In his opening remarks, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Filippo Grandi, said that we must all learn democracy together and thus this informal consultation. He also noted that there are a number of challenges in advance of the legislative elections. Among them, the question of population figures for allocation of seats in the National Assembly, the definition of district boundaries and putting together voters' lists.

Another point to be discussed is the establishment of the Afghan Independent Electoral Commission. Professor Reg Austin, UNAMA's senior electoral expert, will make a presentation on different types of electoral commissions.

Following the presentations, participants are expected to break up into discussion groups. Representatives from registered political parties, as well as from parties awaiting registration, are expected to attend the workshop.

The program began in July 2003 and had two main objectives; to train a significant number of members of the judiciary to improve the administration of justice; and also to form some of them to later serve as trainers for others.

The program involved over 450 judges and prosecutors, around 150 of them from Kabul, the remainder from the provinces. Approximately one third of the participants are women. Each participant received 300 hours of practical training in some 20 topics including civil, commercial, administrative, criminal law, as well as codes of conduct for the judiciary.

The ceremony will take place at the Prime Minister's compound. Please click here for the IDLO press release. For further information you can also contact Riccardo Shedid from IDLO at 070 288 074.

UNODC is also planning a one-week study tour in Iran for Demand Reduction Action Teams to visit various drug treatment and HIV/AIDS prevention centers.

According to a study by the UNODC released in July 2003, conservative estimates revealed there were about 7,000 heroin users and nearly 11,000 opium addicts in Kabul.

I also wish to take this opportunity to bring to your attention a press release available in Dari and in English from the Ministry of Interior. It is on the National Conference on Counter Narcotics which will be held here in Kabul on the 9th and 10th of December. The Conference is organized by the Government of Afghanistan and will bring together scholars, elders, tribal leaders and Afghan people's representatives.

In his opening remarks, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Filippo Grandi told participants that when the press reports on human rights it not only informs the public, but also helps to mitigate and prevent human rights violations. He added that the media can also help to raise awareness of people's rights.

Richard Bennett, the head of the Human Rights Unit, noted that in what concerns human rights, the media can play four key roles: educator, watchdog, witness, and advocate. He also invited participants to cover trials on a routine basis, not just the high profile cases. Experience in a number of countries show that the right to a fair trial is often enhanced by media coverage of court proceedings.

According to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, although there is no available data, sketchy reports indicate that child kidnappings mostly happen in the North Eastern provinces of Badakhshan, Takhar and Kunduz, the Southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan and the Eastern province of Nangarhar.

To try to better understand this alarming phenomenon, two data collection exercises have just taken place: one commissioned by UNICEF in Northern Afghanistan; the other commissioned by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in the region of Kabul. Data is in the process of being analyzed to give a better picture of the issue so the problem can be adequately tackled.

Immunization polio campaigns go by national or sub-national rounds depending on the geographical scale of each campaign. So far this year over 6.75 million children under the age of five have been vaccinated in four successive nationwide campaigns.

The campaign is led by the Ministry of Health and is technically and financially supported the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.

Click here to find the messages of the Secretary General (English and Dari), from Mark Malloch Brown, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Ad de Raad, the Executive Coordinator, United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme on the side table.

If you want more information on the UN Volunteer Day and what can be done, you can also consult the website: www.worldvolunteerweb.org

For trucks, the tunnel is open in the South-North direction on Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays. It is open in the North-South direction on the remaining four days. The maintenance of the tunnel will be supervised by the Afghan Ministry of Public Works, supported by two companies subcontracted by the Ministry.

Gregor Schulz, from the International Labour organizations, is here will tell you about the establishment of Employment Services Centres in Afghanistan. These centres are meant to support job seekers by counseling them and trying to connect them with "job providers.

Questions & Answers:

Question: What will UNAMA's role be in the organization of the upcoming elections?

Spokesman: Support and assistance, that is our job here.

Question: Will UNAMA run the parliamentary elections jointly with the Afghan government?

Spokesman: Joint in the sense that we will be working together with the Afghan Electoral Commission. We will continue to support the process and it will be a very firm support. The exact structure of how that will be, I don't know. But with these informal consultations and others that have been going on, hopefully, soon, there will be a clearer idea of what kind of structure will better respond to the needs of the electoral legislative process which is, as you all know, much more complex than running presidential elections.

Question: Now that the presidential elections are over what was the final cost and expenditure on the presidential elections? What is the estimate of the value of the parliamentary elections? Where is the venue? Where is it being held?

Spokesman: Today's consultations are taking place at Sedarat, the Prime Minister's compound. It will be finished by the end of the morning.

On the costs, I do not have any information to give you, but I believe they will be available very soon. The information on costs, the actual costs of presidential elections will certainly be available very soon. They are finalizing all the accounts. On the legislative elections, I am afraid that what we might have pretty soon is some cost estimates because there are a number of aspects that need to be defined before you can have a final budget on a process as complex as these elections will be.

Question: You gave the number of heroin and opium addicts, do you think that number has increased?

Spokesman: That is the latest information we have and those were conservative estimates at the time and from Kabul city only. If you want full details of what was said then, you can go on our website at www.unama-afg.org, then go to press briefings and you will find on August 7th of last year, that there was a briefing by David McDonald from the UN Office of Drugs and Crime that provided all this information. He was quoting from that study. [I mentioned.]

Question: What is your position regarding spraying of poison on opium in Nangarhar by the Coalition Forces?

Spokesman: What I have seen in the press are reports denying that. I have seen reports by international forces denying that. I have seen speculation on who could have done that and I have also seen comments by people from the region where they say the spraying happened. I know that the Government has put together a commission to look into this. But I don't know the results. So what I have to do is to refer you to the government for the result of this investigation and also to see the Coalition Forces and to talk with the Coalition Forces to see what they have to tell you about that. But from what I have seen they have completely denied any involvement, if such a thing happened.