Regional Hearings In Preparation For The "Millennium Assembly"

     As part of the process leading up to the Millenium Assembly, the Secretary-General has requested the five regional commissions to hold regional hearings whose results will be drawn uponj in his report to Member States fro the Millennium Assembly.

     In response to this request, the regional commissions, in which representatives of Member States, civil society and non-governmental organizations have been gathering to debate how the United Nations can best acheive its goals in the coming millennium.

     The hearings began in May 1999 and will continue for a period of five months.  The first two-day hearing was held in Beirut on 23-24 May for the ESCWA region.  The ECA region in Addis Ababa followed this on 24-25 June, and the ECE region will hold its hearing in Geneva on 7-8 July.  The next hearing will be held in Bangkok on 19-20 August for the ESCAP region, and the final hearing will be in Santiago on 1-2 September for the ECLAC region.

     The overall discussions for the two regional hearings held so far in ESCWA and ECA have focused on the main areas of work of the United Nations, including its role in the areas of peace and security, economic and social development, cooperation, humanitarian relief and human rights.

     Among the recommendations put forward by participants in the ESCWA hearingt were: the need for the United Nations to be more committed to the concepts it had p[romoted and to resist all political pressures, and to find alternative ways to encourage regional development through education and capacity-building.  It was stressed that such an endeavour should not be to the detriment of local cultures.   ESCWA was called upon to establish a tripartite committee that would be mandated to conduct an in-depth review of the state of civil society in the region, as well as to design a cooperation framework to allow the contribution of NGO's in the work of the Commission.  The numerous comments and proposal from participants centred on the need for the United Nations to redefine its role in light of the changing world.  Over 70 prominent Arab civil society representatives and ESCWA Member States representatives gathered at the United Nations House in Beirut on that occasion.

     The two-day hearing for ECA was structured around four plenary panel discussions, focusing on the following themes: addressing global problems: the role of the United Nations in the 21st century; addressing the challenges of peace and security in Africa; cooperation for economic and social developoment in Africa; and approaching humanitarian and human rights issues within a global context.  (The proceedings of the ECA hearings were not available at the time of publication.)

     The summary of the hearings will be featured in the next issue of the Regional Commissions Development Update.