Human settlements

Human settlements

mental damage, which was too general but should concentrate on specific issues such as the legal aspects of transboundary pollution. Some representati...

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mental damage, which was too general but should concentrate on specific issues such as the legal aspects of transboundary pollution. Some representatives stressed in that connexion the importance for the development of international environmental law of the convention and resolution on longrange transb oundary air pollution which would be adopted in 1979 at the highlevel meeting to be convened under the auspices of ECE and which it was hoped would be a model for other regions 6. With regard to the future programme of the work of the Group, some delega6See 5 Environmental Policy & L., (2) (1979) at page 104.

tions suggested that it should select priority subject areas in the field of international law. Many delegations emphasized that it was important to have topics which lend themselves to concrete solutions of specific problems and that greater emphasis should be placed on regional and sub-regional aspects of the problems. Several delegations suggested that the Group should meet more frequently and for longer periods, in order to accelerate its work. However, others pointed out that development of legal principles in the field of environmental law was necessarily a slow process 7. 7See Selected Documents at page 152.

Co-ordination Questions In considering Agenda item 6 (a) (reports on inter-agency coordination in the field of the environment) and (b) (medium-term environment programme), The Council had before it the report of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) on interagency coordination in the field of the environment (UNEP/GC/7/5) and the Execufive-Director's note on the system-wide medium term environment programme (UNEP/GC/7/6). The Executive-Director stressed that ACC had expressed its willingness to extend full cooperation to UNEP in the preparation of a systemwide medium-term environment programme, for the development of which thematic joint programming would provide the basis. An important element in his note on the system-wide medium-term environment programme was its discussion on the methodology involved in the UN medium-term planning process, in which it was pointed out that there was need for a convergence of that process with UNEP's programming and that the Governing Council should provide the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) with its comments on the medium-term plan. The system-wide medium-term programme would be developed in two stages: in the first stage there should be a convergence between the programming process of UNEP and of the UN itself. Wit h regard to those matters falling within the purview of the UN mediumterm plan, it was suggested that the environment chapter of that plan should be the principle programme document 126

for the Governing Council. The environment chapter would cover all the activities within the environment programme to be carried out in the mediumterm period. Methods developed in that first stage for the presentation of the UN medium-term plan should, in the second stage, be employed in the preparation of the system-wide mediumterm environment programme document, which should be submitted to the Governing Council at its tenth session in 1982. Delegations generally supported the Executive-Director's proposals concerning the development of a system-wide medium-term programme. The submission of that programme to the Governing Council for its comments, before its submission to CPC, was also generally endorsed. It was also generally felt that the move towards specific objectives to be achieved through appropriate strategies within given time frames would strengthen the impact of the environment programme and provide the kind of built-in evaluation system needed for the Governing Council to discharge its policy function and guidance responsibilities effectively. One delegation said that the systemwide medium-term environment programme should not lead to the elimination of the three-level programmatic approach, and suggested that, at Level

One, there should be an evaluation of real needs, which could be supplemented by a scale of priorities. Another delegation, while endorsing the ExecutiveDirector's proposals regarding mediumterm planning and the development of the system-wide programme, expressed some misgivings about the fact that major changes in the documentation might be entailed b y the exercise, thus creating additional work for both the secretariat and delegations. Michel Batisse, representating UNESCO, spoke on behalf of the specialized agencies of the United Nations, and expressed the view that, although direct cooperation with national and nongovernmental organizations was sometimes appropriate, the coordination and stimulation functions of UNEP should primarily be exercised within and through the United Nations system, and that UNEP should avoid engaging in operational activities falling within the competence of other United Nations organizations. The agencies welcomed the progressive development of a systemwide medium-term environment programme. He stressed, however, that most of the difficulties currently encountered in cooperating with UNEP were not due to the absence of such a programme. If the concerns of the specialized agencies were fully taken into consideration, he was confident that difficulties in cooperation could be rapidly overcome. The Executive-Director expressed broad agreement with what had been said during the debate. He shared the view that the new system should leave room for flexibility. With regard to the perspective document, he hoped that there would be agreement on its review every other year, not only because the kind of information it would contain might not lend itself to yearly review. He fully endorsed the idea that oversophistication should be avoided in the development of the new system and stated that there was no intention of changing the three-level programmatic approach. The system would not be launched until 1984 since it would only be then that the programme budgeting cycles of the UN agencies would coincide.

Human Settlements In considering issues relating to Human Settlements activities the Council had before it a report on the joint meetings of the Executive Director of

the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) and the Bureau of the Commission for Human Settlements with the Executive Director of Environmental Policy and Law, 5 (1979)

UNEP and the Bureau of the Governing Council (UNEP/GC.7/II). The Executive Director of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), introducing the item, said that the prime purpose of the joint meeting, held in March 1979, had been to ensure that there was no overlapping or duplication of activities carried out by the two organizations. The meeting had reached full agreement on the complementarity of the two programmes and on the areas where joint projects would be appropriate. He stated that the Executive Director of UNEP had addressed the second session of the Commission on Human Settlements on those issues which he felt crucially affected the environmental aspects of human settlements: pressures of population growth and urban expansion, inadequacy of analytical tools for dealing with human settlements problems, and the growing waste and pollution problems in human settlements. UNCHS gave full weight to those concerns and believed it could collaborate fully with UNEP in dealing with them. The 1980-1981 work programme of UNCHS, approved by the Commission at its second session, reflected the importance of some broad human settlements and environmental issues in the current context of global population growth, socio-economic development and natural resources constraints. It was structured around the six areas of concern identified by the Habitat Conference for priority action and subsequently endorsed by the General Assembly: (a) settlement policies and strategies; (b) settlement planning; including area development for tourism; (c) shelter, infrastructure and services; (d) land; (e) institutions and management; (f) public participation. The Commission had assigned top priority to shelter, infrastructure and services, followed by settlement planning and institutional and management requirements, and had asked UNCHS to give emphasis to technical co-operation activities, supported by research, training and dissemination of Information. As an executing agency for human settlements projects, UNCHS was already implementing 75 projects in about 40 different countries, and an equal number of small-scale projects primarily aimed at providing training assistance or individual expert assistance, with financing mainly from the United Nations

Environmental Policy and Law, 5 (197~)

Development Programme (UNDP), tocess. A resource and energy conservgether with some trust fund contribuing approach to the design, construction tions from donor Governments. and management of human settlements Human settlements goals and prowas therefore needed, linked with public . grammes were inextricably linked to participation both in development and national goals and programmes for in the related decision-making process. economic development, social improveWith grassroots participation in planment and resource utilization and conning, environmental considerations would servation. The failure to optimize recertainly begin to receive the attention source distribution had resulted in gross they deserved. inequities in living standards in many Many delegation welcomed the developing countries, and in shortfalls co-operation between UNEP and UNCHS, which retarded overall economic growth, which they felt was off to a good start, and, hence, social improvement. The while other delegations suggested a furmost glaring manifestations of that ther delineation of responsibilities befailure were the many problems which tween the two organizations. The first plagued the human settlements of joint meeting of the Bureaux and the developing countries. Executive Directors had produced very So far, however, few developing satisfactory results, in that an understandcountries had taken the comprehensive ing had been reached on working relalong-term approach needed for an orderly tionships between the two organizations, transition to a technologically advanced based on mutual co-operation and collabsociety. The UNCHS had an important oration rather than rigid demarcation lines between them. role to play in devising suitable strategies and approaches for bringing While most delegations welcomed about an environmentally sound transithe assumption by the United Nations tion based on each country's living Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHE) patterns, cultural values, resources and of overall responsibility for the subject skills. The new awareness of the conarea, they endorsed UNEP's continued straints on development resources had responsibility for the environmental ashelped generate'support for the Integra- pects of human settlements. However, it tion of environmental and human settle- was generally felt that the revised obments requirements into the developjectives and strategies reflected correctly ment process. Once the human environ- the reorientation of the UNEP programme ment, both ecological and cultural, in that field in accordance with General had been damaged, it was difficult, Assembly resolution 32/162 of 19 perhaps impossible, to reverse the proDecember 1977. []

World's Non-Renewable Resources The UN "Common Fund" One of the actual items in the international environmental discussion is certainly the problem of the "worlds non renewable resources". Future negotiations in this field may well be influenced by the outcome of a series of international conferences on the establishment of a fund to facilitate the financing of international commodity agreements. It is quite obvious that a great number of commodities is of major importance to the foreign exchange earnings of Developing Countries. In the past, Developing Countries have complained about the extremely high fluctuations of these export earnings, due to the uneven development of the prices on the world market. The discussion of these problems in the relevant international fora has led

to the establishment of the "integrated Commodity Programme", the main purpose of which is to stabilize the market prices for 18 different commodities of special interest to Developing Countries. The outstanding element of the Integrated Commodity Programme is the creation of price-regulating bufferstocks. Developing and Developed Countries have agree d to set up a Common Fund which would contribute to the financing of the different bufferstocks through its so-called "first window". Where stocking is not appropriate or insufficient the Fund would serve as a financial source for other measures through its second window. The negotiations have let to a framework for a Common Fund (see Selected Documents at page 155). [] 127