January 15: Global Polio Eradication Campaign
Health ministers from countries where polio persists come to Geneva for an emergency meeting to discuss the final phase of the battle to eradicate the disease. The $3 billion Global Polio Eradication Campaign was initiated in 1988 when 125 countries were affected, but the deadline for total eradication of polio set for 2000 was missed. Today, the virus is still found in India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Niger, and Egypt.
January 16: World Health Organization (WHO)
After inspecting the southern Chinese province of Guangshou, the World Health Organization finds evidence that links the SARS virus to civet cats, concluding that SARS originated in animals. China also begins human trials of the SARS vaccine. SARS has killed 774 people and infected 8,000 around the world since it appeared in China in 2002.
January 19: United Nations
The Republic of Congo plants the first trees in the country’s first privately run forest as part of the United Nations agreement on reforestation and sustainable development. The objective is to limit the abuse of natural forests that belong to the state.
January 20: United Nations
China starts deploying 500 peacekeeping troops to Liberia. The contingent represents China’s largest contribution to a United Nations peacekeeping operation. The deployment is the result of China’s strong political and economic relations with Africa. It also reflects the fact that the new Liberian government switched its recognition from Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China.
January 22: World Bank
The World Bank agrees to eliminate 80 percent of Nicaragua’s $6.5 billion debt under its highly indebted poor countries plan. It also offers Nicaragua an additional $75 million loan to finance poverty-reduction projects. Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos says this is the best news for Nicaragua in the last 25 years.
February 4: International Court of Justice (ICJ)
The United Nations, 44 states, the Palestinian Authority, the Arab League, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference file written opinions with the International Court of Justice to help the court rule on the legality of the controversial wall that Israel is building in the West Bank. The Court is expected to start hearings later this month. Israel says the court in The Hague has no power to rule on this issue.
February 9: United Nations Food Program
The UN World Food Program (WFP) says a funding crisis has caused it to run out of food. As a result, more than 6 million North Koreans will not get emergency food aid until April. For the past nine years, North Korea has been suffering from food shortages caused by floods, economic mismanagement, and the consequences of the breakup of the Soviet Union, which was the country’s chief contributor.
February 11: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decide to cut oil output by 2.5 million barrels (10 percent of total production), which sharply increases oil prices. The reduction is prompted by the weak dollar and anticipation of low demand in summer.
March 2: United Nations
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) resumes repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan after it was suspended last year due to the killing of one of the agency’s employees. UNHCR plans to return 400,000 Afghans to Afghanistan by the end of 2004 in addition to 1.9 million who returned in the past two years.
March 5: United Nations
Libya destroys 3,000 unfilled chemical bombs and provides the United Nations with a full report on its chemical weapons program, which includes 20 tons of deadly mustard gas and other chemicals used to make nerve gas. The report is a major step toward destroying Libya’s weapons of mass destruction.
March 19: United Nations
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) distributes food to around 400 families in Myanmar who are affected by HIV/AIDS. Myanmar is believed to have one of the highest rates of HIV in Asia, with half a million people infected.
March 25: United Nations
The United States introduces a resolution at the United Nations aimed at preventing terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass destruction. The draft resolution calls on states to pass and enforce laws preventing unauthorized individuals and groups from developing such weapons. The states would also be accountable for all items, responsible for effective border controls, and would cooperate to prevent illegal trafficking.
March 27: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) returns to Iran to conduct inspections of the country’s nuclear facilities. They are scheduled to visit a gas centrifuge enrichment facility at Natanz and the Isfahan nuclear research center, where they will look for evidence that Iran has been trying to develop nuclear weapons.
March 29: NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) celebrates the inclusion of seven new members, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The enlargement brings the number of NATO members to 26 and extends the alliance into the territory of the former Soviet Union and to the border with Russia.
April 1: United Nations
The United Nations deploys the first peacekeepers to Côte d’Ivoire to replace French and African troops that are guarding the buffer zone between the rebel-held north and government forces in the south. The UN force, known as UNOCI, the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire, is expected to employ 6,240 personnel.
April 3: United Nations
UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland accuses the Sudanese government of carrying out ethnic cleansing in the western region of Darfur and urges the world to put pressure on Sudan and the rebels to end the atrocities. Egeland describes the situation in Darfur as a humanitarian crisis.
April 12: Amnesty International/Global Justice
Human-rights groups, including Amnesty International and Global Justice, condemn Brazil’s plans to build a 10-foot-high wall surrounding Rio de Janeiro’s two biggest slums, Rocinha and Vigidal. They say the wall will create social apartheid. But the city’s authorities say the wall will help security forces to control drug trafficking and arms trade in the slums. It would also stop the spreading of the shantytown, which already has 150,000 inhabitants.
April 23: Millennium Development Goals
A joint report by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund says the Millennium Development Goals program, targeting poverty problems in developing countries, is failing. Two years ago the developed countries agreed on the program, which includes halving the proportion of the population in extreme poverty, ensuring primary education for all children, and reductions in child and maternal deaths by 2015.
April 26: United Nations
Twenty-three states sign a UN-sponsored treaty on road systems at a meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in the Chinese city of Shanghai. Like the ancient Silk Road trading route, 87,000 miles of roads will connect Asia with Europe, invigorate regional economic integration, and reduce the isolation of many landlocked Asian countries.
May 31: United Nations
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees launches an appeal for financial aid for the people in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. The city was destroyed by the recent Israeli raids. As a result of the raids, 760 families have been left destitute. The agency says almost $16 million is needed to repair the damage.
June 1: United Nations
The United Nations is sending 8,000 peacekeepers to Haiti to replace the U.S.-led multinational force. The troops will be responsible for ensuring security and maintaining peace, training the local police force, and working on development projects. They will also provide assistance to the survivors of a flood that afflicted the country last week. The UN force includes soldiers from 14 countries and is led by Brazilian troops.
June 3: Medecins Sans Frontieres
The international relief agency, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), suspends its operations in Afghanistan after five of its workers are killed in an ambush in the northwestern part of the country. Recently, the Taliban insurgents have increased attacks on foreigners in Afghanistan.
June 4: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
The members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agree to raise quotas to 2 million barrels a day beginning in July and another 500,000 a day beginning in August. It is hoped that this decision will bring down oil prices, which recently reached a record high in the U.S. of $42.45 a barrel. However, the recent terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia proves that the “fear factor” will remain a crucial element of higher oil prices.
June 25: World Bank
The World Bank doubles its loans to India to nearly $3 billion a year to develop the country’s infrastructure and alleviate poverty. The funds will be spent on such projects as irrigation, power, water supply, and road building. The World Bank also aims to increase access to education and health care, and improve lives in rural areas. It focuses especially on the three most impoverished states: Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Orissa.
June 28: NATO
During a two-day summit in the Turkish city of Istanbul, the 26 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) agree to train the security forces of Iraq’s new interim government. They also decide to expand NATO’s operations in Afghanistan and increase its peacekeeping force to 10,000 troops during the planned September elections.
July 2: ASEAN Regional Forum
Asia’s 24-member security organization, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), admits Pakistan after India withdraws its opposition. India’s decision was based on Pakistan’s promise not to raise their bilateral issues in the forum. The ARF focuses on political and security issues of common interest and preventive diplomacy.
July 9: International Court of Justice
After five months of debates, the International Court of Justice in The Hague rules that Israel’s West Bank barrier is illegal and its construction should be stopped immediately. Although the court cannot enforce its decision, it can serve as a basis for UN action. Most of the barrier is built on the occupied territories instead of along the internationally recognized border between Israel and the West Bank. Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon defies the court’s decision and says the building will continue.
July 15: International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finds Rwanda’s former finance minister, Emmanuel Ndindabahizi, guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, and sentences him to life in prison. The Tribunal proved that he instigated mass killings of ethnic Tutsis in the Kibuye district of western Rwanda.
July 23: United Nations
The United Nations presents a plan to restore Iraq’s ancient marshlands that supported the Marsh Arabs and provided a habitat for wildlife. Once the largest wetland in the Middle East, 95 percent of the area was deliberately destroyed by Saddam Hussein as revenge for the Marsh Arabs’ support of the rebels fighting the Baathist regime. The project will purify contaminated water and recreate natural habitats.
September 1: The Hague Tribunal
The Hague Tribunal finds a former member of the Bosnian Serb government, Radoslav Brdjanin, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and sentences him to 32 years in prison. Brdjanin authorized the torture and forcible deportation of Croats and Muslims from parts of Bosnia.
September 20: United Nations
Sudan reluctantly confirms it will comply with a new UN Security Council resolution to disarm the militias and end the conflict in the region of Darfur. However, Sudan condemns the threat of sanctions included in the resolution. The resolution also asks UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to set up a commission to investigate whether the killings in Darfur constitute genocide.
September 23: United Nations
Two years after the civil war in Sierra Leone, UN peacekeepers hand over control of security of the country’s capital, Freetown, to local forces. This is the next step toward withdrawing the remaining 8,000 UN peacekeepers. The UN has already withdrawn from parts of the north, south, and east of Sierra Leone.
October 19: International Atomic Energy Agency
Brazil reaches an agreement with the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which will inspect its nuclear facilities near the town of Resende, to reexamine the country’s plans to enrich uranium, and to make sure that no nuclear material is diverted to producing weapons.
October 27: Amnesty International
Amnesty International issues a strongly worded report on torture and accountability in the war on terror, accusing the United States of allowing abuses of prisoners held by the U.S. in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. The organization calls on the U.S. government to condemn the use of torture and ban it through legislation.
November 5: Kyoto Protocol
Russian President Vladimir Putin signs the Kyoto Protocol on climate changes, which clears the way for the treaty to come into effect as of next year. In order for the treaty to work, it needed participation of developed countries, which produce 55 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, blamed for global warming. So far, more than 100 countries have joined the pact. The United States pulled out of the treaty in 2001.
November 19: World Vision International
A relief and development organization, World Vision International, pulls out of Iraq after its head of operations, Mohammed Hushiar, killed in a café in the city of Mosul. World Vision operated in Iraq for 18 months, improving schools, hospitals, clinics, and water supplies. Care International and Medecins Sans Frontieres have already pulled out from Iraq due to a dangerous environment.
November 20: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Twenty-one members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meet in Chile for a summit intended to boost trade and to improve counterterrorism measures. Chile is the first South American country to host the APEC forum.
November 22: Save the Children
An African Union helicopter rescues at least 30 employees of the Save the Children aid agency from Tawilla in Sudan’s Darfur region amid renewed fighting between government troops and rebels. The clashes erupt despite a recent African Union-backed agreement with the rebels to end the conflict.
November 23: Arab League/Organization of the Islamic Conference/G8
World leaders conclude a conference on the future of Iraq, which took place in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh and was attended by the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the G8 nations, and China. The participants adopt a joint declaration, which declares support for the January 30 Iraqi election and emphasizes the leading role of the UN in helping Iraq prepare for the election. The declaration, however, does not set a timetable for the withdrawal of the coalition troops.
December 2: United Nations
The Burundian government and the United Nations operation in Burundi begin a program to disarm thousands of soldiers and rebels and to form a new national army, which is expected to take up to four years. The program ends 11 years of conflict between the ethnic Hutu rebel groups and the Tutsi-dominated army.
December 9: International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee aid agency reports that more than 1,000 people are dying daily in the Democratic Republic of Congo from easily preventable diseases and calls for an urgent increase in humanitarian aid. The situation is caused by years of war that destroyed hospitals and other health-care infrastructure.
December 21: United Nations
The United Nations deploys peacekeepers to the Democratic Republic of Congo to stop a fresh outbreak of violence in the eastern part of the country between government troops and pro-Rwandan rebels, who demand the government’s withdrawal from the area. The peacekeepers will set up a buffer zone between the towns of Kanyabayonga and Lubero to keep the two sides apart.