COMMITTEE WILL CHOOSE THREE FOR 1997 UN POPULATION AWARD

24 January 1997

Press Release
POP/632

COMMITTEE WILL CHOOSE THREE FOR 1997 UN POPULATION AWARD

19970124 NEW YORK, 22 January (UNFPA) -- The Committee for the United Nations Population Award has decided that it will choose three laureates in 1997 instead of the usual one or two laureates.

The Award is presented annually by the Committee to individuals and institutions which have made outstanding contributions to increasing the awareness of population problems and to their solutions. Since 1993, when it was established by the General Assembly, the Committee has given the Award to either one or two laureates every year.

The decision was made to select three laureates this year to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Award, Committee members said.

The Committee is expected to announce its selection for the 1997 Award in February. As in previous years, each laureate will receive a diploma, a gold medal and they will receive equal shares of the monetary prize of $25,000.

The Committee of the United Nations Population Award is made up of representatives of 10 Member States elected by the Economic and Social Council for a term of three years. The current members are: Belarus, Burundi, Cameroon, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines and Zaire. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Nafis Sadik, serve as ex-officio members. In addition, the Committee has five eminent individuals as honorary members who serve in an advisory capacity for a renewable term of three years.

Nominations for the award include individuals and institutions. Nominations can be made by Governments of Member States, intergovernmental organizations engaged in population-related activities, population-related non-governmental organizations which have consultative status with the United Nations, university professors of population or population-related studies, heads of population-related institutions, and past laureates.

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