Europe

Bosnian refugees

New asylum law in Serbia and Montenegro hailed by UN refugee agency

28 March 2005
The United Nations refugee agency has welcomed a new asylum law adopted by Serbia and Montenegro as “a concrete step” towards establishing a national asylum system in a country recovering from years of conflict and displacement, thus completing the introduction of international standards throughout the Balkans.

UN urges Serbia's leaders to encourage Kosovo Serbs to join in political process

28 March 2005
The United Nations administrator of Kosovo met with top Serbian leaders in Belgrade today and urged them to encourage Kosovo Serbs to participate in the political process in the province where Albanians outnumber Serbs and other minorities 9 to 1.
UNMIK chief Søren Jessen-Petersen

UN hails agreement on reconstructing Serbian religious sites in Kosovo

25 March 2005
The senior United Nations envoy to Kosovo today welcomed a new memorandum paving the way for the reconstruction of Serbian religious sites damaged during violence there last year.
Paddy Ashdown briefs Security Council

Bosnian Serbs change attitude towards war crimes tribunal, Security Council told

23 March 2005
The decision by the Serb entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina to hand over indictees to a United Nations war crimes tribunal seems to signify a change of attitude at last, 10 years after the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims by Serbs in Srebrenica and the Dayton accords that ended the war there, the Security Council was told today.
Jessen-Petersen

UN envoy welcomes election of new government in Kosovo

23 March 2005
The United Nations administrator of Kosovo today welcomed the Kosovo Assembly's election of a new government, following the previous prime minister's resignation and surrender on war crimes charges earlier this month, as reflecting the province's democratic process and the proper functioning of institutions which have shown political maturity within the constitutional framework.
SRSG Søren Jessen-Petersen

Kosovo: UN administrator welcomes moves towards forming new government

18 March 2005
The United Nations administrator for Kosovo today welcomed progress made towards forming a new government after last week’s resignation of the prime minister as an important stage towards determining the final status of the ethnically-divided Serbian province which the world body has run since 1999.

Britain joins UN tourism agency in ‘historic turning point’ for cooperation

18 March 2005
The United Kingdom plans to join the World Tourism Organization (WTO) in what the United Nations specialized agency has called “a historic turning point” for the future development of international tourism cooperation.
Asylum seekers at a Swiss reception centre

UN refugee agency deeply concerned over recent actions by Italy, Switzerland

18 March 2005
The United Nations refugee agency today voiced deep concern over actions by two European countries yesterday – Italy’s deportation of 180 people to Libya and Switzerland’s adoption of a new asylum law.

UN agencies launch European campaign to combat deadly family child abuse

16 March 2005
With family violence killing four children under the age of 14 each day in Europe, and many thousands more enduring years of abuse for every child who dies, the United Nations has launched a continent-wide campaign against the scourge, declaring that “Home sweet home” is a myth for many children.
Mohamed ElBaradei

Nuclear terrorism is still urgent risk, says UN atomic watchdog chief

16 March 2005
While much progress has been made through international cooperation over the past three years to combat the risks of nuclear terrorism, vulnerabilities still exist and the issue has lost neither its relevance nor urgency, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency said today.