NZ signs to punish attacks on UN staff

New Zealand has signed a UN treaty to criminalise and punish attacks against UN personnel working in the field.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters signed the treaty in New York, where he is at the UN General Assembly.

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel required states to criminalise attacks against UN people and to extradite or prosecute those responsible.

Mr Peters said New Zealand had been at the forefront of negotiations over the convention, which was adopted in 1994, and again over the protocol.

"The General Assembly's decision to adopt the protocol last year was widely attributed to New Zealand's efforts," Mr Peters said.

"The protocol is an important mechanism for helping to protect UN workers. The original convention was narrow in focus, and applied only to peacekeeping, which the majority of UN field workers are not involved in."

Attacks on UN workers had increased, he said, and "greater protection is vital".

New Zealand had 14 people serving in six UN missions, and this number would increase should police in East Timor come under UN control, Mr Peters said.

The protocol will come into force after 22 countries have ratified it. Mr Peters said New Zealand hoped to ratify the treaty next year.

He also signed New Zealand's formal accession to the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

The convention seeks to reduce statelessness by creating a domestic regime to confer nationality on people who would otherwise be stateless.

Mr Peters said New Zealand's accession contained a permitted declaration giving the country the right in certain circumstances to deprive people of citizenship if they acted contrary to the country's interests.

- NZPA