UNHCR welcomes Nobel Peace Prize award to U.N.

GENEVA, 12 Oct. (UNHCR) - High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers Friday hailed the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the United Nations and its Secretary General Kofi Annan.

"I am proud as a member of the U.N. family that the prize went to my Secretary General and a fabulous man," Lubbers said.

The High Commissioner expressed particular pleasure that the prize went to a former UNHCR official. Annan spent much of his professional career at the U.N. Refugee Agency.

"We all are proud that the 100th Nobel Peace Prize for the first time honours not only the Secretary General but also the United Nations as a whole," Lubbers added.

The U.N. Refugee Agency has itself twice won the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1954 and 1981. The United Nations Children's Fund and the U.N. Peace Keeping Forces have also been recipients of the award. Dag Hammarskjold, the U.N.'s second Secretary General, was awarded the prize in 1961.

This is the first time, however, that the United Nations as a whole has been compensated with the Nobel Peace Prize.