DPI TO HOST INTERNATIONAL MEDIA SEMINAR IN COPENHAGEN ON QUESTION OF PEACE

IN MIDDLE EAST, 17–18 JULY

“Ending Confrontation:  Building Peace in the Middle East” to Be Focus

The question of peace in the Middle East will be the subject of an international media seminar organized by the Department of Public Information (DPI) on 17 and 18 July in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Co-hosted by the Foreign Ministry of Denmark, the two-day meeting will bring together present and former policy-makers from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and European Union, as well as senior United Nations officials, international experts, and representatives of the world media.

Terje Roed-Larsen, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, will be a keynote speaker at the seminar.  Mr. Roed-Larsen will be joined by Nabil Sha’ath, Minister for Planning and International Cooperation, Palestinian Authority, Yossi Beilin, former Minister of Justice, Israel, and Miguel Moratinos, European Union Special Representative to the Middle East Peace Process.

The seminar, which will be held in Copenhagen’s Langelinie Pavilion, will be inaugurated by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Per Stig Møller, who is currently the President of the Council of the European Union.  The Secretary-General of the United Nations is expected to issue a message to the participants, which will be delivered by Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, DPI.  Mr. Tharoor will also moderate the seminar.  Arrangements have been made for simultaneous interpretation in Arabic, English and Hebrew throughout the seminar.  

International experts on the Middle East attending the seminar will be Adel Al-Jubair, Saudi Foreign Policy Adviser, André Azoulay, Counsellor to His Majesty the King of Morocco, Stephen P. Cohen, Founder of the Institute for Middle East Peace and Development and National Scholar of the Israel Policy Forum (United States), Osama El-Baz, Political Adviser to the President of Egypt, and Dr. Ron Pundak, Director-General, Peres Center for Peace (Israel).

Also expected to take part in the discussions are some 25 senior representatives of the media from the Middle East, Europe and other regions of the world.

Under the overall theme of “Ending confrontation:  Building peace in the Middle East,” the seminar will provide a forum for media representatives and international experts to discuss the lessons learned since the signing of the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993.  Participants will discuss the issues that continue to divide the Israelis and Palestinians and the role of third parties, especially the United Nations, in restoring confidence and building trust.  A separate session will be devoted to discussing the role of the media as a partner for peace.

The international media seminar, the tenth in a series launched in 1991 by the DPI, is taking place in response to General Assembly resolution 56/34 of

3 December 2001, which mandates the Department of Public Information to organize international, regional and national seminars or encounters for journalists, aiming in particular at sensitizing public opinion to the question of Palestine.  In the past, such encounters have taken place in Helsinki (1991), Lisbon (1992), London (1993), Elsinore, Denmark (1994), Athens (1997), Prague and New Delhi (1998), Madrid (1999) and Paris (2001). 

For additional information, please contact Saleem Fahmawi, Chief, Palestine and Decolonization Section, Department of Public Information, tel. (212) 963–4553, fax (212) 963-2218, e-mail:  fahmawi@un.org.

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