UN General Assembly
1993

the optimum management and coordination of military and civilian organizations in responding to disasters. As things stand now, election assistance and monitoring, the protection of human rights, disaster assistance, reconstruction aid, humanitarian relief and tasks of a similar nature are already considered integral parts of the new United Nations peace operations, to be put into effect as soon as hostilities cease. Austria heartily welcomes this new development, having itself sent troops, military observers, police or Forty-eighth session - 1 October l993 11 civilian experts to 12 of the 21 new United Nations operations since 1988. In keeping with the Secretary-General’s "Agenda for Peace", the Austrian Federal Government decided on 25 May of this year to lay the necessary groundwork on a national level to put Austrian participation in United Nations peace operations on a new legal footing. We will now be able to comply more quickly and efficiently with future requests by the United Nations and regional organizations and with the military, police and civilian requirements they entail. To be more specific, there