Note to Correspondents

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today opened a photo exhibition entitled “The World’s Stateless” in the Visitors’ Lobby of the United Nations Secretariat in New York.

Violence against women, political participation, discriminatory family law, eliminating gender stereotypes and preventing trafficking will be some of the areas explored by a committee of 23 experts charged with ensuring that Governments eliminate discrimination against women.

For 67 years, Nelson Mandela devoted his life to the service of humanity — as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peacemaker and the first democratically elected president of a free South Africa.

Two conflicts, two peace operations and two particular ways to photograph the communities they serve. A joint photographic exhibition titled On the Ground: UN Peace Operations in Afghanistan and Darfur opens at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 6 July in the Main Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby.

With “Rio+20” just under one year away (4-6 June 2012), the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations will host a screening of the film, Rio, with special appearances by director Carlos Saldanha and the cast.

The graduation ceremony for the Class of 2011 of the United Nations International School (UNIS) will take place at 3 pm on Thursday, 2 June 2011, in the United Nations General Assembly Hall. Muhtar Kent, President, CEO and Director of the Coca Cola Company, will be the guest speaker. Mr. Kent is also the son of a former Turkish Consul-General and is married to a UNIS alumna.

In observance of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers on 29 May, a multimedia exhibit will be open to the public 27 May through mid‑July in the North-East Gallery of the Visitors Lobby at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Francis Deng, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, and John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, will open a one-day event on genocide, organized by the United Nations Department of Public Information, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Conference Room 4, at New York Headquarters, on 20 May.

An exhibition entitled “The Right to Water and Indigenous Peoples” will open with a cultural event and reception on Tuesday, 17 May, at 6:30 p.m. in the Main Gallery of the Visitors Lobby, at United Nations Headquarters, marking the tenth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

At this critical time for democratization efforts in several parts of the world, the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) will open an exhibition of photographs illustrating its work on Monday, 9 May, at 6 p.m. in the Main Gallery of the United Nations Visitors’ Lobby. The images in the exhibition illustrate selected democracy projects in the field, funded by UNDEF and implemented by civil society organizations in Africa, the Arab region, Asia, Latin America and Europe.