relief

The top United Nations human rights official today called on the United States and its coalition partners to ensure the immediate protection and integrity of mass grave sites in Iraq in order to preserve evidence of serious human rights violations committed by the ousted government.

The top United Nations relief official in Iraq met with the top United States civilian official there today to discuss the lack of security hampering UN relief efforts, and the use of money from the UN Oil-for-Food programme to pay Iraqi farmers for the upcoming spring harvest.

As United Nations relief agencies continued to increase their presence in Iraq, with more than 250 international staff now back in the country, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today he believed the Security Council would be able to produce a "helpful" resolution on the UN's role there.

United Nations relief agencies today again stressed the vital need to re-establish security throughout Iraq to enable them to carry out humanitarian functions ranging from providing health care to supplying food.

United Nations relief agencies reclaimed additional looted offices in Baghdad today and prepared for the first visit to Iraq by a UN agency head since the outbreak of hostilities in March.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a $1 million donation by Kuwait to its emergency operations in Iraq, the first by a Persian Gulf country.

Continuing his efforts to coordinate relief activities, the top United Nations humanitarian official in Iraq met today with a senior representative of the European Union (EU).

The United Nations stepped up its relief work in Iraq today, meeting in Baghdad with 30 non-government organizations (NGOs) to coordinate humanitarian operations between them and with the United States-run Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Affairs (ORHA) as well as with the relevant Iraqi ministries.

United Nations relief agencies continued to expand their international operations in Iraq today, five days after returning from a war-imposed absence of six weeks, regaining the use of some offices, confronting the destruction of others, and ready to collaborate with American authorities to prevent duplication of humanitarian efforts.

Thousands of Iraqi youngsters will die and hundreds of thousands more will be injured, fall prey to disease, suffer abuse and exploitation or fall behind in school, unless all involved in shaping the post-war future make the battle to protect children the number one priority, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today.