The CONGO e-update is produced by staff in New York, Geneva and Vienna, with contributions from members and affiliated partners.

CSO Forum / UNCTAD XII: 17-19 April, Accra, Ghana

The Civil Society Forum to take place 17-19 April just before UNCTAD XII, will provide an open space for NGOs /CSOs to hold events and to facilitate the issue of the CS statement to be delivered at the opening plenary of the main conference. Hosted by the Third World Network (TWN)-Africa the secretariat for the organization of the civil society forum is also working with UNCTAD on civil society participation at UNCTAD XII. The deadline for registration of civil society participation in the CSO forum of UNCTAD XII is Friday, March 21. For any inquires relating to the forum and/or if you are interested in holding a side event, please contact directly Kathleene Boohene at unctadxii-csoforum@twnafrica.org. Read more information on the CONGO website here.

Thematic debate of the General Assembly - 1-2 April, New York

The President of the General Assembly of the United Nations will convene a thematic debate on 1-2 April on “Recognising the achievements, addressing the challenges and getting back on track to achieve the MDGs by 2015”, to focus on the poverty, education and health MDGs. The discussions will address the most intractable problems, identify lessons learnt and possible additional measures to ensure the attainment of the goals by 2015. On 1st April, the meeting will begin with an opening session addressed by the UNGA President, the Secretary-General and two Heads of State and Government. Following the opening session there will be a panel discussion focusing on poverty and hunger in the morning, and two parallel panels focusing on education and health in the afternoon. On 2nd April, the meeting will be devoted to a thematic debate among Member States in the General Assembly. UN accredited NGO representatives are welcome to attend. The debate can also be viewed via UN webcast, live and as an archive. Read the programme and

ECOSOC NGO Forum - 4 April, New York

The ECOSOC NGO Forum will take place in the ECOSOC Chambers, United Nations Headquarters in New York, from 3-6 PM on April 4, 2008. The forum serves as a preparatory event for the 2008 High-Level Segment of ECOSOC, and is an excellent platform to share your best practices and success stories. Success stories will also be published on the AMR Innovation Fair Blog for 2008. Please submit your Best Practices to the NGO Section before March 30 to desangosection@un.org.

1st session Human Rights Council / Universal Periodic Review- 7-18 April 2008, Geneva

The Human Rights Council, sitting in a Working Group, will proceed with the interactive dialogue to review 16 Member States in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review mechanism: Bahrain, Ecuador, Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia, Finland, United Kingdom, India, The Philippines, Algeria, Poland, The Netherlands, South Africa, Czech Republic and Argentina. NGOs can attend the proceedings of the interactive dialogue. The documents on which the review will be based, including the national report, the OHCHR compilation and the summary of other stakeholders’ contributions, are available on the OHCHR website. More general information on UPR is available on the OHCHR Website and on the CONGO website

CONGO Committees: NGO Committee on the Family – 27 March, New York

The NGO Committee on the Family invites you to a dialogue on Religious Perspectives on the Family and Tolerance to be held on 27 March, 13:15 to 14:45, UN Church Center. The speakers’ presentation and dialogue will be followed by audience participation.

CONGO Committees: NGO Committee on Human Rights – 27 March, New York

The Sub-Committee for the Elimination of Racism of the NGO Committee for Human Rights is organizing a symposium on 27 March in Commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. For more information, please contact Corann Okorodudu at okorodudu@rowan.edu.

Campaigns and Initiatives

• Decent Work Decent Life Campaign: www.decentwork.org
• Global Campaign Against Poverty: www.whiteband.org

NGO Resources:  

• NGOIC Calendar and Side-Events Flyers: www.ngoic.org/event/calendar.asp
• Publishing your work at the United Nations: http://www.ngocongo.org/index.php?what=committees&id=12&start=4 
• NGO Law and Governance - 100 Tips & 100 Tools for Better Governed NGOs: http://www.adbi.org/book/2007/12/26/2356.100.tips.100.tools.ngo.resource.book

Other events

• 25-26 March 2008: United Nations Meets Web 2.0, New York: www.un-gaid.org/fr/node/1347
• 26-28 March 2008: UNDP 6th Forum of the World Alliance of Cities against Poverty (WACAP), Athens, Greece: http://mirror.undp.org/switzerland/wacap/en/forum_athens/index.htm
• 7 April: World Health Day: http://www.who.int/world-health-day/en/index.html
  10-13 April 2008: WB & IMF Policy Dialogues for Civil Society Organizations, Washington D.C.: http://www.imf.org/external/spring/2008/index.htm  
• 10-14 March 2008: 51st Session Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Vienna: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/CND/session/51.html 
• 16-18 April: 8th Info-poverty World Conference, New York: http://www.infopoverty.net
• 20-25 April 2008: Twelfth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Accra, Ghana: http://www.unctadxii.org
  21 April – 2 May 2008: Substantive Session of the Preparatory Committee on the Durban Review Conference, Geneva Download the questionnaire for accreditation of new NGOs to the Durban Review Conference and its preparatory process: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/racism/groups/prep_committee_durban
• 24 April 2008: Linguistic Rights in the World: A Symposium to commemorate the 60th  Anniversary of the Universal
• Declaration of Human Rights and the 100th Anniversary of the Universal Esperanto Association (UEA): http://www.linguistic-rights.org
• 19-23 May 2008: 61st World Health Assembly, Geneva: http://www.who.int/governance/calendar/2008/en/index.html
• 25-28 May 2008: Geneva Health Forum, Geneva: http://genevahealthforum.org
•  10-11 June 2008: UNGA High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, New York: http://www.un-ngls.org/unaids/en
• 17-23 August 2008: World Water Week, Stockholm, Sweden: http://www.worldwaterweek.org  
• 3-5 September 2008: 61st NGO/DPI Conference, Paris: http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/index.asp 

The CONGO e-news is a weekly email information service of the Conference of NGOs, informing members and affiliated networks of relevant upcoming events sponsored by the United Nations, CONGO, CONGO Members and its affiliated committees and task forces, and other major civil society-related initiatives. Subscription to the e-news list is generally restricted to the UN offices and headquarters of members of the Conference of NGOs. For more information or to submit an event, please send a message to adina.fulgaradi@ngocongo.org, at least three weeks prior to the event.

Adina Fulga Radi

Communications

Conference of NGOs (CONGO)

11, Avenue de la Paix • CH-1202 Geneva • Switzerland

T: 41 22 301 1000 • F: 41 22 301 2000 • W: http://www.ngocongo.org

The Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations is an international membership association that facilitates the participation of NGOs in United Nations debates and decisions. Founded in 1948, CONGO's major objective is to ensure the presence of NGOs in exchanges among the world's governments and United Nations agencies on issues of global concern.