Note to Correspondents

MULTIMEDIA EXHIBITION AT HEADQUARTERS LOOKS AT UNITED NATIONS

SUPPORT TO NEPAL’S PEACE PROCESS

An exhibition entitled “Towards an Inclusive Peace:  United Nations Support to Nepal’s Peace Process” will be launched formally in the South Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby on Wednesday, 6 August, at 6 p.m.  The Secretary-General is scheduled to speak at the opening ceremony.

This multimedia exhibit includes photographs, video and artifacts illustrating the different forms of assistance provided by the United Nations in the run-up to the historic Constituent Assembly election of April 2008 -– a major milestone in the peace process in Nepal.  United Nations arms monitors, electoral advisers, demining experts, gender and social affairs advisers, civil affairs officers and human rights observers have all made important contributions.

The exhibit traces United Nations assistance in the context of major developments in the peace process –- all the way from the “peoples’ movement” of 2006 to the initial session of the Constituent Assembly, which dissolved Nepal’s 240-year-old monarchy and declared the country a federal democratic republic.  The exhibit also pays tribute to the United Nations staff and others who died tragically when a United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) helicopter crashed in the Himalayas in March this year.

“Towards an Inclusive Peace:  United Nations Support to Nepal’s Peace Process” was produced by UNMIN in collaboration with the Departments of Political Affairs and Public Information.  It will remain on display in the South Gallery through the remainder of August.

UNMIN is a Department of Political Affairs-managed special political mission established in early 2007 following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, ending a decade of armed conflict in Nepal.  Its presence was recently extended by the Security Council through early 2009.

For further information on this exhibit, please contact Jared Kotler, Press and Public Affairs, Department of Political Affairs, tel.:  917 367 5264 or e-mail:  kotler@un.org.  For more information on United Nations exhibitions, call Jan Arnesen at tel.:  212 963 8531 or Liza Wichmann at 212 963 0089; e-mail:  arnesen@un.org or wichmann@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record