PRESS CONFERENCE BY ASSISTANT-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY ASSISTANT-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali and actor Michael Douglas would be among 48 celebrity spokespersons from 30 countries gathering for a first-ever meeting of United Nations messengers of peace and goodwill ambassadors on 23 October, Gillian Sorensen, Assistant-Secretary-General for External Relations, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

Also attending the meeting, which will be held at United Nations Headquarters in New York, will be Renaldo, the Brazilian soccer star, musicians Gerri Halliwell, Harry Belafonte and Youssou N'Dour, as well as Sir Peter Ustinov, the first-ever goodwill ambassador, who was appointed during the days of former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold. Several of the celebrity spokespersons are Miss Universes or fashion stars and they work for different United Nations offices, including the Office of the Secretary-General, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Drug Control Office.

Messengers of peace are those designated by the Secretary-General, while goodwill ambassadors are those appointed by the heads of other programmes, funds and agencies.

Ms. Sorensen said that each of them was coming to the meeting at his or her own expense. The modest cost for receiving them at the United Nations Headquarters was being covered by an outside contribution.

There would be a morning session, entitled "Celebrity Advocacy in an Age of Cynicism", she said. It was expected to be very interesting, lively, spontaneous and provocative.

"We want to deepen our understanding of why they do it, why we do it and how we can do better. We want to recognize and thank them for what they are doing. We know very well that they can reach audiences that we cannot and that they have voices and outreach that we don't have. We hope that it will be a useful and interesting day," she added.

She said that some of the messengers of peace and goodwill ambassadors had accepted the invitation of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) to attend the UNCA dinner that evening. A note containing information on how interested journalists could arrange individual interviews with the goodwill ambassadors was also available.

Ms. Sorensen described the messengers of peace and goodwill ambassadors as people of significant achievement in the worlds of film, sports, arts, music, writing and public life, who had brought their talents and voices to bear on behalf of the United Nations. They served as representatives, advocates and

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spokespersons, and raised awareness and funds. They addressed issues including child health, AIDS, poverty, disarmament, human rights, drug control and peace.

She said that while there were no set standards for measuring their performance, their impact could be judged from press clippings, the public response and comments received from younger people. Their voices were listened to.

"When Michael Douglas speaks on human rights or disarmament, we know that that makes a difference. He may not have the degree of expertise of our people, but he can, in basic language, convey a message. We want to reach that larger audience. We want to stimulate interest among younger people and those that may not be directly connected to the United Nations," she said.

Ms. Sorensen said that the celebrity spokesperson programme was a serious outreach effort. The spokespersons took it seriously, committing themselves, their time, talent and effort. The United Nations was grateful for that.

She added that the United Nations tried its best to keep the appointment of the spokespersons apolitical. They did not represent their countries but were representing their causes and the causes of the United Nations. The United Nations did take note of the countries they come from. Over time, the mix of such countries would become broader. The upcoming meeting was not a political discussion, she stressed.

On the selection of the spokespersons, Ms. Sorensen said that the criteria varied. The basic point was that they must be people of significant achievement, preferably with international stature, who were seriously committed and who could speak about the issue, and who wanted to learn more and to use their time on behalf of those issues. In the earliest years, UNICEF was the only agency that had goodwill ambassadors, but in the last 10 years, many other offices had appointed their own ambassadors. Those appointments had been made on an ad hoc basis.

She said that a couple of years ago, the Secretary-General had asked her to see if she could get a handle on the celebrity spokesperson programme. The effort in the last few years had been to draw the spokespersons together to give them a sense of being part of the whole. Sunday evening would be used as an opportunity to talk a little about the United Nations and give a sense of coherence and connection among them.

Ms. Sorensen said that for now, the United Nations wanted to keep a cap on the number of celebrity spokespersons until it was satisfied that it was managing and using the current group to the maximum, so that they felt satisfied in terms of what the were contributing and how they were participating. The Organization wanted to be selective in order to keep the standard high.

She said that many other celebrities were interested in becoming messengers of peace or goodwill ambassadors, but that the programme needed management on the United Nations side. Some of the celebrities expected a level of arrangement and support and planning that was beyond what the United Nations

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simple standards permitted. The approach had been to make clear at the outset that the United Nations had simple standards, such as not flying first class. It did its best to make arrangements as professionally as possible.

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