FORTY-EIGHTH VOLUME OF UNITED NATIONS YEARBOOK PUBLISHED
Press Release
PI/953
FORTY-EIGHTH VOLUME OF UNITED NATIONS YEARBOOK PUBLISHED
19960607 The Department of Public Information announced the publication today of the forty-eighth volume of the Yearbook of the United Nations, covering the activities of the United Nations system in 1994.The Yearbook is the most current, comprehensive and authoritative publication on the work of the Organization, designed not just for use by diplomats, government officials and scholars, but also by writers, journalists, teachers and students. It is fully indexed and contains detailed information on meetings and activities of United Nations bodies, as well as most resolutions in their entirety.
The 1,564-page volume consists of 54 chapters divided into six parts: political and security questions; regional questions; economic and social questions; legal questions; administrative and budgetary questions; and intergovernmental organizations related to the United Nations.
In its political and regional sections, the Yearbook assesses complex international developments where the United Nations played a central role. It describes the Organization's efforts to safeguard international peace and security, including the activities of 17 peace-keeping operations worldwide, involving some 75,000 military and civilian personnel.
The Yearbook also provides detailed accounts of the role played by the Organization in the efforts to prevent or to settle internal conflicts. In 1994 in Africa, that capacity was severely strained as crises continued in Rwanda and Burundi, creating one of the continent's worst humanitarian situations, with hundreds of thousands dead and more than 2 million people fleeing widespread violence and other atrocities. The Commission on Human Rights condemned the violations of human rights in Rwanda at the end of a two- day special session. The Security Council established an International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and authorized the establishment of a temporary multinational operation strictly for humanitarian purposes in that country.
The Yearbook chronicles positive developments in 1994 in which the United Nations was closely involved, including the first democratic elections in South Africa marking its transformation from the apartheid system of segregation into a united, democratic and non-racial society. As a result, the General Assembly removed the question of apartheid from its agenda, while
the Security Council terminated the arms embargo and other measures which had been imposed with the aim of eliminating apartheid. Also, with the completion of the process of self-determination for Palau, and the country becoming the 185th Member State of the United Nations in December 1994, the Trusteeship Council effectively completed the work entrusted to it under the International Trusteeship System.
The Yearbook recounts the participation of the United Nations in the peace process in the Middle East, which was significantly advanced with the signing of the Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), on 4 May 1994, and of the Jordan-Israel Treaty of Peace, signed on 26 October 1994. A United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories was appointed to serve as a focal point for expanding the Organization's assistance to the Palestinian people. The Yearbook also reviews developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Croatia, where the United Nations and the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia continued to seek a stable cease-fire, facilitate negotiations, deliver humanitarian assistance and prevent widespread violations of international humanitarian law.
Addressing other peace and security issues, the Yearbook provides information on the successful efforts of the United Nations to help bring about a peace agreement in Angola (the Lusaka Protocol, of 20 November 1994) and to oversee the withdrawal of the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ), following elections in October 1994. Elections also monitored by the United Nations were held in El Salvador. Sanctions against Haiti that were tightened by the Security Council in May 1994, were lifted four months later, in September, following the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to his country. The United Nations Special Commission, set up under Security Council resolution 687 (1991) in connection with the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) continued to monitor and verify that country's weapons-related activities. With United Nations peacemaking efforts playing a leading role, cease-fire agreements were signed in Tajikistan (the Tehran Agreement) and Georgia (the Declaration on measures for a political settlement of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict).
Concerning humanitarian and human rights activities, the Yearbook describes United Nations action to assist the many countries affected by complex emergencies, the number of which increased dramatically in 1994. More than $1 billion in aid was spent by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to assist some 28 million refugees, displaced persons and returnees.
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The Yearbook also provides an account of United Nations endeavours to reduce and eliminate armaments worldwide. Conditions were met for the full entry into force of the Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START I), between the Russian Federation and the United States, and work continued in the Conference on Disarmament towards concluding a comprehensive nuclear test-ban treaty. In addition in 1994, the Special Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction considered measures to strengthen the Convention.
In the economic and social fields, the Yearbook highlights the convening of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994. The Conference, in a Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted a strategy to stabilize world population growth and achieve sustainable development by addressing reproductive health needs, rights and responsibilities of individuals, emphasizing the imperatives of empowering women and guaranteeing choice in regard to family. The Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, which met in Barbados in 1994, sought attention to the special problems of that group of countries.
The Yearbook reviews the performance of the world economy in 1994, when economic growth accelerated on the whole, but remained uneven, with per capita output still not rising in most of Africa and production contracting in many countries in transition from centrally planned to market economies. At the "World Hearings on Development" (June, 1994), the high-level segment of 1994 substantive session of the Economic and Social Council and during the General Assembly's regular session, consideration was given to "An Agenda for Development", which aims to strengthen and revitalize international development cooperation, build a stronger multilateral system and enhance the effectiveness of the United Nations in the field of development.
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Note:The forty-eighth volume (ISBN 90-411-0172-1; United Nations Publication Sales No. E.95.I.1), as well as recent volumes of the Yearbook of the United Nations, may be obtained through bookstores worldwide, or in Canada and the United States from Kluwer Law International, 101 Philip Drive, Norwell, MA 02061, United States, and in all other countries from Kluwer Law International, P.O. Box 85889, 2508 CN, The Hague, Netherlands. It is also available through the United Nations Bookshop, Room GA-32, United Nations, New York, NY 10017, United States, or through the United Nations Bookshop, Door 40, Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland. The retail price is $150.
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