23781: (pub) (Arthur) UN Economic and Social Council reactivates ad hoc advisory group (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Economic and Social Council
2004 Resumed Substantive Session
54th Meeting (PM)
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/ecosoc6142.doc.htm

Economic and Social Council reactivates ad hoc advisory group on haiti


Reactivating the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti this afternoon, the Economic
and Social Council appointed the membership of that body as it took action on
two draft decisions and a draft resolution and concluded its 2004 substantive
session.  The Council approved all three texts by consensus.

According to a draft decision contained in document E/2004/L.58/Rev.1, the
Permanent Representatives of Benin, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Haiti, Spain and
Trinidad and Tobago would become members of the Advisory Group.  In addition, the
Group would invite the participation of the Council President and the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General in Haiti, who would also act as
Chairman of the core group.

The Council decided that the Advisory Group would provide advice on Haiti’s
long-term development strategy, with particular attention to coherence and
sustainability in international support for the country, building upon the Interim
Cooperation Framework and stressing the need to avoid overlap with existing
mechanisms.  In that effort, the Group would work with Member States, the
United Nations System, the Bretton Woods institutions, regional entities and other
major stakeholders.

(...)

...the representative of Haiti thanked all those who had made possible the
Council’s approval of the text concerning his country.  Haiti’s long political
crisis, which had resulted in the slowing of external aid and the freezing of
loans and foreign investments, had undermined what little infrastructure the
country had.  Following the establishment of the Ad Hoc Group, the Government
would be able to focus on its problems with a two-pronged approach:  at the
Security Council level for short- and medium-term needs, and at the level of the
Economic and Social Council for long-term needs.