NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS PANEL DISCUSSION ON 'WOMEN AT THE PEACE TABLE' TO BE HELD AT HEADQUARTERS IN OBSERVANCE OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

Press Release

NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS PANEL DISCUSSION ON 'WOMEN AT THE PEACE TABLE' TO BE HELD AT HEADQUARTERS IN OBSERVANCE OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

In observance of International Women's Day (8 March), a panel discussion on the theme "Women at the peace table" will be held at Headquarters from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., on Thursday, 6 March, in Conference Room 4.

Organized by the Department of Public Information (DPI) in cooperation with the Division for the Advancement of Women of the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, the programme will be opened by the Assistant Secretary-General for Public Information Samir Sanbar.

The former Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Angola, Dame Margaret Joan Anstee, will be the keynote speaker. Dame Anstee is the author of Orphan of the Cold War: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Angolan Peace Process, 1992-93, recently published by St. Martin's Press.

Panellists include the Vice-President of the National Assembly of El Salvador and former delegate of the Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN) to the El Salvador peace talks, Ana Guadalupe Martinez; journalist and former Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Sarajevan daily Oslobodjenje, Gordana Knezevic; the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women and former Chief of the United Nations Observer Mission In South Africa, Angela King; and the Executive Assistant to the Secretary-General and former Principal Officer in the Africa Division of the Department of Peace-keeping Operations, Elisabeth Lindenmayer.

The panel will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

International Women's Day, which celebrates women and their struggle for equal rights, is traditionally observed on 8 March. In 1975, during International Women's Year, the United Nations began celebrating 8 March as International Women's Day. In 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace to be observed every year on a date to be chosen by each Member State.

For further information contact Ann-Marie Erb-Leoncavallo at (212) 963-0499; for media accreditation, call (212) 963-6934; for United Nations television coverage, call (212) 963-7650. * *** *