Public information

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged young people from more than 60 countries attending the third annual Global Model United Nations Conference to stay united in their resolve to continue the work of the Organization. The Conference, organized by the Department of Public Information and hosted by the Metropolitan City of Incheon and the United Nations Association of the Republic of Korea, took place in the city of Incheon from 10 to 14 August.

Delegates from around the world have converged on Incheon, Republic of Korea, to participate in the third annual Global Model United Nations (GMUN) Conference. Organized by the United Nations Department of Public Information, it follows successful conferences at Geneva in 2009 and Kuala Lumpur in 2010. The Conference highlight will be an address by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 11 August.

Radio programming from the United States, China and Canada was honoured on Monday, 20 June, when the United Nations Department of Public Information awards were presented as part of the New York Festivals Radio Program and Promotion Awards at the Manhattan Penthouse in New York. Juan Carlos Brandt, Chief, Advocacy and Special Events, Outreach Division, presented the awards on behalf of the United Nations Department of Public Information.

The United Nations Department of Public Information has confirmed the appointment of 19 Secretariat and General Assembly officials who will take on the challenge of leading the 2011 Global Model United Nations Conference, to be hosted by the Incheon Metropolitan City and the United Nations Association of the Republic of Korea.

The United Nations Department of Public Information will organize the third annual Global Model UN Conference in Incheon, Republic of Korea, from 10 to 14 August under the theme “Sustainable Development: Advancing Human Progress in Harmony with Nature”. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will deliver the opening address.

The Committee on Information today called on the United Nations Department of Public Information to bolster multilingualism, partnerships, efficiency and local outreach in order to heighten awareness of critical international issues.

Stressing the important role of the global network of United Nations information centres in carrying out regional strategic communications campaigns, the Organization’s top communications official this afternoon called for the requisite resources to strengthen those centres and the Department of Public Information as a whole.

To best support United Nations initiatives in peace, development and human rights at a time of financial austerity, information services were developing a “new agility” through broad collaborations and the use of a variety of media, the Organization’s top communications official told the Committee on Information as it opened its annual session this morning.

The thirty-third annual session of the Committee on Information, the intergovernmental body charged with reviewing progress in the field of United Nations public information, will be held at Headquarters from 27 April to 6 May. During the two-week session, delegations are expected to undertake a wide-ranging review of the Department of Public Information and its three subprogrammes — the News and Media, Outreach and Strategic Communications Divisions.

The United Nations today issued the sixty-first volume of the Yearbook of the United Nations, the most comprehensive and authoritative reference work on the activities and concerns of the Organization, covering developments in 2007.