November - December 1999
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UNFPA United Nations Population Fund |
Ted Turner Supports UNFPA ProjectsThe United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has been allocated some US$ 4 million by the United Nations Foundation (UNF) created by United States businessm an Ted Turner for the UNFPA projects in the Pacific, Jordan and Russia. The sum consists of US$ 2.3 million to improve adolescent reproductive health in the Pacific region; about US$ 1.1 million to promote Jordanian adolescent girls’ reproductive health; and US$ 707,726 for two years to enhance awareness of reproductive health and rights among Russian adolescents. The Russian project will cover six regions of Russia, and will involve representatives of regional authorities, social services, and heath care and education agencies. Within the framework of the project, UNFPA will assist clinics and counseling centers which have already adopted a «youth-friendly approach» in order to encourage adolescents to appeal for help and advice. The local youth centers will participate in sociological surveys, seminars and roundtable discussion on reproductive health and rights; workshops will be arranged for the teenage boys in vocational schools and teenage girls in boarding schools and orphanages; adolescent/women crisis management centers will receive support. UNFPA will assist nongovernmental organizations and youth centers to establish art-shops to promote a healthy lifestyle in the youth subculture. |
V International Human Rights Film Festival «Stalker» |
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Reproductive Rights DayWithin the framework of the Fifth International Human Rights Film Festival Stalker (December 9-15, 1999) UNFPA sponsored a day devoted to ways to protect the health of adolescents and youth reproductive rights, and to broaden education in these areas among young people. The organizers of the youth film forum, UNFPA and the Filmmakers’ Guild of Russia, prepared a special film program including creations of the well-known Soviet, Russian and foreign filmmakers of the 1990s. At the Retrospects Section, the Festival’s guests could see masterpieces of the Soviet film industry, such as «Should It Be Love?» by Yuli Raizman and «The School Waltz» by Pavel Liubimov. Workshop participants discussed issues of human reproductive rights, higher birth rates, sex education of the young generation, the role of the state in reproductive rights enforcement, prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infections, adolescent reproductive health, current and many other issues. The roundtable held within the festival framework to discuss reproductive rights in Russia gathered representatives of state agencies, nongovernmental organizations, research institutions, filmmakers and journalists turning their attention to young children and adolescents. A large exhibit on UNFPA activities in Russia was set up in the lobby for the Festival guests. UNFPA sponsorship of the film festival has demonstrated the efficiency of efforts to find new approaches to reproductive health promotion, since the language of art, particularly one as popular as cinema, is the simplest and easiest way to reach out to the young people, this extremely vulnerable category of Russia’s population. |
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UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |
A two day special program «Cinema on Guard of Refugees’ Rights»
has attracted the attention of participants in the Fifth International Human Rights Film
Festival which took place in Moscow on December 9-15, 1999. For two days participants and
guests of the Festival had a chance to watch films and to participate in a roundtable on
migration issues and to have a look at the photo exhibition on UNHCR’s activities.
Prior to the Festival, a film project entitled «Refugees’ Rights» took place in Novgorod the Great and Saratov. This was a joint project between UNHCR and the Russian Filmmakers’ Guild. The project was aimed at contributing to a better understanding by the public at large of the problems of refugees and migrants. Fiction and documentary foreign and Russian films for adults and children were showed at the city cinema houses. Tickets were distributed free of charge via the municipal authorities and local NGOs, UNHCR’s partners.
Two famous Russian film directors, Vadim Abdrashitov and Usman Saparov, answered questions from the audiences after the shows. Questionnaires were distributed among the audiences in order to find out the attitude of the local population toward refugees and migrants. In both cities, round table discussions took place with the participation of the local government agencies, NGOs and UNHCR.
UNHCR’s Projects in RussiaOver 60 projects are being implemented by UNHCR this year in various regions of Russia in cooperation with 24 local NGOs, three international organizations and various governmental agencies in addition to projects launched in response to the emergency situation in the Northern Caucasus. These projects can be divided into four groups:
(a) Strengthening capacity of the federal and regional migration services and other governmental agencies (Tver, Voronezh, Astrakhan, St. Petersburg, Novgorod, Pskov, and North Ossetia-Alania) and local nongovernmental organizations (21 NGOs);
(b) Direct assistance to refugees and forced migrants;
(c) Rehabilitation of infrastructure in locations densely inhabited by various groups of migrants (Stavropol, the Altai and Krasnodar territories, the Republic of Karachaevo-Circassia, Voronezh, Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, St. Petersburg, and Orenburg);
(d) Education in tolerance toward migrants and higher public awareness of the local population.
Over US$8 million was allocated by UNHCR for implementing these projects.
The outbreak of hostilities in the North Caucasus in August 1999 forced tens of thousands of persons to flee their homes. Some 200,000 persons have left Chechnya and are staying now in Ingushetia, an unknown number is displaced within Chechnya and over 30,000 were displaced within Daghestan.
At the request of the governments of Daghestan and Ingushetia, UNHCR responded immediately to the emergency situations in both republics by sending convoys of relief items for the displaced population in both republics. From the middle of September until December 7, 16 convoys were dispatched with food and non-food items totaling over US$ 1 million. They included 1,160 tons of basic food supplies as well as winterized tents, mattresses, blankets, plastic sheeting, kitchen sets, stoves and winter shoes. UNICEF contributed medicine and hygienic kits.
The humanitarian aid supplies were distributed in
Daghestan, North Ossetia and Ingushetia by the local authorities, with the few UNHCR local
staff helping to monitor aid distribution.
In order to make a comprehensive assessment of the needs of the displaced population, a UN inter-agency mission visited these republics in November. The mission was comprised of representatives of UNHCR, UNICEF, the World Food Program, WHO, UNDP and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The group developed recommendations to expand international humanitarian assistance to displaced persons, particular in Ingushetia, on the eve of the approaching winter.
On November, 16-20, Ms. Sadako Ogata, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, visited Russia as a Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General to assess the situation in Ingushetia and the northern part of Chechnya. She visited both republics, spoke with IDPs and held talks with senior officials in the Russian Government, including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Minister of Emergencies, Serguei Shoigu. Summing up the results of her mission at a press conference on November 19, Ms. Sadako Ogata noted that the Russian authorities had provided generous assistance to the needy persons but that the volume of assistance should be increased and that a better management of distribution was required. Ms. Sa-dako Ogata stressed that the UN was ready to expand its humanitarian assistance in the region but that security for UN staff there should be provided by the Russian authorities.
Following the UN inter-agency assessment mission and the visit of Ms. Sadako Ogata to the region, an inter-agency appeal was launched in Geneva seeking US$ 16.2 million from the donor countries to deliver humanitarian supplies.
UNHCR requests US$ 8.3 million from this amount to implement its programs.