DiploNews – Issue 37 – 26 July 2001
The Women Ambassadors Network
The Women Ambassadors Network website is a new initiative of the women serving as ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions to the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva, New York and Vienna. The objective of the website is to enhance communications among women ambassadors and provide a forum for exchange of information and ideas on global gender related topics and issues.
Visit the website.
Thanks to Eduardo Gelbstein for bringing this website to our attention.
UNDP Human Development Report 2001
The subtitle of the newly released UNDP Human Development Report for 2001 – Making New Technologies Work for Human Development – indicates its focus. The report begins: "Technology networks are transforming the traditional map of development, expanding people's horizons and creating the potential to realize in a decade progress that required generations in the past." This
comprehensive report examines in depth the benefits and risks technology is bringing to the development field, and assesses the impact of initiatives already underway.
Download and read the entire report from website.
Language and Diplomacy – Dispute in Macedonia
Language, as one of the key symbols of ethnic differences, has become a point of dispute in the settlement of the current conflict in Macedonia. Radio Free Europe's Balkan Report of July 24, 2001 discusses the difficulties recently encountered in the process of drafting a new legal framework to end the conflict. The most recent proposal, put forward by ethnic Albanian political parties and international mediators from the EU and the US has "led to the temporary breakdown of the political dialogue, mainly (but not exclusively) because the ethnic Macedonian political leaders could not accept the provisions concerning language." According to the current Macedonian constitution, the Macedonian language is the official language of the Republic of Macedonia. In addition, in units of local self-government where the majority of inhabitants belong to a minority ethnicity, their language is also in official use along with Macedonian. The disputed document proposes that while Macedonian remain the official language of the Republic of Macedonia, any other language spoken by at least 20 percent of the population should be an official administrative language as well. The proposal stipulates that official documents referring to speakers of an official language other than Macedonian be published both in Macedonian and in this language, and that every person can use any official language to communicate with the institutions of the central administration, which in turn should respond in this language as well as in Macedonian. In addition, any official language can be used in parliament and all official parliamentary documents and laws should be printed in all official
languages.
To read the entire article visit website.
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