Geneva, 2 July 1999
ECE/GEN/99/12
ECE REGIONAL
HEARINGS FOR THE MILLENNIUM ASSEMBLY
How will the United Nations deal
with the new challenges of the 21st Century? How will
Human Rights cope with the threats posed by globalisation? Is
economic efficiency a handicap for society and the environment?
Can the three be reconciled? And how will the United Nations
address the changing nature of conflicts?
At the instigation of the
Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, a hearing proposing answers to
these issues and others will be held on 7 and 8 July 1999, at the
Palais des Nations, in Geneva, by the Economic Commission for
Europe (see programme attached). The event is part of a series of regional
hearings preparing for the Millennium Assembly, which will take
place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York next year.
The Geneva meeting will take
place under the chairmanship of the President of Malta, Mr. Guido
de Marco, and will focus on issues related to the main fields of
activities of the United Nations, namely, Human Rights,
Sustainable Development, and Peace and Disarmament.
The hearing will thus include
three thematic segments, each moderated by the highest UN
authority in the field, and debated by five distinguished
panellists. A final segment will conclude the meeting (see
programme attached).
Representatives of UN/ECE member
States and of 800 NGOs have been invited to attend the hearings.
Debates will be informal. Participants have been asked to be
forward-looking and to provide concrete proposals for addressing
the main challenges identified, sketching out specific lines of
action for the United Nations to take.
On 7 July, the first session of
the debates will be moderated by Mrs. Mary Robinson,
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and will be
dedicated to the question of Human Rights in the age of
globalisation. While this irreversible trend offers unique
opportunities to promote a universal culture of Human Rights
through world-wide networks of solidarity and the emergence of a
genuinely international jurisdiction, it also creates new threats
which, if unchecked, may well undermine the most fundamental
social, economic and political rights.
Mr. Yves Berthelot, Executive
Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe, will oversee the
debates of the afternoon session, which will address the issue of
reconciling economic efficiency with legitimate social and
environmental concerns. The session will search for proposals for
preventing economic efficiency from generating social inequities
and mass poverty. It will also stress the role of the United
Nations in mitigating the negative impact of globalisation,
fighting back the rising tide of poverty, and promoting respect
of social values.
On 8 July, debates will
highlight the issue of Peace and Disarmament.
Mr. Vladimir Petrovsky, Secretary-General of the
Conference on Disarmament and Special Representative of the
Secretary-General in these matters, will moderate the meeting.
Participants will focus on means for the United Nations to adapt
to the changing nature of conflicts and more specifically, how to
improve the efficiency of its mechanisms for conflict prevention,
boost its Charter role in conflict resolution, and the promotion
of policies aimed at promoting a lasting peace.
The final segment of the hearing
will be devoted to drawing the conclusions of the debates and to
drafting concrete proposals for strengthening the role of the
United Nations in the twenty-first century.
For further information,
please contact:
Information Unit
United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe (UN/ECE)
Palais des Nations, Room
356
CH - 1211 Geneva 10,
Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 917 44 44
Fax: +41 22 917 05 05
E-mail: [email protected]