Топик: Years of UN peacekeeping efforts
In 1990, the UN observed the first democratic elections in Haiti. After a military coup in 1991 forced the President into exile, the UN mediated an agreement for the return to democracy. As Haiti's military leaders did not comply with the agreement, the Security Council authorized in 1994 the formation of a multinational force to facilitate the leaders' departure. After the landing of a United States - led multinational force, the exiled President returned to Haiti in 1994. A UN peacekeeping force, which took over from the multinational force in 1995, contributes to stability in the young democracy.
In El Salvador, the Secretary - General assisted in peace talks between the Government and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). His mediation led to the 1992 peace agreement between the Government and FMLN, which ended the 12-year conflict. A UN Observer Mission monitored all agreements concluded between the parties and observed the 1994 elections.
A UN mission deployed between 1989 and 1992 contributed to ending the fighting in Nicaragua. It helped demobilize some 22,000 members of the Nicaraguan resistance (also known as "contras"), who in 1990 turned in their weapons to the UN. Another mission observed the 1990 elections - the first UN-observed elections in an independent country.
Throughout Central America, UN specialized agencies and programs are working hand in hand to ensure that refugees are safely repatriated and provided with the tools to start over. They also provide training for civil servants, police, human rights monitors and legal professionals to promote good governance and the rule of law.
...in Europe
Following the 1995 Dayton-Paris peace agreements, four UN missions were deployed to help secure the peace in the former Yugoslavia. The largest of them, the UN Transitional Administration in Eastern Slovenia, was established to govern this area and help reintegrate it into Croatia.
From 1991, the UN worked strenuously to resolve the conflict, providing at the same time relief assistance to some 4 million people. To help restore peace, the UN imposed an arms embargo in 1991, while the Secretary - General and his envoy assisted in seeking solutions to the conflict. From 1992 to 1995, UN peacekeepers sought to bring peace and security to Croatia, helped protect civilians in Bosnia and Herzegovina and helped ensure that the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was not drawn into the war.
UN agencies continue to provide humanitarian assistance to over 2 million people still suffering the effects of the conflict.
...in the Middle East
The Middle East has been a major concern of the UN. In 1948, the first UN military observer group monitored the truce called for by the Security Council during the first Arab-Israeli war. The first peacekeeping force was also set up in the Middle East, during the 1956 Suez crisis; it oversaw troop withdrawal and contributed to peace and stability.
Two peacekeeping forces are deployed in the region. The UN Disengagement Observer Force, established in 1974, maintains an area of separation on the Golan Heights between Israeli and Syrian troops. In southern Lebanon, a UN Force established in 1978 contributes to stability and provides protection to the population.
Hand in hand with peacekeeping, the UN has sought a lasting settlement in the Middle East. Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) set forth the principles for a just and lasting peace, and remain the basis for an overall settlement. Following the 1993 landmark agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, a UN Coordinator has been overseeing all development assistance provided by the UN to the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides essential health, education, relief and social services to over 3 million registered Palestinian refugees.
Military peacekeepers are the most visible, but not the only, UN peace presence in the field. UN envoys and other civilian personnel are engaged in diplomacy, human rights monitoring and other peace efforts in scores of regions threatened or afflicted by fighting often in the most difficult situations.
4.2 UN and Human Rights
The Charter goals of justice and equal rights, for individuals and for peoples, have been pursued by the UN from its early days.
As one of its first tasks, the UN formulated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a historic proclamation of the basic rights and freedoms to which all men and women are entitled - the right to life, liberty and nationality, to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, to work, to be educated, to take part in government, and many other rights. The General Assembly adopted the Declaration on 10 December 1948, a date commemorated every year as Human Rights Day.
Two International Covenants adopted in 1966 - one on economic, social and cultural rights and the other on civil and political rights - have expanded and made legally binding the rights set forth in the Declaration. These three documents constitute the International Bill of Human Rights, a standard and a goal for all countries and peoples.
The UN has also put in place mechanisms to further human rights. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights coordinates all the human rights activities of the UN, seeks to prevent violations, investigates abuses and works with Governments in resolving violations.
The UN Commission on Human Rights is the only intergovernmental body that conducts public meetings on human rights abuses brought to its attention and reviews the human rights performance of all Member States. Special reporters of the Commission monitor the human rights problems in specific countries.
UN missions are monitoring the human rights situation in Haiti, Guatemala and Eastern Slovenia (Croatia).
The Security Council has established international tribunals to try persons accused of war crimes during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda. The tribunals have indicted several individuals and brought a number of defendants to trial.
Self-determination and independence.
A fundamental right - self-determination, or the right of peoples to govern themselves - was a goal when the Charter was signed. Today, it has become a reality in most of the lands formerly under colonial rule.
In 1960, the General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, in which it proclaimed the need to bring colonialism to a speedy end. Since then, some 60 former colonial Territories, inhabited by more than 80 million people, have attained independence and joined the UN as sovereign Members.
Today, 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories remain, inhabited by some 2 million people. The Assembly has set the goal of ending colonialism by the year 2000, declaring the 1990s the International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism.
Namibia's independence
The UN helped bring about the independence of Namibia, achieved in 1990. The General Assembly in 1966 revoked South Africa's Mandate to administer the territory - a decision South Africa rejected. Complex negotiations led in 1989 to the implementation of the 1978 UN plan for the independence of Namibia. The UN Transition Assistance Group was deployed throughout Namibia to monitor the withdrawal of South African troops, the registration of voters, and the 1989 elections, which led to the installation of the first independent Government and to Namibia's independence.
Election assistance
To further democratization, the UN has also observed elections, at Government request, in sovereign member states: in Nicaragua and Haiti (1990), Angola (1992), El Salvador, South Africa and Mozambique (1994), as well as the referendum on the independence of Eritrea (1993). In other instances - such as Malawi, Lesotho and Armenia - the UN has coordinated international observers provided by member states.