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CONTENTS
Newsletter 5This newsletter contains news about the United Nations and Official Publications Collections, UN press releases and a recommended web site. It also includes a list of latest acquisitions to the collections in the areas of: ageing, Australian government, census information, children, climate change, conservation, development, drugs and alcohol, education, environment, foreign employment policy, genetic engineering, good governance, health, information technology, internal displacement, New Zealand government, Pacific, Privy Council, sustainable consumption/development, trade, Treaty of Waitangi, women. New United Nations RoomDue to seismic restructuring work that is being carried out in the Rankine Brown building, the United Nations room has moved into new accommodation. You can still find us on Level 1, we now occupy the harbourside area. The level 1 serials collection is now located between the new room and the official publications collection. Some of the UN docs have been moved temporarily off site but we should still be able to fulfil most reference requests. Please feel invited to come and visit the new room. Website of the monthThis month's website is from the University of Hawaii's Pacific Collection: http://libweb.hawaii.edu/libdept/pacific/ This site gives information about the wonderful Pacific Collection at Hawaii and also pulls together many useful internet resources pertaining to the region. New Research Aid - PeackeepingA new bibliography on UN Intervention and Peacekeeping has been added to our Research Aids pages. United Nations Press ReleasesSecurity Council Informed Iraq will Accept Resolution 1441 (13 November 2002)The Security Council President, Ambassador Zhang Yishan of China, told reporters this morning that he had spoken to the Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad al-Douri. According to Zhang, the Iraqi ambassador said that Iraq had decided to accept Security Council resolution 1441 and it welcomes inspectors to come back to Iraq. Non-aligned nations request open Security Council Debate on Iraq. 12 OctoberA group of non-aligned nations has requested an emergency open debate on Iraq in the UN Security Council, saying that it is imperative the 15 member body hear the views of the wider UN membership before it adopts any proposed resolution. State of Food Insecurity in the World 2002Chronic hunger affects nearly 850 million people worldwide, but progress in reducing malnourishment has virtually stopped, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation says in its annual report on global hunger published on the 17 October. According to "The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2002," between 1998-2000, an estimated 840 million people were found to be undernourished. Meanwhile, between 1990-92 and 1998-2000, the number of hungry people decreased by barely 2.5 million a year, signalling a drastic slow down compared to previous developments." The FAO report also highlights the particularly high mortality rate among children under five, while noting that life expectancy for youngsters is low. "In the worst-affected countries, a newborn child can look forward to an average of barely 38 years of healthy life, compared to over 70 years of life in the wealthy 24 nations." The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2002 can be downloaded at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y7352e/y7352e00.htm At UN Assembly, Fiji's leader urges end to shipment of radioactive materials in Pacific19 September - Addressing the General Assembly's high-level debate this morning, the Prime Minister of Fiji voiced strong opposition to the practice of transiting radioactive materials through the Pacific Ocean. The region's people are adamantly opposed to any actions exposing the Pacific to pollution, hazardous waste and the destructive effects of nuclear and missile tests, Laisenia Qarase said. "Recently, radioactive materials have been transhipped across the Pacific in arrogant defiance of our protests," he noted. "We are told there is no risk, but when we propose payment of compensation if there is an accident, there is instant rejection." The people of the Pacific, he stressed, "know too well about the legacy of radioactivity from nuclear weapons testing" and would demand accountability. The Prime Minister also called attention to environmental threats facing low-lying atolls. "Rising sea levels caused by global warming will lead to the disappearance of some islands," he said, warning that in the future, environmental refugees from Oceania may be forced to seek sanctuary elsewhere. He urged countries that have not done so to ratify the legally binding Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. "Will you display the courage, the generosity and largeness of spirit the world needs from you?" he asked them. "Will you join fully in saving Earth from the gross abuse and destruction of its resources?" Switzerland admitted to the UN as 190th memberDuring a ceremony to raise the Swiss flag outside the UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary General, Kofi Annan, praised Switzerland for embodying what the UN stands for - a peaceful and multicultural society built on strong democratic traditions - and noted the country's active and generous participation in the wider UN family. ... And Timor-Leste is the 191stThree years after the Timorese people voted to begin the process of independence, the General Assembly voted on the 28th of September 2002 to admit the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, formerly East Timor, as the 191st Member State of the United Nations. Unsustainable consumption persists in North AmericaNorth America's gains in arresting environmental pollution and degradation have recently been eroded by choices related to consumption patterns, according to a report released today by the United Nations which calls on the region to accept more responsibility for protecting the natural world. The report is available at: http://www.na.unep.net/publications/NA/geo-na.php3 Senior UN official appointed next UN Human Rights CommissionerThe Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has nominated the UN's administrator who helped oversee East Timor's transition to independence to be the UN's next top human rights official. Following consultations with the chairmen of the five regional groups of member states, the SG informed the UN General Assembly of his intention to appoint Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil as the next UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Johannesburg summit reaches agreement on final action planConcluding negotiations that spanned nine months and three continents, delegates at the World Summit on Sustainable Development have reached agreement on the last remaining provisions of the action plan to be adopted at the conclusion of the conference, according to a senior UN official. "This Plan of Implementation provides us with everything we need to make sustainable development happen over the next several years", Nitin Desai, Secretary General of the Summit, said at a press briefing. "The test is whether governments, along with civil society and the private sector, can pursue the commitments that are in the document, and take actions that achieve measurable results." The Implementation Plan is of three expected outcomes of the Summit, along with a Political Declaration and the tangible partnership initiatives already announced. For the text of the Partnerships/Initiatives to Strengthen the Implementation of Agenda 21, visit: Farming plays a key role in climate change Farming plays a key role in climate change - both as one of the sources of the problem and as a recipient of its impacts, notes the State of Food and Agriculture Report 2002. In the special chapter on harvesting carbon sequestration through land use change, FAO says an estimated 80 percent of global carbon stocks are stored in soils or forests and that a considerable amount of the mineral originally contained in those areas has been released as a result of agricultural and forestry activites and deforestation. Latest AcquisitionsAgeing Census Information Statistics New Zealand. 2001 Census of Population and Dwellings: māori. Wellington: Statistics NZ. 2002. (d HA3031 C P 2001 M) Climate Change International Atomic Energy Agency. Transport, Energy and Climate Change. Paris, France: OECD, IES, 1997. (d QC981.8 C5 T772) Development Drugs and Alcohol Education Environment UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre. Technical Workbook on Environmental Management Tools for Decision Analysis. IETC Technical Publication Series, 14. Osaka, Shiga: UNEP Environmental Technology Centre, 2000. (dTD145 T255 14) UNEP, UNICEF and WHO. Children in the New Millennium: Environmental Impact on Health. [Nairobi]: UNEP, [New York]: UNICEF, [Geneva]: WHO, 2002. (d HQ767.9 C536 C1) van Ginkel, Hans (ed).Human Development and the Environment: Challenges for the United Nations in the New Millennium. Tokyo: United Nations Press, 2002. (d GF3 H918) Genetic Engineering Good Governance Health Internal Displacement Pacific Asian Development Bank. Vanuatu: Economic Performance and Challenges Ahead. Manila: Asian Development Bank, 2002. (d HC685 V283) United Nations Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs. Indicators of Sustainable Development: Guidelines and Methodologies. New York: United Nations, 2001. Trade Treaty of Waitangi Women United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Women in Indonesia: a Country Profile. New York: United Nations, 1998. (d HA1726 S797 14) |
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