SECRETARY-GENERAL TO CONVENE FOURTH HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON COOPERATION

BETWEEN UNITED NATIONS AND REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

Improving cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations on peace-building will be on top of the agenda when United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan convenes the Fourth High-Level Meeting between the United Nations and Regional Organizations at United Nations Headquarters on 6 and

7 February 2001.

Eighteen regional and subregional organizations have been invited to attend.  The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Pacific Islands Forum, and the Southern African Development Community will join the meeting for the first time.  Additionally, heads of United Nations organs, agencies, departments and programmes are invited, including for the first time the Economic and Social Council, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations Office in Vienna, the five United Nations regional economic commissions, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.

Previous meetings of heads of regional organizations were convened by the Secretary-General in August 1994, February 1996 and July 1998.  The growing number of participating organizations reflects the increasing importance of this forum for promoting collaboration between the United Nations system and regional organizations in the field of international peace and security.

In his recent Millennium Report, “We the Peoples”, the Secretary-General noted that “peace-building has helped to prevent the breakdown of numerous peace agreements, and to build the foundations of sustainable peace”.  The experience of the United Nations and regional organizations over the past few years shows that just as conflict never occurs in a vacuum, so sustainable peace is never simply a matter of signing peace agreements.

The Secretary-General has, therefore, proposed the theme of “Cooperation for Peace-building” as the topic for this year’s Meeting in the expectation that a comprehensive discussion on this subject will also help to give further impetus to the process of active collaboration between the United Nations and regional organizations in the closely related field of conflict prevention launched at the last High-Level Meeting in 1998.

The Meeting will address both the different approaches of the United Nations and regional organizations to both long-term preventive peace-building, as well as the challenges of cooperation in the field of post-conflict peace-building based on recent practical experience.

Similar to the last High-Level Meeting, it is expected that the forthcoming Meeting will identify key areas for future collaboration in the field of peace-building, and discuss concrete practical measures for promoting such collaboration.

List of Invitees

Regional Organizations

Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Caribbean Community (CARICOM)

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

Commonwealth Secretariat

Council of the European Union

Council of Europe

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

European Commission

League of Arab States

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Organisation internationale de la francophonie

Organization of African Unity (OAU)

Organization of American States (OAS)

Organization of the Islamic Conference

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)

Pacific Islands Forum

Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Southern African Development Community

United Nations Organs

President of the General Assembly

President of the Security Council

President of the Economic and Social Council

United Nations Agencies, Offices, Funds and Programmes

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

United Nations Office at Geneva

United Nations Office at Vienna

World Bank

World Food Programme (WFP)

United Nations Regional Commissions

Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

Economic Commission for Europe (ECE)

Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)

Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA)

United Nations Secretariat

Deputy Secretary-General

Department for Disarmament Affairs

Department of Economic and Social Affairs

Department of Peacekeeping Operations

Department of Political Affairs

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General

  for Children and Armed Conflict

For additional information, contact the Peace and Security Section, Department of Public Information, United Nations, New York 10017,

Telephone:  (212) 963-6840

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