1999 UNITED NATIONS DISARMAMENT PROGRAMME OF FELLOWSHIPS STARTS THIRD SEGMENT TODAY IN NEW YORK

Press Release
DC/2666

1999 UNITED NATIONS DISARMAMENT PROGRAMME OF FELLOWSHIPS STARTS THIRD SEGMENT TODAY IN NEW YORK

The third segment of the 1999 Disarmament Fellowship Programme starts today at United Nations Headquarters, for a period of three and a half weeks, with the participation of young diplomats from 26 Member States. The Programme began on 30 August in Geneva.

The New York segment of the Programme is meant primarily to expose the Fellows to the work of the First Committee of the General Assembly. The Fellows will be briefed by members of delegations to the First Committee and United Nations officials, including the Under-Secretary- General for Disarmament Affairs, on items on the agenda of the Committee, and will attend meetings of the Committee. In addition, the Fellows will be concluding the individual research papers that they are required to prepare in the course of the Programme, on a topic of their choice relating to disarmament and security.

In addition to the activities at United Nations Headquarters, the 1999 Disarmament Fellowship Programme participants have been invited by the Monterey Institute of International Studies to a three-day seminar on non-proliferation and disarmament issues in Washington D.C. They have also been invited by the Department of Energy of the United States to participate in a three-day seminar on compliance and verification measures to be organized by the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Diplomats from the following 26 Member States are participating in the 1999 Programme: Angola, Australia, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Finland, India, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Liberia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Morocco, Oman, Peru, Romania, Sao Tome and Principe, Sudan, Swaziland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Uganda, Ukraine and Uruguay.

The Geneva segment of the Programme, carried out from 30 August to 19 September, was aimed at exposing the Fellows to the multilateral negotiations on disarmament undertaken by the Conference on Disarmament, as well as the Ad Hoc Group of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). The segment included a cycle of lectures by senior representatives of States members of the Conference on Disarmament and its Deputy-Secretary-General, on issues under negotiation in the Conference, the Chairman of the BWC Ad Hoc Group,

- 2 - Press Release DC/2666 11 October 1999

and by staff members of the Geneva Branch of the Department for Disarmament Affairs and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research. The Fellows attended meetings of both the Conference on Disarmament and the BWC Ad Hoc Group.

Between 20 September and 8 October, the Fellows participated in study trips to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague, to the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization in Vienna, as well as to Germany and Japan, at the invitation of the respective Governments.

The United Nations Disarmament Fellowship Programme was launched by the General Assembly in 1978 and aims at (a) training and specialization in the field of disarmament of national officials in more Member States, particularly in the developing countries, and (b) enabling them to participate more effectively in international deliberating and negotiating forums. Implemented by the Department for Disarmament Affairs, the Programme has trained, in the 21 years of its existence, over 500 officials from more than 150 countries, a large number of whom are now in positions of responsibility in the field of disarmament within their own Governments. The Programme has enabled former Fellows to participate more effectively in regional and global efforts in the field of disarmament and, by creating an informal network spanning the various regions of the world, to work cooperatively and constructively in the pursuance of disarmament and arms limitation goals.

The Programme will conclude at United Nations Headquarters on 3 November, when the Fellows will be awarded certificates of participation by the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala.

* *** *