SECRETARY-GENERAL, HEADS OF UNITED NATIONS AGENCIES, TO LAUNCH APPEALS FOR WORLDWIDE VICTIMS OF WAR AND CONFLICT

SECRETARY-GENERAL, HEADS OF UNITED NATIONS AGENCIES, TO LAUNCH APPEALS

FOR WORLDWIDE VICTIMS OF WAR AND CONFLICT

Consolidated Inter-Agency Effort to Meet Humanitarian Crises

NEW YORK/GENEVA, 19 November (OCHA) –- Appeals for support in dealing with humanitarian crises worldwide will be launched next week by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the heads of a number of United Nations agencies.  They will call on the international community to provide assistance to sustain the lives of people suffering from war and conflict.

The global launch of the Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeals by the Secretary-General will take place on Monday, 26 November, atUnited Nations Headquarters in New York.  Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund, will introduce this year's theme "Reaching the Vulnerable". 

The next day, separate launch events will be held in Geneva and in sixdonor capitals.  Gro Brundtland, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), will present the appeals in Geneva. 

The appeals will be launched in London by Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); in Washington by Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP); in Brussels by Ruud Lubbers, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); in Copenhagen by Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; in Helsinki by Francis Deng, Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons; and in Tokyo by Kenzo Oshima, Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.  Public events will also take place in a number of recipient countries.

The appeals cover these countries and regions:  Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Great Lakes Region and Central Africa, Indonesia, North Caucasus (Russian Federation), Somalia, Southeastern Europe, Sudan, Tajikistan, Uganda and West Africa (including Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone).

For further information, please contact: Phyllis Lee, OCHA -- New York tel.   +1 212 963-4832 (leep@un.org) or Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA-Geneva tel. +41-22-917-2653 (byrs@un.org).

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