Civil society meets at UN Headquarters tomorrow on ways to prevent conflict

Responding to Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s call for input from the world at large on ways to build world peace, some 600 international civil society leaders will gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York tomorrow for a conference aimed at implementing a global agenda to prevent conflict, the first such meeting of its kind.

A message from Mr. Annan will be read at the opening plenary session in the General Assembly Hall, and keynote and panel speakers include Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland and Nobel Peace laureates Jodi Williams of the United States and Oscar Arias of Costa Rica.

The three-day conference – From Reaction to Prevention: Civil Society Forging Partnerships to Prevent Conflict and Build Peace – comes in response to Mr. Annan’s recommendation in his 2001 Report on the Prevention of Armed Conflict “to organize an international conference of local, national and international NGOs (non-governmental organizations) on their role in conflict prevention and future interaction with the United Nations.”

It is being organized by the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), set up in 2002 following Mr. Annan’s challenge, in partnership with the UN Department of Political Affairs.