UN UNIVERSITY TO HOLD PUBLIC FORUM ON UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Press Release
UNU/180
UN UNIVERSITY TO HOLD PUBLIC FORUM ON UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
19970107 NEW YORK, 7 January (UNU) -- As part of a major long-term research initiative on "The United Nations in the Twenty-first Century" and also to commemorate its twentieth anniversary, the United Nations University will hold a public forum in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium at Headquarters on 9 January, from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.In 1995, the University launched a five-year project on the United Nations system in the twenty-first century. The project's objective is to examine key concepts and strategies pertaining to the role and functions of international organizations with a view to explore possible appropriate models for those bodies, especially the United Nations, that would best meet the needs of the international community in the next century. The project seeks, in particular, to produce specific recommendations for policy makers and practitioners through theoretical and empirical policy studies.
The project is structured around five research groups which look at five primary actors in world affairs, as follows: States, non-governmental organizations, market forces, regional institutions and international organizations. The groups focus on a common annual theme each year, as follows: 1996, peace and security; 1997, the environment; 1998, development; 1999, human dignity; and 2000, global governance.
The research on "peace and security" has concluded and its results were presented at a symposium held in Tokyo in November 1996. The symposium aimed at assessing difficulties the United Nations is now facing and identifying issues essential for the future of the Organization in the area of peace and security. The themes of the symposium included the following: United Nations preventive action; the problem of failed States; economic development and military expansion in Asia; the role of international organizations in nuclear non-proliferation; and Security Council decision-making. The symposium papers will be published as a book by the end of 1997.
As a follow-up to the symposium, the University will hold the public forum on 9 January. The forum's primary objectives are to make widely known the outcome of the Tokyo symposium, including a review of the results of the project's first year of work, and to promote an exchange of views relevant to research projects among representatives of the diplomatic community, Secretariat officials and academics.
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The Rector of the University, Heitor Gurgulino de Souza, will open the forum. A Senior Academic Officer at the University, Jean Marc Coicaud, will continue the discussion with an overview of the project's activities to date and work plan for 1997. Professor Atul Kohli of Princeton University will then report on progress made on the "Research Group on States and Sovereignty". Two presentations will follow: the Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic, Karel Kovanda, will discuss "Reform Processes within the United Nations"; and Professor Thomas Weiss of Brown University will focus on "United Nations Military Operations in the 1990s".
Following the presentations, guest commentators will be asked to offer their views on aspects of the overall project and/or the individual presentations. Invited commentators include the Permanent Representative of Senegal, Ibra Deguene Ka, the Permanent Representative of Sierra Leone, James Jonah and Assistant Secretary-General Alvaro de Soto, of the Department of Political Affairs. A question-and-answer segment will conclude the forum.
Staff of the Secretariat, permanent missions, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and representatives of the media are invited to attend the public forum.
Further information may be obtained from the United Nations University Office in North America, Tel: (212) 963-6386; Fax: (212) 371-9454; e-mail: unuona@igc.apc.org.
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