21302: Lemieux: UN NEWS Center: International community must seek common approach in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

International community must seek common approach
in Haiti, Fréchette says

12 April 2004 – With the United Nations preparing
for a peacekeeping mission in Haiti, an
integrated and common approach must be the
hallmark of the international community's
involvement in the Caribbean country, Deputy
Secretary-General Louise Fréchette said today.

In opening remarks to a meeting in New York
between representatives of the Caribbean
Community (CARICOM) and the UN system, the Deputy
Secretary-General said the UN is seeking to draw
in all relevant actors and pursue a common
strategic aim in Haiti.

"We will explore with CARICOM, as well as with
the OAS [Organization of American States], what
each of us is best positioned to contribute, in
cooperation with our Haitian partners," she said.
"And since CARICOM, the OAS and the UN system
will remain in Haiti long after the peacekeeping
phase ends, we need to ensure that an integrated
and common approach is followed."

Looking at the broader issues facing the
Caribbean region, the Deputy Secretary-General
noted that one of the main areas of collaboration
between the UN and CARICOM is trade, particularly
the joint effort to press for greater
liberalization and an international trading
system that brings development gains for the
bloc's countries.

Ms. Fréchette also pointed to working together to
cope with the AIDS epidemic, which affects the
Caribbean like no other region in the world
except for sub-Saharan Africa. Among Caribbean
teens, girls are five times more likely to
contract HIV, she noted. "CARICOM itself has
proved a useful forum for region cooperation on
this issue," she said. "We need to continue and
step up such efforts."

As for the upcoming 10-year review conference of
an action plan to help Small Island Developing
States, the Deputy Secretary-General said she
shared the hope that it will produce not only
renewed political commitment, but also practical
initiatives that will generate progress towards
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of
anti-poverty targets endorsed at a 2000 UN
summit.

"Security threats - from political violence
through money laundering to drug trafficking and
smuggling - have serious consequences for the
functioning of the region's economies, for
governance and stability, and for social
well-being," she said.

"Our enduring hope is to prevent such crises, and
to build solid foundations for balanced,
sustainable development throughout the region,"
she added.





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