The Foreign Policy Association held a conference entitled "The Future of the United Nations" at the St. Regis Hotel in New York. The first day consisted of discussions between UN Secretariat officers, Permanent Representatives, Permanent Mission staff, and academic experts. Participants agreed to keep the individual opinions expressed in this forum "off the record" in order to encourage open and frank debate.

H.E. Mr. Kenzo Oshima was a featured panelist in the afternoon session, and discussed the merits of various proposals for UN reform with H.E. Mr. Marcello Spatafora, the Permanent Representative of Italy. Other sessions on the first day of the conference included remarks from Professor W. Michael Reisman of Yale Law School, Professors Michael Doyle and Edward C. Luck of Columbia University, Professor Stephen Schlesinger of the New School University, and Professor Yozo Yokota of Chuo University in Tokyo. The keynote speaker at the luncheon was H.E. Mr. Shashi Tharoor, Under Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information at the UN.

On the second day, journalists and other members of the Foreign Policy Association were invited to debate UN reform issues with many of the previous day's speakers. In his remarks to the audience H.E. Mr. Jean Ping, the President of the 59th Session of the UN General Assembly, noted that the public opinion of the UN and its member states could suffer if reform measures do not succeed. Ping encouraged those in attendance in their efforts to improve the organization, saying, "The time is right to carry out efficient reform."

Related Information:
Reform at the UN
Foreign Press Association