Europe

UN health charter targets obesity in Europe with less fat, more action and curbed ads

17 November 2006
Healthier diets, more physical activity and protection from commercial influence are high on the menu to reduce obesity throughout Europe, especially among children, under a charter adopted at a three-day United Nations health meeting currently underway in Istanbul.

Kosovo: UN envoy urges leaders to avoid ‘unilateral actions’ after delay on final status

13 November 2006
Just days after a United Nations proposal for the future of Kosovo was postponed, the top UN envoy there warned its leaders against talk of “unilateral actions” in the Albanian-majority Serbian province that the world body has run since Western forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid ethnic fighting.

Kosovo: UN envoy puts off presenting final status proposal till after Serb poll in January

10 November 2006
A United Nations proposal for the future status of the Albanian-majority Serbian province of Kosovo, which the world body has run Western forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid ethnic fighting, will not be presented until after Serbia’s parliamentary elections on 21 January.
High Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling

Local leaders should be responsible for reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina: UN envoy

8 November 2006
The international community should continue to hand over responsibility for reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina to its leaders despite the magnitude of the challenges involved as the country emerges from the devastation of inter-ethnic bloodshed, the United Nations envoy to the country told the Security Council today.
Antonio M. Costa

‘Wake up Europe! You are heading for a crisis,’ UN drugs chief warns on cocaine

2 November 2006
Declaring that he is “not afraid to name and shame the worst offenders – Spain, England and Italy,” the United Nations top narcotics fighter warned Europe today that it is heading for a cocaine crisis, with too many governments in denial, focussing on the supply end in South America instead of consumption in their own backyards.

Georgia: UN finds rocket attack could not have come from behind Abkhaz lines

1 November 2006
A rocket attack in north-western Georgia, where fighting between the Government and Abkhaz separatists 14 years ago forced nearly 300,000 refugees to flee their homes, could not have been launched from the Restricted Weapons Zone in Abkhazia, as had been previously reported, United Nations observers reported today.
Special Rapporteur <br> Juan Miguel Petit

UN children rights expert gives Ukraine mixed report on a new protection model

31 October 2006
Ukraine needs to substantially revamp its approach to protecting children or face serious negative consequences for future generations, an independent United Nations children’s rights expert said in a statement after a six-day visit at the month’s end.

Russian expulsion of Uzbek national violates refugee principle, UN agency says

27 October 2006
Russia’s expulsion of an Uzbek national back to his homeland breaches the principle of ‘non-refoulement’ under which no refugee or asylum seeker whose case has not yet been properly assessed can be forcibly returned to a country where their life or liberty could be in danger, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

Game hunters in Cyprus, beware! Do not enter UN-monitored buffer zone

27 October 2006
With the four-month game hunting season opening in Cyprus on Sunday, the United Nations mission there today warned hunters to avoid the 180-kilometre-long buffer zone it monitors between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots so as not to draw fire from either of the opposing forces.

Georgia: UN mission probes reported rocket attack near Government-Abkhaz lines

27 October 2006
The United Nations mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) is investigating reports of a rocket attack in the vicinity of the village of Azhara in the Upper Kodori Valley in the north-west of the country, where fighting between the Government and Abkhaz separatists 14 years ago forced nearly 300,000 refugees to flee their homes.