Note to Correspondents

HUMAN SECURITY EXHIBIT OPENS AT UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, 19 OCTOBER

A photographic exhibition, entitled “Human Security for All:  Integrated Responses to Protect and Empower People and Communities”, will open at United Nations Headquarters with a formal ceremony and reception on Thursday, 19 October 2006, at 6:30 p.m., in the main gallery of the General Assembly Visitors Lobby.

The exhibit will be opened by Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Public Information, with the participation of the President of the sixty-first Session of the General Assembly, the Chef de Cabinet and members of the Advisory Board on Human Security.

The exhibition features a collection of photographs from projects in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, funded by the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security.  It includes nine stories from the field that reflect the range of issues, regions and institutions supported by the Trust Fund.  Extensive coverage of the nine regions was provided by eight photojournalists, including three United Nations photographers, from the Media Division of the Department of Public Information.  A related publication, prepared by the Human Security Unit and co-funded with the Ford Foundation, supplements the exhibit.

Since its establishment in 1999, the Trust Fund has supported 136 projects in many countries, fostering new approaches and pushing for a new way of thinking about a wide range of contemporary challenges –- from hunger, poverty and failing schools to armed conflict, forced migration and human trafficking.  This exhibit seeks to show the human face and the practical application of the human security concept, underlining the benefits it has brought to people and communities.

Efforts to further human security on the ground follow the conceptual work and policy recommendations laid out by the Commission on Human Security –- an initiative undertaken in response to Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s call, at the United Nations Millennium Summit, to advance the twin goals of “freedom from fear” and “freedom from want.”  The Commission’s work also led to the creation of the Advisory Board on Human Security and to the subsequent establishment of the Human Security Unit.  Housed within the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Unit’s objective is to place human security in the mainstream of United Nations activities.  By combining the management of the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security with dissemination and promotion activities on human security, the Human Security Unit seeks to play a pivotal role in translating the concept of human security into concrete activities and highlighting its added value to the international community.

This exhibit was made possible with the support of the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations, in collaboration with these entities within the United Nations system:  Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Labour Organization (ILO), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), World Food Programme (WFP) and World Health Organization (WHO).

For more information on United Nations exhibitions, call Jan Arnesen, tel.:  (212) 963-8531; or Liza Wichmann, tel.:  (212) 963-0089, or visit the website at www.un.org/events/UNART.

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For information media • not an official record