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	The DPI/NGO Section invites you to an NGO Briefing on The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Opens for Signature (30 March) on 15 March 2007 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium Background Information: On 13 December 2006, the General Assembly adopted the first new human rights treaty of the twenty-first century. Adopted without a vote, the Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities guarantees the same rights to disabled people currently allowed to the rest of the population. It recognizes persons with disabilities as rights holders and active members of society. Speakers: Mr. Jorge Ballestero, Counsellor Minister, Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations, Mr. Thomas Schindlmayr, Social Affairs Officer, Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Dr. Fredrik Schroeder, Representative, International Disability Caucus, World Blind Union At 10:00 a.m. there will be a screening of the World Chronicle television programme, Towards a Convention on Disabilities, featuring Ambassador Luis Gallegos of Ecuador, the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Convention on Disabled People. Representatives of NGOs are encouraged to participate during the Q & A segment. The event may be webcast. If so, it will be available at www.un.org/dpi/ngosection. Preview of Next Week’s Briefing: There will be no briefing next week. Instead the NGO Section will hold its Annual Orientation Programme, designed to acquaint newly associated NGOs and new NGO representatives with the services and programmes we provide. The two-day programme will be held 21 – 22 March.


Conference website Planning Committee Meetings

Only to be filled out by NGOs associated with DPI

Accreditation
Form 2007

Timor-Leste police resume control of country's largest district from UN
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Darfur crimes continue and Sudan still not cooperating with ICC – Prosecutor
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UN war crimes courts call for greater efforts to seize indicted ringleaders
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Ban names Ibrahim Gambari as new head of joint UN-AU force in Darfur
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Aid lifeline to scores of thousands in eastern Chad threatened by banditry, UN reports
1 December – Increased banditry, kidnappings of relief workers and attacks on humanitarian compounds in eastern Chad are threatening crucial aid for nearly 100,000 people, many of them refugees or internally displaced persons (IDP), the United Nations reported today. FULL STORY >>

Security Council renews arms embargo and sanctions in DR Congo
30 November – The Security Council today extended and expanded the arms embargo and related sanctions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which have been in place since 2003, for another year. FULL STORY >>

UN peacekeepers plant trees in Côte d’Ivoire to fight climate change
30 November – United Nations peacekeepers planted nearly 600 trees in a botanical garden in Côte d’Ivoire over the weekend, a small but symbolic step in a project to combat climate change that has already surpassed its target of 7 billion trees – one for every person in the world. FULL STORY >>

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