KEYNOTE SPEAKERS CONFIRMED FOR SIXTY-SECOND ANNUAL DPI/NGO CONFERENCE,

TO BE HELD IN MEXICO CITY FROM 9-11 SEPTEMBER

Nobel Laureate Jody Williams and Miguel Marin-Bosch, former Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations in Geneva, are among a list of distinguished keynote speakers attending the Sixty-Second Annual DPI/NGO Conference, which will take place in Mexico City from 9-11 September.

Ms. Williams, Ambassador Marin-Bosch and other speakers will address the opening session of the three-day premier event of the non-governmental organizations associated with the Department of Public Information (DPI).

The Conference, entitled “For Peace and Development:  Disarm Now!” will take place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico City’s Centro Historico -- a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site.  It will emphasize the active engagement of participants in round-table discussions, breakout sessions, interactive dialogues, regional workshops, daily caucuses, and special events.  In addition, various leading figures of the disarmament community, including Roberto Zamora, a Costa Rican attorney, will join Ms. Williams and Mr. Marin-Bosch in encouraging civil society to play its part in achieving peace and development through disarmament.

Ms. Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in partnership with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a leading organization in the effort towards international disarmament.  She continues to work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and other organizations and activist groups striving for the advancement of peace, justice and human development.

Mr. Marin-Bosch served as Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva and the Conference on Disarmament from 1989-1995.  In 1994 he chaired the Ad Hoc Committee that initiated the comprehensive nuclear test-ban negotiations, and was soon afterwards presented with the Josephine Pomerance Award by the NGO Committee on Disarmament in New York for his support of global disarmament.  Mr. Marin-Bosch, who has written extensively on disarmament and United Nations matters, also worked closely with Ambassador Alfonso Garcia Robles, Nobel Prize Winner [1982] and chief architect of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Mr. Zamora litigates mostly constitutional human rights issues.  He began his involvement in disarmament affairs as a student, participating in non-violent demonstrations and challenging the Costa Rican Government’s support of the invasion of Iraq led by the United States and the United Kingdom.  Mr. Zamora has continued to serve as a spokesperson for human rights and disarmament affairs, especially within Costa Rica.

Registration for the Conference, which is open to all non-governmental organizations, closes on 1 August.  Interested non-governmental organizations and civil society activists are encouraged to visit the Conference website, which is designed to provide useful information to civil society actors worldwide with an interest in participating in and/or contributing to the work of the Sixty-Second Annual DPI/NGO Conference.

This will be the second consecutive time that the DPI/NGO Conference will be held outside United Nations Headquarters in New York.  Based on the success of the 2008 event, held in Paris, France, the Department of Public Information expects that this year’s location will enhance the participation of regional NGOs, particularly those from Latin America and the Caribbean.  The Conference is organized in collaboration with the Office for Disarmament Affairs and the Government of Mexico.  This year’s theme of disarmament, peace, and development is one of growing importance to the United Nations and to civil society.  The Government of Mexico, in particular, has been in the forefront of the movement towards disarmament, both within the United Nations and in the wider international community.  It is hoped that the Conference will help spread the message of disarmament through peace and development.

The Conference also aims to highlight the promising new window of opportunity to initiate multilateral momentum on disarmament, while also addressing troublesome situations that threaten global development.  Civil society advocates and like-minded organizations within the NGO community will have the opportunity to address those issues and make their contributions to the March 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference.

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For information media • not an official record