MEETING OF SECRETARY-GENERAL WITH COUSTEAU SOCIETY TO RECEIVE PETITION ON ‘RIGHTS OF FUTURE GENERATIONS’

                                          Note No. 5683

                                                            16 October 2001

Note to Correspondents

MEETING OF SECRETARY-GENERAL WITH COUSTEAU SOCIETY TO RECEIVE PETITION

ON ‘RIGHTS OF FUTURE GENERATIONS’

On 17 October at 12:30 p.m. in the 38^th floor Boardroom, the Secretary-General will receive a petition, originally launched by the late Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau, urgently calling for the preservation of the planet’s environment.

To date, this petition has been signed by over 9 million people from

106 countries, supporting Captain Cousteau’s goal of ensuring an intact and uncontaminated earth for future generations.

A delegation of the Cousteau Society led by Mr. Pierre Chastan, spokesman for the petitioners, will present the petition.  Also, the widow of Captain Cousteau, and President of the Cousteau Society, Mrs. Francine Cousteau will give a brief statement on this occasion.  As a symbol that this petition represents the planet that should be left whole for future generations, five children from the United Nations International School will read out the five Articles of the Petition, entitled “The Rights of Future Generations”.

Among the other members of the delegation will be Edith Brown Weiss, Professor of International Law and the Environment at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.; Henri Jacquier, friend and colleague of Captain Cousteau for over 27 years; Michele Perret and the family of Mr. Chastan (Marie Hélène Chastan, Annabelle Chastan and Lise Chastan).

Captain Cousteau’s vision -- seeing the petition and the ideas it represents come to the attention of the world community through the hands of the Secretary-General -- owes much to the efforts of Mr. Chastan, who began this campaign following the death of his mentor, Captain Cousteau. 

A personal quest began for Mr. Chastan, who built a boat from the trees cut down on his father’s land in France.  The boat was baptized “The Message”.  Aboard it, Mr. Chastan set out to collect more petitions, crossing the Atlantic from France in his small boat to bring the message on preservation of the planet’s environment to the United Nations in New York.

For further information, please contact Ms. Nathania Verlaque-Ustun, Development and Human Rights Section, United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), tel. (212) 963-2744.

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