DEPARTMENT OF PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS AND THE INTERNATIONAL PEACE ACADEMY SPONSOR HIGH-LEVEL SEMINAR ON "PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES IN PEACEKEEPING"

Secretary-General, Deputy-Secretary-General, current and all former Under-Secretaries-General for Peacekeeping Operations to Attend

On 29 October, the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and the International Peace Academy (IPA) will jointly sponsor a seminar on the topic "Past, Present and Future Challenges in Peacekeeping." The event coincides with the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. All past and present Under-Secretaries-General for Peacekeeping Operations will speak at the event including UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who served as Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping from 1993 to 1996 and current DPKO Under-Secretary-General Jean-Marie Guéhenno who was appointed to the post in 2000. The Seminar will take place in the Millennium UN Plaza Hotel, located at One UN Plaza (44th and First Avenue), from 10:00 a.m. until 1:15 p.m. in the second floor ballroom.

The event will consist of two separate panel discussions, the first on "The Challenge of Running UN Peacekeeping Operations: Reflections of the Under-Secretary-General" and the second on "What does it take to make UN peacekeeping operations succeed?: Reflections from the field."

IPA President David Malone and Norwegian State Secretary for UN Issues Vidar Helgesen will deliver opening remarks, followed by an address by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The panelists will include Under-Secretary-General Guéhenno, as well as former Under-Secretaries-General Bernard Miyet and Marrack Goulding, and UN Chef de Cabinet Iqbal Riza, a former Assistant-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. Brian Urquhart, former Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs and a seminal figure in the history of United Nations Peacekeeping, will participate in the discussion.

The second panel will be chaired by Deputy-Secretary-General Louise Fréchette and introduced by Arthur Mbanefo, Nigerian Permanent Representative to the UN and Chairman of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations. The panelists will include UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former Transitional Administrator in East Timor Sergio Vieira de Mello, and Special Representatives of the Secretary-General Lakhdar Brahimi, Oluyemi Adeniji and Jacques Klein (for Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, and Bosnia and Herzegovina respectively).

A limited number of seats will be made available to interested members of the UN press corps. The event will also be simulcast in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium. Members of the press desiring more information or interested in obtaining full bios of the seminar participants may contact Nick Birnback, Peace and Security Section, Department of Public Information, on 917.367.2401 or birnbackn@un.org.