Afghanistan

Jean Arnault

Afghanistan: UN envoy says extremists cannot stop polls or new political culture

17 September 2005
Hailing the “unmistakable confirmation” that a new political culture is emerging in Afghanistan, which holds landmark legislative elections tomorrow, the senior United Nations envoy to the country said today he was confident that extremists have failed in their attempts to derail the polls.
Afghanistan's recovery, supported by returnees like these in Kabul

Afghanistan signs UN status of refugees convention

2 September 2005
Afghanistan has signed the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, a significant sign of recovery for a country that used to be one of the world's largest producers of displaced persons, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

In Afghanistan, UN expert on violence against women meets with female prisoners

14 July 2005
The United Nations expert on violence against women, on a 10-day fact-finding mission to Afghanistan, has interviewed female prisoners in Kabul and Kandahar, the two largest cities in a country where women’s rights were seriously restricted under the Taliban regime ousted four years ago.

UN officials in Afghanistan head to Jalalabad to assess security following demonstrations

15 May 2005
United Nations officials in Afghanistan are headed for Jalalabad to assess the security situation there after protests in the city turned violent, a spokesman for the world body said today.

UN agency helps organize food airdrops over Afghan regions struck by deadly cold wave

27 February 2005
Responding to poor road conditions and heavy snow in Afghanistan, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is organizing relief airdrops over two remote areas in the centre of the country.

Afghanistan's progress is notable but perilously fragile, UN report warns

21 February 2005
Afghanistan has made remarkable progress since the demise of the Taliban government in late 2001, but the fragile nation could easily slip back into chaos and abject poverty, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) concludes in a report released today.
UNHCR provides assistance in house-building

Over 1 million Afghans likely to return home in next two years – UN refugee chief

18 February 2005
More than 1 million of the up to 3 million Afghans still living in exile in Pakistan and Iran are likely to return home in the next two years with the prospects for improved security, and it is “absolutely crucial” that international donor commitment remains high, according to the head of the United Nations refugee agency.

UN sends liaison officer to committee probing Afghan air crash

6 February 2005
A liaison officer from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has joined the Joint Security Committee Center set up to investigate Thursday's deadly Kam Air plane crash.
Antonio M. Costa

UN's top counter-narcotics official calls for international arrest warrants against Afghan drug traffickers

30 January 2005
The senior United Nations counter-narcotics official has completed a visit to Afghanistan with a call for international arrest warrants against drug traffickers there.
Antonio M. Costa

Chief of UN anti-narcotics office visits Afghanistan to look at rising opium problem

24 January 2005
With Afghanistan's opium production having jumped last year 22 per cent to $3 billion in value and to 87 per cent of the world's illicit output, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will visit the Central Asian country this week to discuss ways of stopping the march towards an “opium economy.”