty ministers participated, took place. Representatives of
non-governmental organisations and civil society also participated
in the event. The participants launched a two-year cycle of
seeking a solution to the global food supply issue and connected
problems in the field of agriculture, land use, rural development,
desertification and drought. All these issues are essential for
reaching development goals from the Millennium Declaration.
At the beginning of the session the UN Under-Secretary-General
for Economic and Social Affairs, Sha Zukang, said that the
international community has become aware of the current food
crisis threatening a major part of humankind.
As Mr Sha said, the source of the problem is the slow-down in
food production in the 1970s and at the same time the rising
need for food. He called for long-term planning and analysis in
order to avoid such a crisis in the future.
The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said that the world
could face the current crisis, as we have resources as well as
knowledge. He said, "We should consider this not only as a
problem, but also an opportunity to eliminate the roots of the
problem for the poorest people in the world; 70 per cent of them
are small farmers. The Permanent Representative of Slovenia
to the United Nations, Sanja ©tiglic, said at the opening of the
session that agriculture and rural development are significant
developmental issues that the EU is dealing with.
At the end of the session a declaration was adopted to support
the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation adopted by world
leaders in 2003.
Challenges in the field of agriculture and use of land are becoming
even greater due to soil degradation, drought, and desertification,
especially in Africa. The International Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) announced that by 2020 fifty million people will be
pushed into hunger because of climate changes. Although food
production somewhere in higher locations could grow due to
high temperatures, it will cause production to decrease in other
parts; in the tropical areas of Africa and Asia, for example, where
by 2050, there will be an additional 1.8 billion people to feed.
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