The Communique
pp. 12-13 · Read in the full issue
By Karen Mangnall
Some of the main Forum decisions in Port Vila last month:
[Environment
• Noted the continued threat to the cultural and physic al survival of Pacific nations from climate change and sea level rise. • Strongly urged industrialised nations to make signifi cant cuts in emission of Greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide, and establish obligatory emission reduction stan dards. • Communicate these concerns to relevant international bodies, including the United Nations Environmental Prog ram, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the World Climate Conference. Ensure Forum Island country representation at major international conferences leading up to the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. • Strengthen the Soutn Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) which came into force on August 22, 1990, after recent ratification by Western Samoa and France. A special committee to investigate ways of doing this is to be funded by New Zealand, which is giving SPREP an extra NZSO.SO million in the 1990 financial year and another NZsl million for 1991.
Fisheries
• Endorsed the Convention for the Prohibition of Long Driftnets in the South Pacific and called on all interested parties to accede to the Convention or its Protocols. • Welcomed Japan’s decision to stop driftnetting one year ahead of tne date set out in UN resolution 225. • Find a way of involving Taiwan in negotiations for a management regime for South Pacific albacore tuna. • Called on Japan to resume negotiations on a multi lateral fisheries arrangement and recorded its disappoint ment at Japan’s continuing reluctance to do so. • Each member to give high priority to implementing the revised Minimum Terms and Conditions as the basic standard of access to the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) member’s EEZs. • Called for controls over the number of purse seiners licensed to fish within the EEZs of FFA members in the western Pacific because of the threat to those fisheries posed by increased activity by these vessels.
Inew Caledonia
• Called on France to expand its assistance for educa tion and training for Kanaks and hoped France would allow regular visits to New Caledonia by United Nations missions. • Set up a Ministerial committee comprising Fiji, Nauru and the Solomon Islands to monitor events in New Caledo
nia and ensure satisfactory progress in implementing the
Matignon Accords.
• Officials report to the 1991 Forum on changes to the rules to allow non-self governing territories to take part in the Forum.
[Decolonisation
• At the opening of the decade for the eradication of colonialism, many of the world’s remaining non-self governing territories are in the South Pacific. • The UN secretary general or a special representative should visit each country still on the UN’s list of non-self governing territories and the UN should undertake an extensive study of these territories. • Countries should be requested to adopt legislation to promote and safeguard the human rights of peoples living under colonialism.
Dialogue Partners
• Officials report to the 1991 Forum on criteria for post-Forum dialogue partners with a view to including Germany and Taiwan.
Johnston Atoll
• Agreed with the destruction of existing chemical weapons. • But Forum leaders said they were “posed a serious dilemma” by United States’ plans to destroy at Johnston Atoll chemical weapons stored there, any others found in the Pacific and those to be shipped from West Germany. • This was “another example of the Pacific being used by the major weapons producing states as an experimental area” and this should not continue. • Noted the stringent precautions being taken by the United States but expressed “grave concern” at what the Forum called the “substantial potential risks” and the “sig nificant uncertainties and risks” posed to the regional en vironment and peoples, especially from the shipping of weapons from West Germany. • Called for early talks with the United States on all aspects of the chemical burnoffs, including the West Ger man shipments, before they start. • Expressed the firm conviction that the Johnston Atoll facility should be closed down after the current operations and should not become the permanent toxic waste disposal centre of the world. • Called on the United States to ensure no further che mical weapons or toxic materials would be stockpiled or destroyed on Johnston Atoll. □