(New York, August 2000) – Some 150 heads of State or Government are expected to come together at the United Nations from 6 to 8 September to tackle some of the major challenges of the coming decades.

The Millennium Summit, which is likely to be the largest-ever gathering of world leaders, will address a host of issues under the official theme, "The United Nations in the 21^st Century." Among the most challenging are how to pull billions of people out of abject poverty, strengthen UN peace operations, and deal more effectively with the world’s environmental problems.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked world leaders to commit to a number of targets, including, by the year 2015, to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, to reduce and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and to provide basic education for all boys and girls equally. He set out these targets and other initiatives in his Millennium Report, launched in April in preparation for the Summit, as part of an action plan to make globalization work for people everywhere.

"I would expect the leaders to agree to specific target dates and identify issues on which we are going to bring our collective influence to bear and try to resolve in the next 15 or 20 years," Mr. Annan said in an interview. He added, "So it is a message of hope, a message of ‘Yes, we can do something about it’ and a message of ‘let’s work together and do it’."

The Summit is expected to be co-chaired by the President of Namibia, Sam Nujoma – whose country holds the Presidency of the 54^th Session of the General Assembly -- and the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, whose country will hold the Presidency of the upcoming 55^th Session of the Assembly, which opens 5 September.

Interactive Round Tables

In addition to making formal speeches at the Summit, the world leaders will participate in one of four interactive round tables, each to be chaired by a nation nominated from a different region. The round table Chairs are expected to be the heads of State or Government from Algeria, Poland, Singapore and Venezuela.

It is expected that the Summit will adopt an outcome document that is being prepared through consultations in the General Assembly under the leadership of current Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab of Namibia.

A meeting of the Security Council at the heads of State level will be held during the Summit, on 7 September, to focus on peacekeeping issues, especially in Africa. The Council debate is expected to draw on the work of a special United Nations Panel chaired by Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi, set up by the Secretary-General to consider how to strengthen peace operations and due to issue its report in late August.

Heads of State or Government have also been invited by the Secretary-General to take the opportunity of the Summit to sign or deposit instruments of ratification for multilateral treaties they may not yet have joined, especially 25 core treaties representing key United Nations objectives. Among the core treaties are those dealing with the International Criminal Court, landmines, rights of women and children, and climate change.

The UN Economic and Social Council will hold an informal high-level meeting of its governing Bureau during the Summit to discuss the Council’s recent session on information technology and how to bridge the "digital divide" separating rich and poor countries.

Secretary-General Annan launched several information technology projects in his Millennium Report, as examples of the kind of innovative public-private partnerships the United Nations can catalyze. These projects include a volunteer corps to provide information technology training in developing countries, a Health InterNetwork, to enable over 10,000 hospitals, clinics and public health facilities in poor countries to access up-to-date medical information via the Internet, and an initiative to provide mobile and satellite telephones to relief workers in emergencies. Each initiative has already moved into the pilot project phase.

The Summit, proposed by Secretary-General Annan in his 1997 report, "Renewing the United Nations: A Programme for Reform", was officially mandated in December 1998 by the UN General Assembly. The Assembly, convinced that the turn of the century is "a unique and symbolically compelling moment to articulate and affirm an animating vision for the United Nations in the new era," decided to designate its 55^th Session as the Millennium Assembly and to hold a Millennium Summit.

A parallel people’s assembly called the Millennium Forum brought together some 1,350 representatives of non-governmental organizations from more than 100 countries during 22-26 May. Their Declaration, which will be presented to the Summit, called for the creation of a Poverty Eradication Fund, among many concrete recommendations (see www.millenniumforum.org).

About a dozen women heads of State or Government will join senior women officials from the United Nations for an informal meeting on 5 September, organized by the Council of Women World Leaders in collaboration with the UN. It will be chaired by Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in her capacity as former President of Ireland.

The 53rd annual conference of non-governmental organizations, organized by the Department of Public Information, will be held 28-30 August on the theme "Global Solidarity: The Way to Peace and International Cooperation". Though not official United Nations events, several other major meetings are being held at the United Nations in the week leading up to the Summit. A Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders is being organized by a coalition of religious groups on 28-30 August (see www.millenniumpeacesummit.org and the Inter-Parliamentary Union will hold a conference of presiding officers of national parliaments, or "speakers’ summit", from 30 August to 1 September (see www.ipu.org).

MEDIA CONTACTS

Background material and detailed information on media accreditation and arrangements for the Summit can be found on this web site.

For more information contact:

Public Affairs Division/DPI
Tel. (212) 963-6870, 963-7704, 963-6862 or 963-1453
pascale@un.org

For media accreditation contact:

Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit/DPI
Tel. (212) 963-6934 or 963-7164
Fax (212) 963-4642