Geneva 10 December 2008

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Let me begin by extending my sincere thanks to you for participating in the second Dialogue on Protection Challenges.

The inaugural Dialogue focused on refugee protection and international migration. There will be a side event tomorrow to look in more detail into its impact, which for UNHCR included the re-examination and additional resourcing of several key operations.

It is my hope that participants will approach this Dialogue, on protracted refugee situations, in the same spirit

Climate-related disasters are increasing in intensity and frequency, and communities around the world are facing the humanitarian consequences of climate change on a daily basis. Volunteers from the very communities that are at risk are the ones that are adapting quickest to these fast-changing crises and they can make a real difference, according to Bekele Geleta, Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Speaking on International Volunteers Day at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland, Mr. Geleta

(Poznan, 3 December 2008): Today, for the first time in climate change negotiations, the humanitarian agencies of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee have teamed up with disaster risk reduction staff of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) system to issue a joint call for scaled-up global action to reduce disaster risk and to strengthen preparedness for effective response.

The current negotiations on risk management and risk reduction in Poznan are a unique opportunity to make sure that adaptation action is able to prevent global humanitarian catastrophe.

Belgrade, Oct 29, 2008 - Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Jovan Krkobabic met today with a UNHCR delegation headed by deputy head of the organisation in Europe Ugo Yantz.

Krkobabic informed Jantz about the problems of refugees from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as internally displaced persons from Kosovo.

It was agreed at the meeting that it is necessary to insist on a consistent implementation of the Sarajevo Declaration and that Serbia has been dealing with the refugee problem for several years, which makes it one of five Balkan countries with a long lasting refugee problem.

VRANJE, Serbia, August 21 (UNHCR) - Almost a decade after fleeing their village in Kosovo and living in a succession of soulless and delapidated collective centres, the five members of the Blagojevic family have moved into their own apartment in the southern Serbia town of Vranje.

"It feels good to finally see my own nameplate on the door," said the family patriarch, Zoran Blagojevic, who has also found a job as janitor for the building they have moved into. His son Uros, who was nine when they left Ljubizda village in central Kosovo,

On Thursday 29. May NPA together with the Norwegian Ambassador to Serbia Haakon Blankenborg and Director of the Serbian Mine Action Center Petar Mihajlovic marked the end of a mine clearance project in Serbia.

In the fall of 2005, NPA was approached by Serbian authorities asking for support from NPA in clearing the border area between Serbia and Croatia of landmines and other unexploded ordnance.

NPA has been active in humanitarian mine action in the Balkans since 1996, when NPA started its Mine Action Programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the period 1999 to 2001 NPA worked with mine

This report covers the period of 01/01/2006 to 31/12/2007 of a two-year planning and appeal process.

In brief

Programme summary: The National Societies of central Europe, as part of their health and care activities, set the prevention of HIV and TB as high priorities. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies supported the transfer of skills and knowledge by ensuring that professional medical experts, health institutions, Red Cross volunteers and targeted direct beneficiaries were involved in all phases of the project planning, implementation and

Executive summary

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is mandated to analyse drugs and crime situations around the world. The present report is a contribution to that objective, looking at a region stigmatised for its role in heroin trafficking, human trafficking, and other forms of organised crime. It is based on data gathered though Member States' responses to the United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (CTS) and the United Nations Annual Reports Questionnaire (ARQ), as well as a desk review of the published