Note No. 5780

Note to Correspondents

NGO, BUSINESS LEADERS TO QUERY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL MEMBERS

ON DEVELOPMENT FINANCING –- 20, 21 MARCH

Input Goes to April Encounter of UN with World Bank, IMF and WTO

CONVENTION ON PROTECTION OF RIGHTS OF MIGRANT WORKERS

TO ENTER INTO FORCE NEXT JULY

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 19 March (UN Information Service) -- The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families will enter into force on 1 July 2003, following Guatemala's ratification of the treaty last Friday.

COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS ADDRESSED BY EIGHT GOVERNMENT DIGNITARIES,

CHIEF OF UNAIDS

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 19 March (UN Information Service) -- Eight high-ranking government officials and the Executive Director of UNAIDS spoke before the Commission on Human Rights this afternoon as the Commission's "high-level segment" continued for a third day.

SENIOR OFFICIALS FROM 10 COUNTRIES AND ONE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION

ADDRESS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

(Reissued as received.)

NINE HIGH GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, TWO AGENCY CHIEFS

ADDRESS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

High Commissioner for Refugees, International Committee of Red

Cross Stress Attention to Humanitarian Concerns Should War Begin in Iraq

(Reissued as received.)

SENIOR OFFICIALS FROM EIGHT COUNTRIES, THREE INTERNATIONAL

ORGANIZATIONS ADDRESS HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

(Reissued as received.)

HIGH OFFICIALS OF SEVEN COUNTRIES ADDRESS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Laud Inauguration of International Criminal

Court, Call for Rights-Based Responses to Terrorism

(Reissued as received.)

UN-HABITAT LAUNCHES WATER AND SANITATION IN THE WORLD’S

CITIES:  LOCAL ACTION FOR GLOBAL GOALS

Waking Up to Realities of Water and Sanitation Problems of Urban Poor

(Reissued as received.)

COLOMBIAN COCA CULTIVATION FALLS BY 30 PER CENT

(Reissued as received.)

VIENNA, 17 March (UN Information Service) -- The national survey conducted by the Government of Colombia and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported 102,000 hectares of coca under cultivation as of 31 December 2002.  This represents a significant 30 per cent reduction compared to 2001, when the surface was 144,807 hectares.