3 May 2001

1. On 27 April 2001, the International Labour Organization joined for the first time in the Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, which has been observed on the 28^th of April since 1996 at the initiative of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). The Director General of the ILO, Mr. Juan Somavía, announced this initiative in a ceremony at the headquarters of the ILO in Geneva.

2. The FICSA General Secretary, Mr. André Heitz, attended the ceremony on behalf of both FICSA and the Association for the Security and Independence of International Civil Servants (ASIICS). Former members of the ILO Staff Union, particularly Mr. Roger Beattie, a former General Secretary of FICSA, were also in attendance.

3. More than 1.3 million die from accidents at work or from work-related diseases every year, which is nearly double the number of deaths caused by war, and more than those caused by malaria.

4. The event at the ILO also commemorated UNHCR staff who died in East Timor last year, as well as other United Nations staff, including UN peacekeepers, who have died or been injured while in service.

5. In the United Nations system, 198 civilians lost their lives between 1 January 1992 and 1 February 2001. Of these, 107 were victims of gunshot wounds, 52 were victims of ethnic violence in Rwanda and Burundi, 21 were killed in an aircraft accident, 16 were victims of malicious acts such as bombing or landmines and 2 were killed during a hostage incident.

6. More important, at a time when the Field Security Handbook is to be revised, is the fact that the fatalities concerned 50 internationally-recruited and 148 locally-recruited staff.

7. Sadly, the opening ceremony of the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers coincided with the murder of six employees of the International Red Cross (four locally-recruited staff, and a Colombian and a Swiss delegate) in the Democratic Republic of Congo.