'MULTILATERALISM AND UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM' TOPIC OF UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY FORUM

20 February 1996

Press Release
UNU/170

'MULTILATERALISM AND UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM' TOPIC OF UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY FORUM

19960220 NEW YORK, 20 February (UNU) -- The United Nations University will hold a public forum on Tuesday, 27 February, from 1:15 to 2:45 p.m. in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium. The forum's topic will be the United Nations University's programme on "Multilateralism and the United Nations System". The Coordinator of the programme, Robert W. Cox, a professor at York University, will be the guest speaker. Staff of the United Nations Secretariat, the permanent missions and the United Nations press, as well as members of the academic community, are invited to attend. The programme on Multilateralism and the United Nations System was initiated by the United Nations University in 1990, and was concluded at a symposium recently held in Costa Rica. The programme's main objective was to stimulate a stream of ideas about problems of multilateralism and to create a network of scholars and practitioners from all over the world committed to pursuing the development of the study of multilateralism. The presentation by Mr. Cox will include an overview of the five-year research project and its major results. The final symposium on the programme was designed as a synthesis of thinking about the two interacting aspects that have been central to the programme's approach: global structural change; and the potential for multilateralism. In the programme, multilateralism has been given a broad meaning to encompass all those entities that may be or may become relevant in dealing with general issues or issues in specific sectors of policy, whether at the world level or at the level of a more limited grouping. Those entities include States, but also forces in civil society. The discussion in Costa Rica was organized around four major themes: establishing conditions of security within which people can collectively pursue autonomously determined projects of society; defining and pursuing alternative economic development strategies consistent with people's goals and compatible with the maintenance of the biosphere; advancing the protection of human rights and effective participation in decision making at local and national levels; and restructuring multilateralism from the standpoint of representation and accountability. The United Nations University's public forum series is intended to make available the results of its research on issues of relevance to the United Nations system in an effort to stimulate discussion on policy alternatives. Further information on the Multilateralism and the United Nations System programme may be obtained from: United Nations University, Office in North America, tel: 212-963-6387; fax: 212-371-9454; e-mail: unuona@igc.apc.org

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