UN General Assembly
2004

peace missions are making towards the gradual improvement of the situation in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia and the Central African Republic, as well as in Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, Guatemala and Haiti. He records the launching of an important new programme in the fight against HIV/AIDS; he notes that for the second consecutive year the global refugee figure has decreased by nearly 1 million, and he believes that meeting the Millennium Development Goals by the target date of 2015 remains achievable. At the same time, however, the Secretary-General highlights a bewildering array of areas on which no visible progress can be registered, in spite of the fact that, as the Secretary-General reminds us, there are at present more than 56,000 uniformed personnel and some 11,000 civilian staff from 97 countries serving in 16 United Nations missions worldwide, and in spite of the fact that the whole United Nations system, including the specialized agencies, is wholeheartedly engaged in the work of promoting economic and social progress and development. The humanitarian crisis in Darfur, in western