I.P.O. ANNUAL REPORT 1990
Vienna, 31 December 1990/P/K/12518c
Admission of New Members
At
its regular session on 23 February 1990 in New Delhi the Executive Board admitted new members from
Austria, Iraq, Nepal, Puerto Rico, United States.
During 1990, the
Executive Board admitted new individual and corporate members from Greece,
India and Palestine, among them the Center for Research and Action on Peace,
headed by Ms. Margarita Papandreou.
New Permanent Representatives
The Executive Board appointed new Permanent Representatives: Prof. Dr.
Gudrun Grabher (Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at
Vienna), Mr. Matthew Wolf (Alternate Representative to the United Nations
Headquarters in New York), Mr. Charles Saint-Prot (Permanent Representative to
Unesco in Paris), Mr. Farid Hanna (Representative in Australia/Sydney), Sri Lal
Caldera (Representative in Sri Lanka). The terms of office of other representatives
have been renewed.
Follow-up of Current Projects
The Executive Board decided to invite H.E. Giani Zail Singh, former President of India, to join the International Committee for Peace in the Gulf and the International Follow-up Committee for the Exchange of the Prisoners of War between Iran and Iraq. - The Executive Board entrusted the International Committee for Palestinian Human Rights (ICPHR) to study - in co-operation with Unesco - the practice of educational apartheid by the Israeli occupation authorities against the Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza.
RESEARCH PROJECT ON THE UNITED NATIONS
It was decided to launch a research project on the re-drafting
of the rules of the UN Security Council in regard to the
concept of permanent membership
and to the veto right reserved to the
permanent members. These provisions are in total contradiction to
the principle of democracy in inter-state relations. They constitute a
serious obstacle to the establishment of a new world order based on
the sovereign equality of states. Such a new order which may require
the abolishment of these provisions will finally lead away from the post-war order of a bi-polar world built around the traditional "superpowers."
In
conformity with the resolution adopted by the Executive Board in New Delhi (23
February 1990) the I.P.O. has finalized a research on
democratic reform of the Security Council. The results were presented at the
First International Conference on a More Democratic United Nations (New York, 13-15 October 1990)
of which the I.P.O. was one of the co-sponsors.
NEW PUBLICATION
The
research mentioned above will be published as vol. XVII of the series Studies in
International Relations under the title: "The Voting Procedure in the United
Nations Security Council: Examining a Normative Contradiction and its
Consequences for International Relations from the Point of View of Legal
Philosophy." The I.P.O. will also submit this document to the Member States of the
United Nations.
HUMAN RIGHTS
ACTIVITIES
On 29 August 1990 the I.P.O. submitted a Memorandum on "Human Rights Violations in the United States
of America - The LaRouche Case" to the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights. The Memorandum was handed over on 30 August to the
Deputy Director of the UN Center for Human Rights in Geneva by Dr. Hans Koechler,
President of the I.P.O.
MEDITERRANEAN
PEACE PROJECT
The I.P.O.
participated in the meeting of the Mediterranean Peace Committee which was held
in Malta (25- 26 March 1990) under the chairmanship of ex-Prime Minister Dr K. Mifsud Bonnici. The I.P.O.
was the co-sponsor of the Mediterranean Peace Conference which took place in
Crete/Greece from 4 to 5 May 1990.
The President of the I.P.O. was
elected member of the Executive Bureau of the newly formed Study and Research
Council on Mediterranean Affairs.
Co-operation with International Organizations
The Board decided to join the World Council for Global Co-
operation (Toronto) as affiliate member. The Council was founded by
Nobel Laureates at the initiative of Prof. George Wald (Harvard
University).
The Executive Board asked the President of the I.P.O. to examine the
possibility of convening an international meeting of intellectuals in Prague to
study the impact of the democratic movements in Eastern Europe on a global
scale.
Information Visits
The President of the I.P.O. paid an information visit to India (19-24 February). In New Delhi he met, among others, with H.E. Giani Zail Singh, former President of India; with the Vice-Chancellors of Jawaharlal Nehru University and of Jamia Millia Islamia; and H.E. Dinesh Singh, Member of Parliament and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of India. He gave lectures at the School of International Studies of the Jawaharlal Nehru University and at the Academic Staff College of Jamia Millia Islamia. He was the keynote speaker at a symposium on Democracy and Human Rights convened by the Indian Council for World Affairs at Sapru House. On 22 February, the Foreign Affairs Club of India gave a reception in honor of Prof. Koechler. On 23 February, the President of the I.P.O. gave a reception for representatives of public life at Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi. The information visit was co-ordinated by the Foreign Affairs Club of India and by Unity International Foundation. In the course of his visit, the President of the I.P.O. gave interviews for the daily newspapers Mid Day and Blitz.
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR PEACE IN THE GULF
Since the beginning of the Gulf crisis the International Progress Organization launched a number of activities promoting the idea of a peaceful settlement within the framework of the United Nations Charter. The I.P.O. sent special messages to the President of the Security Council (17 August, 19 December) and submitted a Memorandum on the Invasion and Annexation of Kuwait by Iraq and Measures to Resolve the Crisis Peacefully (28 September). The President of the I.P.O. received messages from H.M. Hussein I, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and from Mr. Yasser Arafat, President of the State of Palestine. On 27 September and 23 November Prof Koechler held consultations with Dr Kurt Waldheim, President of the Republic of Austria. He also met with the Honorable Ramsey Clark, former Attorney-General of the United States and member of the Executive Board of the I.P.O. (New York, 11 October). On 13 December Dr Koechler gave a lecture on the political and legal aspects of the crisis for the students of the Central University of Iowa/USA. The I.P.O. will furthermore participate in the Emergency International Conference for Peace and a Comprehensive Settlement in the Middle East/ Gulf Region to be held in Athens (12-13 January 1991).
PARTICIPATION IN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES
The I.P.O.
participated in the ASPAC 1990 Conference for Disarmament, Security and Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific
Region which was held in Melbourne/Australia
(4-8 July 1990). - On 4 October the President of the I.P.O. gave a lecture at the International Seminar on
the Peaceful Reunification of Korea
which was organized at the Roskilde University Center in Denmark. - The I.P.O.
joined the meeting of the World Citizens Assembly in New York (11-13 October)
and was among the sponsoring organizations of the First International Conference
on a More Democratic United Nations (New York, 13-15 October).
INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE 1991
AWARD OF HONOUR TO
PRESIDENT OF THE I.P.O.
The Unity
International Foundation (New Delhi) informed the I.P.O. that Dr. Hans Koechler was
awarded the prize "Apostle of International Understanding."