U.N. defers session

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

UNITED NATIONS, SEPT. 13. The General Assembly has formally decided to postpone the Special Session on Children which was scheduled to be held between September 19 and September 21. More than 75 Heads of State and government were scheduled to attend this meeting.

The summit was postponed after Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. U.N. officials decided that given the pressure authorities were facing right now, providing special protection to the visiting dignitaries was simply out of the question. ``I think at this critical stage we cannot afford to fail the children or wrangle indefinitely over the text and documents. And I would urge delegates that despite the postponement we keep up that work and take up the issue as soon as next week. That is my plea,'' the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan told the General Assembly.

The conference to have been organised by the UNICEF was a follow- up to the historic 1990 summit that set broad guidelines to governments, U.N. agencies and interest groups. But in the last decade, the issue of children has come into special focus given the range of problems - HIV/AIDS, child prostitution, child labour and slavery and children in conflict. The postponement of the meeting raises questions about the schedule of the 56th session of the General Assembly, in particular the general debate which starts on September 24 and runs through till October 5 which will see several Heads of State and government make a brief presentation.

The U.S. President, Mr. George W Bush is the second speaker after Brazil on September 24; the President of Pakistan has been scheduled to speak the same morning and on September 25, the Prime Minister of India, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee will have his turn. Given the terrorist attacks, there is considerable uncertainty on how the general debate will be held and also the planned bilaterals on the sidelines of the meeting.

U.N. officials have not elaborated how they will handle the large contingent of dignitaries, merely saying it was the task of the United States Government. One view is that the American President may not attend the General Assembly session. But this is seen as unlikely in many quarters. Mr. Bush may attend the session but restrict other meetings to the bare minimum. Much will depend on the evaluation of the security situation by the secret service.

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Section  : International
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