United
Nations  A Time for Renewal | Media
Advisory
United Nations 60th anniversary |
UN60 University Course
The course “The UN at 60: A Time for Renewal?” is planned for
eight Thursdays, from 22 September 2005 to 10 November 2005. It is organized
by the Center for Global Affairs at the New York University. The course will
take place in the Washington Square.
Peoples in the world have been seeking the involvement of the United Nations
in an unprecedented set of new responsibilities, many not remotely envisaged
60 years ago when the organization was created. Does the United Nations possess
the mechanisms, motivation, and energy to keep pace with today's expectations?
Conversely, should it venture farther and foster new expectations? Does the
60th anniversary offer opportunity for "a time for renewal" (its
own commemorative phrase)?
This course offers theoretical, practical, and possibly controversial perspectives
from leading specialists and practitioners from academia, civil society, and
the United Nations system to consider in depth how the world's most inclusive
organization should face some of the most inclusive issues of our day and
to discuss concerns in the 21st century that may define its future successes
and its own future.
Topics of the course include:
1. After the Summit
2. The United Nations and Its Secretary-General Then (reflections on Dag Hammarskjold
in this centenary year)
3. The United Nations and Its Secretary-General Now
4. How Politically Courageous Are the Millennium Development Goals?
5. Peace-Making and Building: Fulfilling and Reconciling Expectations
6. Beyond Emergencies: From Disaster Relief to Disaster Management
7. Dangers Unforeseen: Terrorism and Transnational Crime
8. In Larger Freedom: Towards Democracy, Security, and Human Rights
All Speakers are senior members of the United Nations community, diplomats, and Secretariat officials, including:
1. Edward Mortimer, Director of Communications, Office of the Secretary-General.
2. Raymond Sommereyns, Director, Outreach Division, Department of Public Information,
who worked on peace negotiations in the Middle East and Central Asia.
3. Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information,
Department of Public Information.
4. Brian Urqhart, distinguished scholar and former United Nations Under-Secretary-General
for Political Affairs.
5. Margareta Wahlstrom, Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, New York.
For further information contact Mr. Russell Taylor from DPI, phone No: 212
- 963 - 4763 or see website:
http://www.scps.nyu.edu/departments/course.jsp?catId=81&courseId=58662
Organizers: New York University in collaboration with the United Nations.
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE SEMINAR SERIES: "The United Nations at 60: Reform and Renewal?"
Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies will launch GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
SEMINAR SERIES: "The United Nations at 60: Reform and Renewal?"
The Series will be co-sponsored by the Academic Council on the United Nations
System and the United Nations Department of Public Information.
The Series will start on September 28 The theme of the session will be “Assessing the Reform Effort.” Following by:
October 5 “The Security Council: Hegemonic Law-making?”
12:00-2:00pm
Room C 202
October 19 “The Contribution of Civil Society to the United Nations”
12:00-2:00pm
Room 9204
October 26 “The ICJ: Elders in the Global Village”
12:00-2:00pm
Room C 201
November 2 “The Advisability of ICJ Advisory Opinions.”
12:00-2:00pm
Room C 201
November 9 “The General Assembly: Past Hopes and Future Prospects”
12:00-2:00pm
Room 9100
For more information , please contact Tel: 212-817-2100
Fax: 212-817-1565
Email: RBInstitute@gc.cuny.edu
or visit :
http://web.gc.cuny.edu/RalphBuncheInstitute
“Diplomat for a day” – Information Tour in Geneva
The event “Diplomat for a day” will be launched at the domain “La Pastorale” and at the United Nations Office in Geneva on 25 September. Members of the general public will receive a passport and a map tracing a walking tour that will pass by the headquarters of many of the international organizations in Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Palais des Nations.
The event is part of the official UN60 celebrations in Geneva.
Organizers: Geneva State and City Governments, the Swiss Mission to the UN, The International Red Cross and its International Museum, Mandat International, The Geneva Foundation, The United Nations Women's Guild and UNIRESO (the Public Transport System of Geneva).
For further information see website:
http://www.geneve.ch/onu60ans/decouv_quartier_en.html
Exhibition: Trygve Lie
A photo-exhibit honoring the life and work of Norway’s Trygve Lie (1896-1968) will be shown at UN headquarters during the 60th General Assembly. Lie was the first Secretary General of the United Nations.
The exhibition focuses on the period when Trygve Lie was Secretary General of the United Nations (1946-53). The photos depict historic meetings in the UN, Trygve Lie in the company of world leaders and royalty and his many visits to foreign countries.
A major part of the photos comes from Trygve Lie’s personal archives, given to the Library of the University of Oslo. Others are from the UN and various news agencies. The exhibition will be shown in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the United Nations.
Where: UN Headquarters New York
When: Until 24 October 2005
For further information: Permanent Mission of Norway to the UN ph. 212-421-7333
Articles in Magazine
“The UN at 60” is the theme of the Canadian magazine Policy Options in Volume 26, September 2005.
Seven articles related to the United Nations can be found in this volume:
1. "Founding the United Nations: Canada at San Francisco, 1945"
2. "Reforming the Security Council: what goes around comes around"
3. "Between the UN and the US - reforming one, restraining the other"
4. "Haiti, again! A tough peace building task"
5. "From myth to reality check; from peacekeeping to stabilization"
6. "A view from Washington: the immovable object of the UN meets the
irresistible force of the US"
7. "The global governance deficit"
“Policy Options” is Canadian public policy magazine. Its goal is to encourage an informed debate on the important public policy issues of today, and of tomorrow. “Policy Options” is published ten times per year.
For further information see Policy Options website: http://www.irpp.org/po/
Exhibition: “We the Peoples, Families and Development”
A major exhibition entitled “We the peoples, families and development”, consisting of 180 large-format photographs by Uwe Ommer, illustrating the diversity of families throughout the world and highlighting the Millennium Development Goals will be displayed from 6 September until 24 October on the Quai Wilson, in front of the Palais Wilson, thus making the exhibition readily accessible to the public at large. The opening of the exhibition will take place on 6 September.
For further information: United Nations Office in Geneva http://www.unog.ch/
The 58th Annual DPI/NGO Conference
More than 2,000 participants representing over 1,200 non-governmental and civil society organizations in 120 countries will gather during the 58th Annual DPI/NGO Conference, entitled Our Challenge: Voices for Peace, Partnerships and Renewal. The Conference will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 7-9 September 2005. The three-day event will bring together representatives of Member States and national parliaments to interact with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society.
A press conference/reception to provide a preview of the Conference is scheduled to take place at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 6 September, in UNCA Club Room. Daily press briefings will take place in Room S-226, on Wednesday, 7 September, at 12:45 p.m.; on Thursday, 8 September, at 12:45 p.m.; and on Friday, 9 September, at 1:30 p.m.
United Nations Television will make a live feed available to broadcast clients. United Nations Radio will conduct interviews with select speakers. Audiocassettes of select plenary sessions will be available upon request from the United Nations Audio Library. The United Nations will also provide press release coverage in English of the Conference plenary sessions.
Press releases and other media-related information materials, including speeches,
will be available on the Conference website at www.unngodpiconference.org.
A live and archived webcast of the panel discussions will also be available
on the website.
Organizer: DPI and associated NGO:s.
For media-related information and events, and for interview requests, please contact Sasa Gorisek, DPI/NGO Section, at 3-1859 or gorisek@un.org
World Conference of Speakers of Parliament
The Second World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments is scheduled to take place 7-9 September at the UN Headquarters in New York. Over 150 Speakers of Parliament over the world have confirmed their participation in the conference.
The Speakers will be coming to New York to bring their vision of multilateral cooperation to the hub of international politics, and will seek to bridge the democracy gap in international relations. They will discuss ways to deepen the involvement of parliaments in international affairs and to support efforts to build a strong, effective and reformed United Nations. The Speakers will also review a proposed new framework of criteria and good practices aimed at advancing democracy through the institution pf parliament.
In the inaugural ceremony statements will be made by the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Mr. Sergio Paez, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States Mr. Dennis Hastert and the President of the United Nations Assembly Mr. Jean Ping. The Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan will address the conference on Thursday 8 Sept.
Short programme for the conference:
1) Adoption of Agenda
2) Report on Parliamentary involvement in international affairs
3) Progress report on meeting the Millennium Development Goals
4) Report on Parliament and Democracy in the 21st Century
5) General debate Parliaments and multilateral cooperation: Meeting the
challenges of the 21st century
6) Adoption of the Declaration
Organizer: Inter-Parliamentary Union
Website for the conference: http://www.ipu.org/Splz-e/sp-conf05.htm
For more information, contact: Alessandro Motter, Liaison Officer IPU e-mail:
am@mail.ipu.org or
ny-office@mail.ipu.org
International summit: Cities, Art & Recovery
The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is organizing an international summit entitled “Cities, Art & Recovery”. The summit is focused on arts and culture after catastrophe.
Artists, performers, writers, architects, lawyers, scholars, activists, community and political leaders from a range of contexts that have been directly affected and transformed by violence will gather in downtown Manhattan in a public exchange of stories, strategies, ideas and memories.
Over three days of roundtable discussions, performances, films and art installations in all media, Cities, Art and Recovery will consider how people remember and rebuild after tragedy and how the arts have been crucial to such recovery.
The summit is a UN60 commemorative activity.
Organizer: Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Website for the summit: http://www.lmcc.net/recovery
For more information contact: Radhika Subramaniam e-mail. rsubramaniam@lmcc.net
Open UN 2005
On the 13 September before the official UN Summit in New York (September 14-16, 2005), Bridge Initiative and other NGOs have scheduled a full day of events, dialog, video links, and films focusing on the issues discussed at the UN Summit.
Open UN is a public dialog between governments, international agencies and a large number of different civil-society voices from around the world with purpose to build a bridge between the rich and the poor, between religions and cultures, and between international institutions/governments and the people they are supposed to represent.
The issues scheduled to be covered are: MDGs+5 (Millennium Development Goals + 5) Assessment, Reform of the United Nations and of the Multilateral System, Peace and Security.
Open UN is taking place between the G-8 Summit that was derailed by terrorism in the UK and the WTO summit in Hong Kong planned in December. It corresponds with the 60th anniversary of the United Nations and the official UN Summit.
The event is open to the press and to the broadcast media.
Organizer: Bridge Initiative and other NGOs
Website for the event: http://www.openun.org
For more information contact: Patrice Barrat e-mail. patrice.barrat@bridge-initiative.org
The media advisory is prepared by the Partnership Unit, CSS, Outreach Division, DPI.
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