| Date | 25 October 1994 |
|---|---|
| Started | 15:00 |
| Ended | 18:30 |
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Agenda item 89 (continued)
Environment and sustainable development
(d) Elaboration of an international convention to combat desertification in those countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification, particularly in Africa
Report of the Secretary-General (A/49/477)
Note by the Secretary-General transmitting the reports of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (A/49/84 and Add.1 and Add.2)
Draft resolution (A/49/L.4)
Mr. Talpur (Pakistan)
At Rio de Janeiro, with the adoption of Agenda 21, we launched a historic process which led to the finalization of the convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Drought and/or Desertification. The culmination of this process at the Paris signing ceremony is a recognition, not only of the fact that the international community is fully conscious of the ravages caused by drought and desertification, but also of its commitment to deal with this problem.
This is no longer a problem affecting a few countries which are left to cope with it on their own, but one of global dimensions. The international community, through this Convention, has undertaken the responsibility of dealing with the issue in a collective manner within an operational framework that calls for strengthened partnerships. The Convention is the first international and legally binding instrument deriving from the Rio Conference that links environment and development.
In countries affected by desertification and drought, the twin menace has grave socio-economic consequences. It affects every aspect of human activity. The Convention therefore recognizes that "desertification and drought affect sustainable development through their interrelationships with important social problems such as poverty, poor health and nutrition, lack of food security, and those arising from migration, displacement of persons and demographic dynamics".
The problem of desertification and the effects of drought affect an estimated 900 million people in over 80 countries. Within these countries, those touched are among the poorest and the most marginalized. These problems stunt economic growth and development and have in some cases led to the impoverishment of many a developing country.
Poverty has grave socio-economic implications and is destroying the present world order. Societies have begun to disintegrate as people compete for increasingly scarce resources. This scarcity of resources, especially of food stocks in the developing countries, has led to internal strife. Every year, one or two countries descend into internal political chaos because they can no longer provide sustenance and hope for their peoples. The spreading chaos can no longer be quarantined behind barbed wire to protect the islands of the privileged. The affluent countries are unable to insulate themselves. Failure to deal with desertification and the effects of drought accelerates the process of impoverishment of the people in dry lands and exacerbates the emergency cycle of famine and drought relief, thereby diverting resources badly needed for addressing long-term issues of development. The adoption of the Convention provides the international community with the tools it needs to deal with the issues of poverty and food scarcity, which are multiplied in countries afflicted with drought and desertification.
I have the honour to inform this Assembly that Pakistan signed the Convention at the Paris ceremony. The economy of Pakistan has an agricultural base and we are increasingly concerned at the rapid loss of good cultivable land to the expanding deserts. The loss of such land has brought immense misery to the small landowners and tillers. Families have been uprooted in the provinces of Sindh, Baluchistan, the North West Frontier and Punjab as land erosion sets in. In search of a livelihood, such farm-based families are forced to migrate to larger cities. To stop such human suffering is of critical importance to the Government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Every inch of agricultural land is precious to us and therefore our commitment to the Convention rises out of our own immediate concerns as do our efforts to work together with the international community to deal with this environmental problem, which directly affects the lives of millions of human beings.
The Convention and its annexes form a legally binding instrument. Signing it is therefore a declaration of intent on the part of all signatories that the obligations identified in the document are binding upon them.
The adoption of the Convention also reflects a tacit agreement that the African countries afflicted by these two problems require immediate attention. We stand by our brethren from Africa and sincerely hope that the implementation of the Convention will assist them in their efforts to alleviate some of their economic problems, which are the direct result of these twin problems.
The actions taken by the developing countries at the national level to implement the Convention not only require political commitment but also substantial new and additional resources. The increased resources are critical for developing countries to reclaim the land swallowed by deserts. According to estimates, nearly $22 billion will be required annually over the next 20 years to finance the rehabilitation of land and halt the decline in fertility. Such additional resources would be difficult to generate in the already financially strapped developing countries.
It is quite clear that adequate technology and know-how are critical for land reclamation. Such technology is available in the developed countries that have decades of experience with such problems. It is therefore essential that the developed countries step in with adequate new financial resources. Such resources should be made available to the signatories of the Convention that have reflected their commitment to dealing with this issue through national action but are unable to implement their programmes in this area due to a lack of resources.
In Pakistan we have attempted to undertake some remedial measures through reforestation projects and the construction of tube-wells. Within the context of our national conservation strategy, and linking it with the social action programme vigorously pursued by the present Government, we have launched land-reclamation projects and projects to support displaced and impoverished families. The problem is large and the resources of the Government limited. We look forward to any additional resources that can strengthen our hand in carrying out our efforts to combat the onslaught of desertification and land erosion.
We are convinced that the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office of the United Nations Development Programme can play an extremely important role in assisting the developing countries in the implementation of the Convention. That Office can provide advice to developing countries on acquiring the required expertise. We welcome the decision of the Administrator that following the adoption of the Convention the Office will now deal with the needs of all countries facing the problems of drought and desertification.
The arduous journey of drafting a legal document is over. We are now stepping into its implementation phase. In order to ensure that the Convention does not become just another well-bound document in the archives, political commitment at the highest level is essential. Implementation will require concrete national action with appropriate international support.
Mr. Maruyama (Japan)
--> -->
| <type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'> | Python 2.6.6: /usr/bin/python Fri May 24 10:18:18 2013 |
A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.
| /data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in |
| 194 if __name__ == "__main__": |
| 195 pathpart = os.getenv("PATH_INFO") |
| 196 maintrunk(pathpart) |
| 197 |
| 198 |
| maintrunk = <function maintrunk>, pathpart = '/generalassembly_49/meeting_44/highlight_A-RES-37-215' |
| /data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in maintrunk(pathpart='/generalassembly_49/meeting_44/highlight_A-RES-37-215') |
| 131 elif pagefunc == "gameeting": |
| 132 LogIncomingDB(hmap["docid"], hmap["gadice"] or "0", referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl) |
| 133 WriteHTML(hmap["htmlfile"], hmap["pdfinfo"], hmap["gadice"], hmap["highlightdoclink"]) |
| 134 elif pagefunc == "agendanumexpanded": |
| 135 LogIncomingDB(pagefunc, hmap["agendanum"], referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl) |
| global WriteHTML = <function WriteHTML>, hmap = {'docid': 'A-49-PV.44', 'gadice': '', 'gameeting': 44, 'gasession': 49, 'highlightdoclink': 'A-RES-37-215', 'htmlfile': '/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-49-PV.44.html', 'pagefunc': 'gameeting', 'pdfinfo': <pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>} |
| /home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteHTML(fhtml='/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-49-PV.44.html', pdfinfo=<pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>, gadice='', highlightth='A-RES-37-215') |
| 322 if dclass == "spoken": |
| 323 if not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice: |
| 324 WriteSpoken(gid, dtextmu, councilpresidentnation) |
| 325 elif dclass == "subheading": |
| 326 if agendagidcurrent and (not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice): |
| global WriteSpoken = <function WriteSpoken>, gid = u'pg003-bk01', dtextmu = u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Mr. Maru...hope that our efforts will meet with success.</p>', councilpresidentnation = None |
| /home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteSpoken(gid=u'pg003-bk01', dtext=u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Mr. Maru...hope that our efforts will meet with success.</p>', councilpresidentnation=None) |
| 69 print '</cite>' |
| 70 |
| 71 print dtext[mspek.end(0):] |
| 72 |
| 73 print '</div>' |
| dtext = u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Mr. Maru...hope that our efforts will meet with success.</p>', mspek = <_sre.SRE_Match object>, mspek.end = <built-in method end of _sre.SRE_Match object> |
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args =
('ascii', u'\n\t<p id="pg003-bk01-pa01">Last week in Paris, at...hope that our efforts will meet with success.</p>', 623, 624, 'ordinal not in range(128)')
encoding =
'ascii'
end =
624
message =
''
object =
u'\n\t<p id="pg003-bk01-pa01">Last week in Paris, at...hope that our efforts will meet with success.</p>'
reason =
'ordinal not in range(128)'
start =
623