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External sources (not reviewed)

Zimbabwe recommitted to relocate from its mine action centre to an areas where it will be easily accessible to all, to establish another demining squadron, to resurvey all known minefields and suspected hazardous areas, and, to continue with mine clearance and mine risk education.

These include: a deep-sea port being constructed on the Indian Ocean near the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe, and parallel road, high-speed rail, and oil and natural gas pipelines that will create an energy and trade corridor to China’s landlocked south west; the Kaladan multi-modal project that will create a transportation corridor between the Indian Ocean and India’s eastern seaboard and its landlocked north east; and the Dawei Development Project which, if completed according to plan, would include a large industrial estate and modern deep-sea port in the south, with road and rail links for transhipment of goods to Thailand and on to Vietnam, cutting several days off the sea route through the Straits of Malacca.

Gambia also reported that it continues in collaborate to deliver mine risk education in communities in the affected areas and has a well trained and fully equipped humanitarian demining team which is always ready to respond to any emergencies.

The Subcommittee considered that the work in the following areas should be continued in the biennium 2011-2012: classification of desensitized explosives and oxidizing solids; issues related to dust explosion hazards; corrosivity criteria (consideration of pitting corrosion and suitability of tests C.1 for solids); further alignment of the criteria in the Globally Harmonized System with that of the Model Regulations; editorial revision of the chapters addressing skin corrosion/irritation; assessment of water-activated toxicity; implementation issues; further improvement of annexes 1, 2 and 3 of the Globally Harmonized System; and development of additional guidance for the labelling of small packagings.

Several delegations commended the secretariat for documenting and sharing good practices and country experiences in eco-city development, promotion of public transportation, green buildings, 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle) strategies, sustainable urban planning, solid waste management, water supply, sewerage, participatory approaches to urban management, promotion of public-private partnerships and municipal finance.

During their visit, the Working Group found that the challenges faced by people of African descent in Portugal related mainly to their lack of recognition as a specific group in the national policy and legal framework; the lack of recognition of their positive contribution throughout history to the construction and development of the country; the lack of qualitative and quantitative disaggregated data by racial or ethnic origin; the existence of a circle of poverty, unequal access to education, public services, employment, as well as discrimination in the administration and functioning of the justice system; existence of racial profiling and police violence; underrepresentation in political and institutional decision-making processes, as well as the lack of special measures or affirmative action policies in Portugal for people of African descent or other minorities.

In the Medical Services Section, the establishment of 15 additional national posts (6 National Officers and 9 national General Service staff) is proposed, as the Section has over the past years expanded the services it provides, which include round-the-clock operation of the UNOCI headquarters clinic, which is now functioning at level I-plus rather than the previous level I; patients are followed up at their homes after discharge from level III hospitals; patients are regularly visited in the 11 level III hospitals in Abidjan and in Sector West and Sector East; doctors in the regional headquarters perform outreach activity by visiting remote offices twice a week; support is provided to the Government during important functions and to the United Nations country team as part of the United Nations integrated framework; and medical support is proposed to be provided eight hours a day at the logistics base in Koumassi as opposed to the current two hours a day.

Assistance focuses on (a) establishing legal and policy frameworks consistent with international standards and norms; (b) strengthening the capacity of domestic institutions, in particular anti-corruption bodies and criminal justice institutions, to effectively prevent and control corruption in an integrated and coordinated way; (c) enhancing integrity, accountability and transparency in public and private sectors, including the management of public resources; (d) supporting relevant Government institutions in international cooperation and the recovery of assets at the domestic and international levels; (e) development of strategic and thematic partnerships with members of the international community and United Nations system to ensure coherency in the delivery of technical assistance; and (f) supporting the establishment of networks and platforms for policy dialogue and peer learning among Member States at the regional and international levels.

Note to the Working Group The Working Group may wish to note that: (a) under option C in paragraph 1, the registry should have both numerical and name indexes and searchers should be able to search with one or the other indexing criterion; and (b) paragraph 4 has been inserted for the Working Group to consider the matter of the address of the grantor; and (c) the address of the grantor and secured creditor or its representative has to be part of the record, but not necessarily part of the identifier, except if there is a need for additional information to identify the secured creditor, its representative or the grantor.

Other suggested areas of priority attention included: climate change, disaster prevention and preparedness, minimizing biodiversity loss through sustainable management of resources, renewable energies, the formulation of national strategies in science and technology, the promotion of local and indigenous knowledge systems as well as improving the links between scientists and decision-makers.

His delegation requested the international community, as a matter of urgency: to take all the measures indicated in the conclusions and recommendations of the report contained in document A/64/339, including the imposition of sanctions on Israel if it failed to comply fully with all United Nations resolutions; to request Israel to allow the members of the Special Committee to enter the occupied territories in order to fulfil its mandate; and to require the Israeli Government to pay appropriate compensation for the damage it had inflicted on the Palestinians and the population of the occupied Syrian Golan.

Concrete follow-up initiatives have included the organization of specific training sessions with a view to stimulating decision- and policy-makers to enact the right of universal online access to public and government-held records, to identify and promote repositories of information and knowledge in the public domain and to make them accessible to all, as well as to undertake the preservation and digitization of public domain information held by governments.

Therefore, the Conference urges all States Parties possessing advanced biotechnology to adopt positive measures to promote technology transfer and international cooperation on an equal and non-discriminatory basis, particularly with countries less advanced in this field, while promoting the basic objectives of the Convention, as well as ensuring that the promulgation of science and technology is fully consistent with the peaceful object and purpose of the Convention.

Economic, social and cultural rights and fundamental freedoms introduced or strengthened under the new Constitution include, inter alia: the right to adequate, nutritious food and clean water; the right to adequate housing; the right to a good standard of health; adequate access to sewerage and electricity; the right to marriage and family; the right to education; the right to work; the right to strike; the right to enjoy a pension; the right to take part in cultural life; and the right to enjoy property.

Those efforts included encouraging universities to offer modules on space law; providing fellowships for graduate and postgraduate education in space law; assisting in the development of national space legislation and policy frameworks; organizing workshops, seminars and other specialized activities to promote greater understanding of space law; providing financial and technical support for legal research; preparing dedicated studies, papers and publications on space law; supporting space law moot court competitions; supporting the participation of young professionals in regional and international meetings relating to space law; providing for training and other opportunities to build experience; and supporting entities dedicated to the study of and research relating to space law.

The inordinate length of translation times, especially in cases of selfrepresented appellants, calls for greater explanation than suitable for a report of this size, but it can be said that efforts are under way to more effectively liaise with the supervisors in the Conference and Language Services Section on a continual basis in order to assess progress and determine the need for requesting prioritization of specific translations, and to readdress the internal requirement of the Conference and Language Services Section that the revision process for translation of a judgement must be accomplished as a whole, rather than volume by volume (which would allow for gradual release of translated portions).

Several delegations pointed out that private standards had a negative impact on export and economies in their countries, especially on small scale producers; they were difficult to implement; they were not based on science; their development was not open and transparent; there was no dispute settlement procedure for these standards; and claims stating that these standards were safer than public standards might mislead consumers.

In this regard, I wish to draw your attention to the following illegal actions perpetrated by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to reiterate the appeal of the Palestinian people and their leadership to the international community, including the Security Council, to uphold its legal obligations and responsibilities and to act forthwith to bring an end to this unlawful and dangerous situation and to salvage the prospects of realizing a just, comprehensive and lasting peace settlement by which, inter alia, the Palestinian people will realize their right to self-determination and freedom in their independent, sovereign, democratic, contiguous and viable State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the basis of the pre-1967 borders.

Algeria was encouraged by the measures and efforts already under way to promote the rights of vulnerable groups, especially children and women, and by the increased participation of women in the labour market.

The Executive Committee may wish to take note of the verification and progress reports on the implementation of the national CFC phase-out plan (NPP) for Argentina, and approve the annual implementation programme for 2008-2009 with a proviso requesting the Government of Argentina and UNIDO to ensure that future verification will include the country’s monitoring of its activities under the Agreement through the monitoring institutions defined in Appendix 5-A of the Agreement.

The Committee recommends that the Report continue to feature such elements as economic and social analysis of the impacts of disasters, descriptions of regional cooperation and analysis of the role of space applications and information and communications technology (ICT) in disaster risk reduction, in addition to new elements, such as (a) information on champions for disaster risk reduction, (b) social and psychological analysis, (c) coverage of community practices vis-à-vis global perspectives, (d) analysis of a possible linkage between the Hyogo Framework for Action and the Millennium Development Goals and (e) linkage to the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction.

The delegation of Nepal requested that the secretariat help least developed and landlocked countries to conduct analyses on key export and import products; introduce single windows and paperless trade and the promotion of public-private sector dialogue on the implementation of trade and transit facilitation measures; provide a platform to discuss issues of common concern, paying particular attention to least developed and landlocked countries; promote value chains for agricultural and forestry products, including under initiatives such as “one village one product” programmes; and disseminate information and provide capacity-building assistance on the certification of organic foods and sanitary and phytosanitary standards, accession to APTA and overall assistance in the formulation of appropriate trade and investment policies.

The Funding of this Agreement will not be modified on the basis of any future Executive Committee decision that may affect the funding of any other consumption sector projects or any other related activities in the Country.

The resolution to be adopted by the Security Council on the cessation of aggression and war against Gaza must reiterate the need for the political process to continue under genuine and effective international supervision in order to ensure that an independent Palestinian State will be created within the 1967 borders and with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital; that a just and agreed solution will be found to the issue of Palestinian refugees in accordance with General Assembly resolution 194 (III) of 1948; and that all detainees and prisoners will be released.

The Group reiterates its recommendation that UNOCI hire qualified customs consultants to provide a consistent monitoring capacity to its Integrated Embargo Monitoring Unit and to carry out physical inspections of cargoes based on a risk assessment strategy (see S/2010/179, para. 123), with a view to uncovering potential violations of the embargo on arms and related materiel.

The projects include analysis of and support for the adaptation of public websites, the training of both public- and private-sector professionals involved in the development and updating of those websites, the launching of innovative technological projects designed to develop tools and services facilitating maintenance of the level of accessibility required by law and the promotion of awareness in society of the importance of universal design as a means of guaranteeing nondiscriminatory access to the services of the information society.

The Office of Internal Audit will focus its outputs on evaluating and improving governance, risk management and control processes by ensuring that (a) it has a clear mandate linked to organizational objectives and is supported by an independent, objective and well-functioning management structure with approved annual work plans; (b) it secures and retains the right quantity and quality of human resources in a timely manner to execute its annual work plans and fulfil its mandate; and (c) it is effective and efficient in applying (i) audit and investigation methodologies, including the use of supporting tools, technology and knowledge management approaches; (ii) operational management practices, including divisional and engagement management and performance monitoring; and (iii) quality assurance and continuous improvement.