SECRETARY-GENERAL'S VISIT TO GENEVA, 2 TO 6 JULY

Press Release
SG/T/2105

SECRETARY-GENERAL'S VISIT TO GENEVA, 2 TO 6 JULY

The Secretary-General arrived in Geneva from Hong Kong on Wednesday evening, 2 July. Upon his arrival he met with the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Vladimir Petrovsky. They discussed the impact of United Nations reform on Geneva, as well as matters before the Conference on Disarmament.

On the morning of 3 July, the Secretary-General attended a working breakfast with ministers attending the high-level segment of the substantive session of the Economic and Social Council. He then addressed the Council's session (Press Release SG/SM/6274) as part of its high-level segment, which focused on the theme "Fostering an enabling environment for development: financial flows, including capital flows; investment; trade".

At noon, he met with Maria Krasnohorska, Permanent Representative of Slovakia and President of the Conference on Disarmament. In that meeting, the Secretary-General stressed the unique role played by the Conference as the sole multilateral negotiating body on disarmament issues. The President had informed the Secretary-General about the Conference's latest decisions to appoint four special coordinators for, respectively: the establishment of a possible mandate on the question of anti-personnel land-mines; the question of the expansion of membership of the Conference; consideration of its agenda; and the improvement of the effectiveness of the Conference's functioning. Regarding the question of anti-personnel land-mines, the Secretary-General had expressed his view that the discussion to take place at the Conference on Disarmament should be considered complementary to the Ottawa Process, until the two processes hopefully merged.

Following an encounter with the press (Press Release SG/SM/6276), the Secretary-General attended a luncheon hosted by the President of Council, Vladimir Galuska, Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the United Nations in New York.

In the afternoon, he met with the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Uganda, Eriya Kategaya, and with Renato Ruggiero, Director-General of the World Trade Organization. At 5 p.m. he inaugurated the Geneva Library's "cyber-space". That was followed by a meeting with Ralph Zacklin, Officer-in- Charge of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights/Centre for Human Rights, to discuss the status of efforts to send a human rights investigative team into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

- 2 - Press Release SG/T/2105 9 July 1997

On Friday, 4 July, the Secretary-General met with ministers from the European Union. He then inaugurated the teleconferencing facilities of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), met with the Board of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations and addressed the staff in the General Assembly Hall. Following those activities he met with the Chapters of the "Group of 77" developing countries.

The Secretary-General then attended a luncheon hosted by the Secretary- General in honour of the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, following which he met with Edouard Brunner, his former Special Envoy for Georgia, and with Liviu Bota, the newly appointed Envoy. He then met with the Group of 77 on the occasion of the twenty-second Annual Meeting of the Chairmen of the Group and later with the Diplomatic Committee.

The Secretary-General also addressed the International Law Commission (Press Release SG/SM/6279) and then travelled to Ferney-Voltaire to inaugurate the International Disability Foundation Centre.

At 6:45 p.m. he met with the joint United Nations/Organization of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region, Mohamed Sahnoun.

On Saturday, 5 July, the Secretary-General met with Victor Marrero and Seth Winnick, United States Representatives to the Economic and Social Council. This meeting was followed by a working breakfast with delegations on reform. The Secretary-General departed Geneva for New York on Sunday, 6 July.

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