Updates

Your gateway to all content to date. Search and/or drill down with filters to narrow down the content.

1,324 updates found
Toggle text

Preventing Violent Conflict: A Swedish Action Plan

With humanitarian disasters such as those in Kosovo and Rwanda showing the international community's lack of capability to intervene in a conflict at an early stage, this action plan proposes new instruments and methods for preventing conflicts from escalating and leading to violence. Five main aims are identified and discussed:

- Promote a culture of prevention
- Identify structural risk factors
- Develop international system of norms and strengthen its implementation
- Strengthen international institutional framework and its preventive instruments
Toggle text

Children in Armed Conflict

This report compiles legally binding instruments, expressions of internationally accepted principles and norms (e.g. UN declarations, resolutions), and political commitments agreed at World Conferences, to reach certain standards and goals relevant to the rights of children in the area of armed conflict.

The document is part of a series collating the standards relevant to the realisation of children's rights to make them more easily accessible and more frequently used, with respect to the rights of girls, children in armed conflict, sexual exploitation of children, child labour.
Toggle text

Policy Statement for the Integration of a Gender Perspective in Humanitarian Assistance

This paper outlines the policy of the Inter Agency Standing Committee of the UN on the integration of a gender perspective in humanitarian assistance. Aiming to broadly outline the major elements within this field, it examines the following issues:

- Particular vulnerability of women and children in complex emergency situations
- Strategic importance of adressing that problem
- Gender sensitive principles that should be applied to humanitarian assistance in that context
- IASC commitments to integrate a gender
Toggle text

Mission d'Etude Relations Humanitaires-Militaires: Albanie: Du 8 au 21 mai 1999

Le sujet des rapports entre humanitaires et militaires est un sujet délicat, surtout en France, dans ce pays des origines du mouvement sans-frontiériste, inspirateur d'une part importante de ce que l'on pourrait aujourd'hui qualifier "d'humanitaire moderne ou contemporain". C'est un sujet sensible qui oppose des visions divergentes, qui bien souvent réveille des antagonismes et des débats passionnels, venant des acteurs différents travaillant sur les mêmes terrains.

Ce rapport, écrit suite à une mission
Toggle text

Enabling Development

In 1996 the World Food Summit set the objective of halving the number of chronically undernourished people in the world by the year 2015. Realization of this objective is far beyond the capacity of any one government or organization. It will require massive investments, appropriate policies, and the combined efforts of governments, civil society international organizations-and hungry people themselves-to alleviate poverty and build sustainable food security.

Food aid is a relatively small proportion of overall development assistance. Even if it were available in much larger
Toggle text

Kosovo refugees flooding into Macedonia tell of ethnic cleansing

BLACE, Macedonia, May 1 (AFP) - A new wave of more than 7,000 Kosovo Albanians arrived in Macedonia Saturday, saying they had been forced out of their towns and villages in a Serb onslaught.

A spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the refugees had crossed at three border posts.

Up to 5,000 people arrived at the Blace border post by train and bus, Paula Ghedini said. Some 1,000 crossed at Lojane and another 1,200 at Jazince.

Refugees arriving here said entire areas around Urosevac, Gnjilane and the Kosovo capital Pristina were being emptied

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

Toggle text

Oxfam fears refugee crisis is worsening

Report
Oxfam
Oxfam today warned that unless the aid effort in Macedonia shifted up a gear conditions for Kosovo refugees would continue to deteriorate. Crucial to the success of the aid effort was high level political support to UNHCR.
"Refugee camps in Macedonia have been set-up with little or no regard to international standards in refugee relief and protection - the camps are grossly over-crowded causing high levels of tension. UNHCR has not always been in a position to monitor camp security. Women in particular feel vulnerable due to insecurity and lack
Toggle text

Canada prepared to take in 5,000 refugees: foreign minister

SKOPJE, May 1 (AFP) - Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said Saturday his country is prepared to take in 5,000 Kosovo refugees, and would release 45 million Canadian dollars (31 million US dollars, 29.3 million euros) to help Macedonia deal with the Kosovo crisis.

"Canada has now agreed to receive 5,000 refugees from the camps in Macedonia on the request that we received from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)," Axworthy said after talks with his Macedonian counterpart Aleksandar Dimitrov.

Ottawa had previously said that Canada

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

Toggle text

More UAE aid en route to Kosovo refugees in Albania

ABU DHABI, May 1 (AFP) - A United Arab Emirates plane carrying supplies for Kosovo refugees left Abu Dhabi for Albania on Saturday, bringing to 25 the number of aid shipments the UAE has sent so far.

The official WAM news agency also reported that a 200-bed hospital is being set up in the northern Albanian town of Kukes with UAE assistance.

The UAE is financing the construction of a new airport in Kukes to help speed up the flow of aid to the Kosovo refugees.

The first phase of construction, to be completed next week by an Albanian firm, will include a runway, a parking

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

Toggle text

Contact group calls for support for Tajikistan peace process

DUSHANBE, May 1 (AFP) - The international contact group tasked with ensuring the implementation of the 1997 peace accords in Tajikistan called on all sides Friday to support the peace process to the end.

The coordinator of the contact group, United Nations special representative for Tajikistan Jan Kubis, said progress had been good so far, even if the government and opposition still considered themselves as former enemies rather than partners in peace.

He congratulated both sides on progress towards amending the constitution but stressed delays in implementing several

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

Toggle text

Eight civilians found beheaded near Masiaka, strategic town in SLeone

FREETOWN, May 1 (AFP) - Eight beheaded corpses, among them those of women and children, were found this week in two Sierra Leonean villages northeast of the capital, a spokesman for the west African ECOMOG force told AFP Saturday.

The victims, found in Mamama and Magbuntoso, outlying villages of the strategic town of Masiaka, were "brutally beheaded" by fleeing rebels after ECOMOG recaptured the area on Thursday overnight, Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukolade said.

Masiaka and its surrounding area have been occupied by rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) since last

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

Toggle text

Afghanistan minefields produce deadly harvest for farmers

by Mohammad Bashir

KABUL, May 1 (AFP) - In Afghanistan, one of the most heavily mined countries on earth, farmers run an everyday risk of losing their limbs, cattle and even their lives as they work the land amid shifting frontlines, UN officials say.

UN figures show intensified demining has cut casualties by half, but at least 300 civilians including farmers are killed or maimed monthly by mines, said Latif Matin, head of the UN demining agency in Kabul.

Most adults fall victim while carrying out the vital tasks of herding and tending crops, as well as gathering

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

Toggle text

Humanitarian Situation Report Guinea-Bissau: 14 - 30 Apr 1999


Unless otherwise specified, all information contained in this report has been collected in-country by OCHA from the UN, NGOs, & ICRC network in Guinea-Bissau
Politico-Military Situation

It was a revelatory period on the Guinea-Bissau political scene, with a flurry of official pronouncements exposing tensions between President Vieira and the Military Junta.

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:

To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit http://unocha.org/.

Toggle text

Diamantes y terror en Sierra Leona

Introducción
El 6 de enero pasado fuerzas guerrilleras entraron en Freetown, capital de Sierra Leona, tomaron algunos edificios oficiales. Su objetivo declarado es liberar líder del Frente de Undiad Revolucionaria, Foday Sankoh, encarcelado y condenado a muerte. Esta demostración de fuerza indica que el control del gobierno sobre las bandas armadas que dominan casi la mitad del país es cada vez más débil.

La guerra en Sierra Leona se desarrolla entre el gobierno del presidente Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, por un lado, y la

Toggle text

Albania + 5 others
UN rights chief planning Balkans visit, hopes for Milosevic meeting

GENEVA, April 30 (AFP) - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson Friday said she was planning a 12-day trip to the Balkans starting Sunday.

Robinson said she hoped to get into Kosovo and also meet with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade.

Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia and Yugoslavia will be the major focus of her visit which ends May 13.

Stays are scheduled in the capital cities of Skopje, Tirana, Sarajevo Zagreb and Belgrade.

Robinson told journalists she had received the go-ahead for a meeting with Milosevic from UN Secretary General Kofi

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

Toggle text

Somalia: IRIN News briefs, 30 Apr

Report
IRIN
Security Council concerned over conflict
The UN Security Council on Thursday expressed its concern at the continuing conflict and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Somalia, and called on member states and international organisations to intensify their relief efforts. Council members welcomed attempts to negotiate an end to the conflict by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), other interested countries, the OAU and the League of Arab States, while calling on all UN member states to comply with the arms embargo on Somalia.

Fighting in Mogadishu

IRIN:

A selection of IRIN reports are posted on ReliefWeb. Find more IRIN news and analysis at http://www.irinnews.org

Une sélection d'articles d'IRIN sont publiés sur ReliefWeb. Trouvez d'autres articles et analyses d'IRIN sur http://www.irinnews.org

This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. Refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use.

Cet article ne reflète pas nécessairement les vues des Nations Unies. Voir IRIN droits d'auteur pour les conditions d'utilisation.