Yearbook for 2006 spotlights UN’s efforts to ‘deliver as one’

Highlighting events that include the creation of the Human Rights Council and the election of Ban Ki-moon as Secretary-General, the 2006 Yearbook of the United Nations was released today, showing the world body’s unified efforts to respond to challenges on multiple fronts.

The 1,795-page publication “depicts an Organization committed to keeping pace with changing times and an evolving global environment,” Mr. Ban writes in the foreword. “It highlights not only the progress achieved, but also the obstacles that arose.”

The Yearbook’s theme is “Delivering as One: A Unified Response to Global Challenge,” reflecting outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s 2006 statement that “the only answer to this divided world must be a truly United Nations.”

The volume, which indexes all votes by all major UN bodies including the Security Council, covers the main global political, economic, social and legal developments during the year.

During 2006, the UN scaled up its efforts to generate momentum towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which, despite robust economic growth and new debt relief measures, lagged that year.

In 2006, two landmark conventions were also adopted, advancing the rights of persons with disabilities and strengthening protections against enforce disappearance.

The Peacebuilding Commission, set up to help countries recovering from war avoid a relapse of violence, was inaugurated that year, working closely with the UN’s 27 political and peacekeeping missions and offices, staffed by a record number of personnel nearing 100,000.

On the security front, the UN sought to resolve renewed conflicts in Lebanon in Somalia, as well long-standing clashes in countries such as Nepal and Timor-Leste in 2006, which also saw the establishment of a joint UN-African peacekeeping force in Darfur.