between Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Soviet Union and the United States aimed
at ending the conflict. To help put the agreements into effect, the UN
deployed an observer mission, which also verified Soviet troop withdrawal.
The Secretary - General and his envoys have continued to work for a
peaceful settlement of the continuing civil war. UN agencies provide
assistance to the some 2.3 million Afghan refugees.
...in the Americas
The UN has helped resolve protracted conflicts in Central America. In
Guatemala, UN-assisted negotiations resulted in the 1996 peace accord,
ending a 35-year conflict during which over 100,000 people were killed. The
UN began supervising talks between the Government and the Guatemalan
National Revolutionary Unity in 1991. In 1994, two agreements opened the
way to a settlement of the conflict, and led to the deployment of the UN
Mission for the Verification of Human Rights in Guatemala. The Mission has
remained in the country to help put into effect the peace accord.
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 Martн 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.
Observers typically follow the preparation and holding of the
election; on election day, they are deployed to polling stations throughout
the country, observe voting and vote counting, and issue a final statement
