NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL/UN STUDENT CONFERENCE AT HEADQUARTERS, 7-8 MARCH

Press Release

NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL/UN STUDENT CONFERENCE AT HEADQUARTERS, 7-8 MARCH

Topic Is 'Children of the World: Struggles of a Generation'

The twentieth annual United Nations International School (UNIS)/United Nations Student Conference will be held at United Nations Headquarters on 7 and 8 March in the General Assembly Hall.

This year's Conference is entitled "Children of the World: Struggles of a Generation" and will focus on identifying the status and struggles of children from various social, cultural, political and economic perspectives. The symposium will also examine the role of the media, education, government and the United Nations in addressing these problems. The programme of the two-day conference has been planned and developed by students.

The introductory panel will be launched with a keynote address by Dr. Gwendolyn Baker, President of the United States Committee for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Panelists throughout the day will include Anders Rönquist, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Sweden to the United Nations, and Cynthia Price-Cohen, Executive Director, Child Rights International Research Institute. The afternoon programme also includes discussion groups, each led by and consisting of students. These groups provide participants with the opportunity to react to the presentations.

Second day panelists will include Philip Coltoff, Executive Director, The Children's Aid Society; Robert Schwartz, Executive Director, Juvenile Law Center; Emil Robert Tanay, author, Heart in the Middle of the World; and Jan Arnow, author, Teaching Peace. Discussion groups will reconvene in the afternoon. The Conference concludes with a Student Forum, which provides selected students with the opportunity to present their views on the conference topic.

The UNIS/United Nations Student Conference Organizing Committee consists of more than 30 students in grades 10 to 12 at UNIS. For the past 20 years, the Committee has selected a topic of global interest and structured a two-day symposium around the theme. The Conference is attended by approximately 500 students from schools across the United States and around the world, as well as by members of the diplomatic community.

- 2 - Note No. 5323 6 March 1996

The Conference provides students with an opportunity to involve themselves more closely with the workings of the United Nations, and to explore fully the topic addressed. It also enables them to learn how to organize a conference, and gives them the practical experience necessary to organize a series of coordinated events. This unique collaborative experience is possible only for those attending UNIS and the international schools invited to participate.

Schools from the following countries will be attending the 1996 UNIS/United Nations Student Conference:

Australia, Geelong Grammar School; Canada, St. George's School; Finland, Helingin Suomalainen Yhteskoulu; Germany, Munich International School; Japan, Haguro High School, Yamate High School; Mexico, Fundación Colegio Americano de Puebla; Norway, Oslo Katedralskole; Russian Federation, Moscow English Grammar School; Spain, Instituto Ensenars Marquos Casariego; Sweden, Furulunds Skola, Porthalla Gymnasium; Switzerland, International School of Geneva; and United States, Eastern Senior High School, New Jersey, Fieldston High School, New York, Greenwich High School, Connecticut, Greyhills Academy High School, Arizona, Horace Mann, New York, Illinois Math and Science Academy, Illinois, Modesto High School, California, Muscatine High School, Iowa, Ranney School, New Jersey, Rufus King High School, Wisconsin, Salem High School, Virginia, Stamford High School, Connecticut, Torah Academy of Suffolk County, New York, Weston High School, Connecticut.

For additional information, contact Sylvia Fuhrman, UNIS Board, tel: (212) 963-8729; fax: (212) 963-1276.

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