Madam Chair,

As requested by the Bureau of the C.P.R. at its meeting of 10 March 2003, I wish to brief the C.P.R. on the current status of our preparations for the Nineteenth Session of the Governing Council of UN-HABITAT which will be held at Gigiri from 5 to 9 May 2003.

First, I am pleased to inform you that all the 187 member states of the United Nations have been invited to the session and that, pursuant to United Nations General Assembly resolution 53/180, representatives of local authorities, Parliamentarians, non-governmental organizations and the private sector from around the world have also been invited. Also participating will be the relevant United Nations organizations and intergovernmental organizations.

Among the key issues that will be considered by the Governing Council at this session are the actions which need to be taken by the international community as a follow-up to the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly for an Overall Review and Appraisal of the Implementation of the Habitat Agenda which was held in New York from 6 to 8 June 2001. In addition, the session will consider two special themes on: (i) Urban development strategies and shelter strategies favouring the poor; and (ii) The rural dimension of sustainable urban development. The session will also consider and adopt the Work Programme of UN-HABITAT for the biennium 2004-2005 and the proposed Budget for the United Nations Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation for the same biennium.

In this regard, I am pleased to inform you that practically all the pre-session documents for the Nineteenth Session of the Governing Council have been distributed to governments and they have also been posted on the UN-HABITAT website in all the official UN languages. The few remaining documents will be distributed and also posted on the website in the very near future. These few remaining documents include the Report on the work of the C.P.R. during the inter-sessional period, the Report of the C.P.R. on the preparation of draft resolutions for the 19th Session of the Governing Council and the Report of the C.P.R. on the preparation of the Rules of Procedure of the Governing Council. These three reports will be finalized by the Secretariat, in consultation with the Bureau of the C.P.R., after to-day's meeting of the C.P.R.

As requested by the Bureau of the C.P.R., advance copies of a total of 25 pre-session documents were sent electronically to Permanent Representatives, in January and February, so as to enable the two Working Groups of the C.P.R. to start their preparations of the draft resolutions for GC-19. A report on the progress of work of these two Working Groups will be given to the C.P.R. this morning by the Chairpersons of the two Working Groups. The specific issues on which the Secretariat is expecting specific decisions from the Governing Council are contained in the 13 draft resolutions which will be reported on by the Chairmen of the two Working Groups.

In addition to these 13 draft resolutions, the Secretariat has received, so far, one additional draft resolution from the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation entitled "Countries with economies in transition" which the Secretariat has distributed to all the Permanent Missions. We have also received an indication from the delegation of Spain that they will be submitting to the Governing Council a draft resolution in support of the Second Session of the World Urban Forum. As in the past, we expect to receive other draft resolutions from other delegations between now and the opening of the Governing Council and these will be distributed to the Permanent Missions as soon as they are received.

Madam Chair,

With regard to the organizational arrangements for the session the Permanent Representatives may wish to take note of the following:

Under the principle of geographical rotation which is provided for in the Rules of Procedure of the Governing Council, the following Regional Groups should provide candidates for the following posts of the Bureau of GC 19. The candidate for the post of President should be provided by the Group of Western European and Other States, the three Vice-Presidents should be provided by the African Group, the Asian Group, and the Eastern European Group, while the candidate for the post of Rapporteur should be provided by the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States. Towards this end, arrangements have been made for informal consultations among the Regional Groups to be held on Sunday, 4 May 2003 beginning at 11.00 a.m. so as to enable the Regional Groups to finalize their consultations on their candidates for the Bureau of the 19th Session of the Governing Council and also to discuss their substantive preparations for the session.

With regard to the organization of work of the Nineteenth Session, I would like to draw your attention to Document HSP/GC/19/1/Add.1 entitled "Adoption of the Agenda and Organization of Work" which, for your ease of reference, has been put on your desks for this morning's meeting. The first part of this document contains the provisional agenda of the session with an indication of the pre-session documents which will be considered by the Governing Council under each agenda item. I would also like to draw your specific attention to Annex III on page 10 of the document which is entitled "Proposed Organizational Structure of the Nineteenth Session of the Governing Council". As you will note in this Annex, there will be a High-level Segment of Ministers, Heads of delegations and Mayors in the Plenary in the morning and afternoon sessions on Monday, 5 May and on the morning of Tuesday, 6 May which will focus its discussions on the following two agenda items: Activities of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT: progress report of the Executive Director (item 4 of the provisional agenda) and Follow-up to the Special Session of the General Assembly for an Overall Review and Appraisal of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda (item 5 of the provisional agenda). On the Tuesday afternoon and on Wednesday 7 May, there will be in Plenary two important Dialogues with Local Authorities and other Habitat Agenda Partners. They will be on "Effective decentralization and the strengthening of local authorities" and on "Financing Slum Upgrading". Detailed information on the issues to be addressed by these two Dialogues are indicated in Annex VI on pages 16 to 19 of the same document. The proposed timetable for the session is indicated in Annex IV on page 13 of the same document.

During the session, the Secretariat will also organize five key parallel events during the five lunch breaks for interested delegations on the following subjects:

a) Water and Sanitation for Cities;
b) UN-HABITAT and the Millennium Development Goals;
c) Reconstruction and Recovery Following Conflict and Natural Disasters;
d) UN-HABITAT Operational Activities; and
e) The Future of Cities.

An information brochure on these five parallel events is posted on the UN-HABITAT website. It contains information on the key-note speakers and the specific issues to be addressed at each of these five parallel events.

The Registration Forms for the session have already been posted on the website and delegations are encouraged to register on the website as early as possible so as to avoid congestion at the Registration Desk on the opening day.

5. List of Speakers for the General Debate

The List of Speakers for the General Debate in Plenary will also be open on Monday 7 April and delegations are equally encouraged to register early to enable them to speak on the day and time of their choice. The List of Speakers is in the Office of the Secretary to the Governing Council.

6. Information for participants

Also available on the UN-HABITAT website is an information section for participants containing information on such matters as health and immigration requirements, hotel accommodation, local transportation and the services which will be available to the delegates during the session.

7. Meetings of Local Authorities and other Habitat Agenda Partners

Finally, Madam Chair, I have been informed that the Local Authorities and other Habitat Agenda Partners, notably the civil society, will also be convening their own consultative meetings during the week-end immediately prior to the opening day of the session. These consultations are to enable them to finalize their views and presentations on the various items on the agenda of GC.19. There will also be a meeting of the United Nations Advisory Committee on Local Authorities on Tuesday, 6 May 2003. In this regard, I am pleased to inform the C.P.R. that I was in Barcelona, Spain, last week where I had very fruitful discussions with Mayor Joan Clos who is the current Chairman of the United Nations Advisory Committee on Local Authorities. During my visit we also discussed and signed with him a Memorandum of Understanding on the organizational arrangements for the Second Session of the World Urban Forum which is scheduled to be held in Barcelona from 13 to 17 September 2004.