Rights of Disabled Persons The 31st General Assembly considered two resolutions on the subject of disabled persons and adopted them both without vote, either in the Third Committee or the plenary Assembly. The first resolution, introduced in the Third Committee by Belgium and ultimately sponsored by 70 states, including the United States, (1) recommended that all states, in establishing their policies, plans, and programs, take account of the rights and principles laid down in the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, which had been adopted by the 30th Assembly in December 1975; and (2) recommended that all international organizations and agencies concerned should include in their programs provisions ensuring the effective implementation of those rights and principles. The resolution was approved by the Committee on November 1 and adopted by the Assembly on December 13.59 The second resolution, which proclaimed 1981 as "International Year for Disabled Persons," was introduced by Libya and sponsored by 43 states, including the United States. The objectives of the year are to include (1) helping the disabled to adjust physically and psychologically to society, (2) promoting national and international efforts to assist the disabled, (3) encouraging study and research, (4) educating the public on the rights of the disabled, and (5) promoting measures to prevent disablement. The Secretary General was requested to elaborate, in consultation with member states and interested organizations, a draft program for the year and to submit it to the General Assembly in 1977. The resolution was approved in the Committee on November 25 and adopted by the Assembly on December 16.60/ National Experience in Achieving Social Progress The topic, "National experience in achieving far-reaching social and economic changes for the purpose of social progress," originally proposed by the U.S.S.R., has been on the agenda of ECOSOC, the Commission on Social Development, or the General Assembly intermittently since 1971. A report of the Secretary General on this topic, requested by the 29th Assembly in 1974, was before the 31st Assembly. Two draft resolutions were introduced. 59/ Resolution 31/82. 60/ Resolution 31/123. The first, introduced by India and sponsored by 11 states, emphasized the importance of cooperatives of all kinds, in both developed and developing countries, for the achievement of social and economic benefits to all sections of society. It invited states and relevant organizations to report to the Secretary General on their experience in promoting the cooperative movement and requested the Secretary General to report to the Assembly at its 33rd session in 1978. The resolution was approved without vote by the Committee on November 10 and adopted without vote by the Assembly on November 30.61/ The second draft resolution, introduced by the Ukrainian S.S.R. and sponsored by 17 states, inter alia, (1) considered that elimination of all forms of subjugation and dependence such as aggression, foreign occupation, colonialism, apartheid, racism, and all forms of racial discrimination was a prerequisite for social and economic advancement; (2) called on the Commission for Social Development, ECOSOC, and the regional commissions to pay special attention to studies of national experience in carrying out far-reaching socio-economic changes for the purpose of social progress; and (3) requested the Secretary General to submit to the 33rd Assembly, through the Social Development Commission and ECOSOC, "a comprehensive report prepared on the basis of information received from governments" on national experience in this area. The resolution was approved on November 17 by a vote of 100 to 0, with 8 abstentions (U.S.), and adopted on November 30 by a vote of 125 to 0, with 9 abstentions (U. S.). 62/ The United States found a number of aspects of the resolution objectionable. Among other things, it did not believe the goals listed in point (1) above all had to be accomplished before social progress could be made. Further, it considered the requests for additional reports duplicative and possibly counterproductive. Youth The Third Committee of the 31st General Assembly considered the agenda item "Policies and programs relating to youth" at four meetings between December 6 and 9. Four draft resolutions were introduced. All four were approved without vote on December 9 and subsequently adopted by the plenary Assembly on December 16, also without vote. 61/ Resolution 31/37. 62/ Resolution 31/38. The first resolution, entitled "Policies and programs relating to youth, '63 was introduced by Romania and sponsored by 32 states. Among other provisions, it (1) appealed to all states and appropriate organizations to foster among youth respect for all peoples, human rights, and peace; (2) urged the Secretary General to continue his efforts to promote international awareness of the situation and needs of youth as well as action to ensure the full participation of youth in UN activities; and (3) requested the Secretary General to submit (a) to the 34th Assembly in 1979 a report on the implementation of the 1965 Declaration on the Promotion among Youth of the Ideals of Peace, Mutual Respect, and Understanding between Peoples, and (b) to the 32nd Assembly a progress report on the establishment of a cooperative arrangement among youth research and information centers. Both reports were to be given prior consideration by the Commission on Social Development and ECOSOC. The second resolution, entitled "Role of youth," was introduced by India and ultimately sponsored by 20 states. The resolution, inter alia, (1) considered that the development process and the promotion of international peace and security would benefit greatly by the integration of youth in all related activities; (2) urged states to ensure full and effective participation by youth in that process; and (3) requested the Secretary General to submit a preliminary report to the 32nd Assembly for further consideration of the role of youth in promoting the objectives of the United Nations. (The third resolution, concerning the UN Volunteers program, is discussed on p. 130.) The last resolution, introduced by Yugoslavia and sponsored by eight states, was entitled "Channels of communication with youth and youth organizations. The brief resolution invited ECOSOC to prepare, through the Commission for Social Development at its session in 1977, appropriate recommendations concerning the best channels of communication between youth and youth organizations and the United Nations on national, regional, interregional, and international levels, and to report to the 32nd Assembly. 63/ Resolution 31/129. 65/ Resolution 31/132. SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND RESEARCH UN ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM UNEP was created in December 1972 by resolution of the UN General Assembly, in response to a recommendation of the UN Conference on the Human Environment held in June 1972, with the primary mission of providing general policy guidance for the direction. and coordination of environmental programs within the UN system. The Environment Fund, a principal instrumentality of UNEP and the result of a U.S. initiative, was established with an initial funding goal of $100 million over the first 5-year period (1973-77) to finance new environmental initiatives undertaken within the system and to strengthen programs already under way. The Environment Coordination Board, chaired by the Executive Director of UNEP, was designed to provide a mechanism for achieving coordination of environmental programs. Its membership consists of all of the specialized agencies, the IAEA, and other significant parts of the UN system that undertake environmental programs. As determined by the first session of the 58member policymaking Governing Council 66/ in 1973 and refined at subsequent sessions, UNEP's program priorities include: (1) the development of environmentally sound technology related to human settlements, low-cost building techniques, and water and waste treatment; (2) human and environmental health, including the development of environmental health criteria, an assessment of the effects of selected pollutants on human health and the environment, and the establishment of an international registry of potentially toxic chemicals; (3) environmentally sound management and conservation of terrestrial ecosystems, including arid lands, tropical forests, wild life and genetic resources, water, and other renewable natural resources; (4) the protection of the marine environment through international and 66/ Members in 1976 were Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Central African Empire, China, Colombia, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Finland, France, Gabon, Federal Republic of Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Togo, Uganda, U.S.S.R., United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, and Zaire. regional conventions and programs that have monitoring, research, and training components to foster sound management of marine resources; and (5) the functional components of Earthwatch, including the Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS), the information exchange mechanism of the International Referral System (IRS), and environmental assessment to provide clear understanding of the outer limits of man's encroachment upon the earth's life support systems in such areas as climate change, weather modification, and risks to the ozone layer. UNEP Governing Council The fourth session of the Governing Council met from March 30 to April 14, 1976, at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The session was attended by delegations and observers from 69 countries. The general debate confirmed the continuing validity of the priority activities of the program as determined by previous sessions of the Council, but the feeling which had been manifested at the third session in 1975 that UNEP's efforts in the early years had tended to spread resources over too broad an area persisted, leading most delegations to endorse the Executive Director's stated intention to achieve further concentration as the program proceeded. Significant program actions taken by the Council, acting by consensus, included (1) a decision to emphasize programs for the establishment of health criteria and monitoring and for the International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals; (2) an appeal to governments to take steps to ensure that new chemical substances and physical agents are evaluated before use and discharge into the atmosphere, in order to ensure that adverse environmental impacts are avoided so far as possible; (3) a request to the Executive Director to establish, in cooperation with UNESCO and the FAO, pilot projects to promote studies and research for the training of specialists essential to the rational use of the African tropical rain forests; (4) a request to the Executive Director to cooperate with the ECE and the WMO in their jointly-sponsored regional program for monitoring and evaluating the long-range transport of sulphur dioxide and other pollutants, noting that this program would constitute an important regional contribution to GEMS; (5) a decision to hold at an early date an international meeting on problems of the ozone layer (the United States subsequently undertook to host this meeting in early 1977); and (6) a decision to expand UNEP's activities in the field of environ mental law. |