1) Update on Registration
The UN Department for Disarmament Affairs (DDA) is just about finished finalizing the NGO applications for accreditation to the conference. Soon you should be receiving confirmation that your application was approved. If you do not hear from the DDA by next week, feel free to contact either Gary deRosa (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Rhianna Tyson (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) for further information.
If you are not accredited and you wish to participate in an NGO side event taking place on UN grounds, the organizer of the event must send a request for a day badge for you to Gary DeRosa ONE WEEK prior to the event. This information is also important for organizers who wish to bring in non-accredited speakers to their events.
Below is a message from Gary DeRosa, the NGO Liaison at the DDA:
HOW TO REGISTER ONCE YOU ARRIVE IN NEW YORK
NGOs should enter the UN at the 46th st. and 1st avenue gate, which is the very same gate that you will use for the duration of the conference.
Always have on hand your passport or photo ID, such as a driver's license. It is also wise to carry along with you any communication you have received between yourself and UN officials in connection with the review conference.
Expect long lines and waiting time. The queue may extend out of the gate onto 1st Avenue, winding its way in through the gate and into the white tent on the plaza. In that white tent, you will be checked by UN security and allowed to enter the visitors lobby of the UN. We urge you to carry as little as possible in the way of briefcases or knapsacks in order to facilitate the security check.
Remember, the more you carry into the UN complex the slower the process will be for all.
Once inside the visitors lobby, you will proceed to the right, directly under the vaulted arches to the registration corner where DDA staff will be present to proceed with your registration.
After reaching the counter, the DDA staff will ask for your photo ID. Your name will be located in a database (assuming that you have met the criteria for accreditation and that you were duly informed as such). A pass printout will then be created for you, which you will bring to the photo stations set up right alongside the computer stations.
There, your pass will be created providing you with access to the relevant sections of the UNHQ complex.
For those of you coming to the UN for a specific event only, a special side event badge will be created for you which will provide you with access only to the room in which the event is being held and for the time period of that event. These passes will be distributed thirty minutes prior to the event only.
Early registration dates have been planned for 27/28/29 April from 10am to 12pm and 2pm to 4pm. New York-based NGOs as well as any NGOs who arrive before 2 may are urged to utilize these dates to register. It will save you considerable time and afford you access to the complex on 2 Monday ahead of the crush of attendees expected on the opening date.
Hours of operation for the registration counter are 9am to 5pm on 2, 3 and 4 May. On 5 & 6 May, the counter will open at 9.30 am
During the remaining weeks of the conference, the hours of operation will be from 930am-1230pm and 2 to 5pm.
There will be no one present at the registration counter on weekends and it should be kept in mind that unless an open meeting of the NPT is convened on a weekend, your badge does not permit your entry into the building at times other than 9am-6pm weekdays.
Finally, for the security of the United Nations, all NGOs are required to turn in their passes at the close of their final day in the UN. We understand that you might want a souvenir of the conference but we urge you to find some suitable alternative.
Passes providing access for individuals no longer using them are a serious security threat that will not be taken lightly. A list of returned cards will be kept by DDA and NGOs not following this procedure may be denied access to future conferences.
2) Limited Seating advisory
The General Debate (GD) will take place in the General Assembly hall during the first week of the Conference. This room only accommodates 280 civil society representatives. With 1,000 NGOs scheduled to come to New York, Reaching Critical Will, the NGO coordinator, is imploring that all NGOs designate ONE representative to monitor the GD. We further strongly encourage that if your organization is a part of a coalition of NGOs, you coordinate the designation of this person amongst your entire network. You don't need to inform us about who the representative is- just please keep in mind that there is a limit to the number of people who can attend!
The GD will be broadcast on the Internet LIVE. If you have a laptop, you can access the Internet via the UN's wireless server. You can also use the stationary computers (though there are only a few) in the WILPF UN Office if they are not currently being used by our staff. Furthermore, we are in the process of ensuring that the GD will be aired on the UN Closed Circuit TV. You can also monitor what your government does or does not say through the Reaching Critical Will website at: www.reachingcriticalwill.org/legal/npt/nptindex1.html, where we will be posting all statements delivered in the GD, as well as in other open sessions of the Main Committees.
Your cooperation in this matter will be greatly appreciated. It will help ensure that the widest possible range of NGOs will be monitoring the debate and can report back to their constituencies at home.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
3) NGO Orientation
On Monday, May 2, Reaching Critical Will will host an Orientation Session for all incoming NGOs to the Review Conference. This session will be held at the UN Church Center (44th St. and 1st avenue) on the 8th floor, from 8 AM to 9:30 AM.
At this Orientation Session, you will receive a complete package of information that will help you in your lobbying and advocacy work at the Conference, as well as some handy logistical info to guide you through your stay in New York.
Seating is once again limited for this session. We will probably not be able to fit everybody in the meeting room. Therefore, this will be more of a brief information session and Question Answering Resource Center than a full-on meeting. It will also be a good opportunity to meet with old friends, meet new colleagues and strategize for the coming week of events. Please be cognizant of other people who may want to join in the session. After you receive your documents, if you have no further questions, we ask that you make room for others by making your way across the street to the Conference.
4) Women's Caucus
All women participants at the Review Conference are invited to join a Women's Strategy Session for the NPT on May 2, 2-4 PM. The meeting will is scheduled to be held at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1199th Branch Hall at 310 West 43rd St.
Almost 200 Japanese women from the New Japan Women's Association are coming to the NPT Review Conference to make a women's appeal for the nuclear abolition heard. For many of these women, this will be the first time to go abroad, and they are very eager to have a direct contact with women working for the same purpose in the US and elsewhere.
Please keep checking the Calendar of Events for changes or updates. If you have any questions, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Emiko Hirano of the New Japan Women's Association, who initiated and organized this session.
5) News in Review subscriptions available
If you can't make it to New York for the Conference, you can still follow all of the events through a subscription to the News in Review(NIR). The NIR is the only daily publication from civil society that offers analysis on the official proceedings, summaries of NGO side events, announcements, calendars of events, interviews with diplomats and NGO representatives, artwork, puzzlers and much, much more. Plus, with the indispensable help of Ms. Dimity Hawkins- one of the truest and most creative RCW friends and advisors- we have a brand new look for the News in Review this crucial year.
To subscribe, simply send a message to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.- You will receive the NIR in your inbox every night- even before the delegates get their copies!
While a subscription to the News in Review is made free through the generous donation from the Arsenault Foundation, your support for this publication- and for Reaching Critical Will- is vital. Please consider contributing to the Reaching Critical Will project today by visiting:http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/about/donate.htm.
6) Meet the Reaching Critical Will team
This year, the WILPF UN Office has one of the most exciting Reaching Critical Will teams yet. Together, we will be carrying out all of the services from Reaching Critical Will on which you have come to depend, including:
- organizing the NGO Orientation meeting May 2;
- arranging daily morning strategy sessions for Abolition 2000;
- reporting for and distributing the News in Review;
- scanning and posting all statements on our website in near real-time;
- arranging daily briefing sessions with governments (see the Calendar for the latest additions)
- staffing the office for limited NGO use;
and more. We are here to answer your questions and help make your trip to New York as effective as possible. Joining Rhianna Tyson for the Review Conference will be:
-Alex Sundberg, a full-time intern from Sweden who has been with us since March. Alex was an instrumental researcher and drafter for the Model Nuclear Inventory, RCW's annual database of fissile material stockpiles, due to be released in the coming week.
- Naomi Gingold, currently a student at Brown University, majoring in International Relations. With wide-ranging talents- including computer programming and Japanese fluency- Naomi will certainly be an indispensable member of the RCW team.
- Hongwei Chen, a native New Yorker currently a student at Dartmouth University. With a firm grasp of the NPT and disarmament law, Hongwei also brings web design skills and experience with grassroots activism.
For the first two weeks, we will also have Susi Snyder, the Secretary-General of WILPF, as well as Kristin Dedmond, a WILPF fellow from California, here to help us out.
And finally, we would like to introduce Mary Ann McGivern, the new Director of the WILPF UN Office. Mary Ann joins us from St. Louis where she has worked chiefly on redirection of military industry to commercial production. She also developed a series of challenges to corporate arms manufacturers regarding ethical criteria for foreign sales, and research and development decisions including use of commercial patents. She lived at a Catholic Worker shelter for homeless women, gardened, and was a local public radio commentator.
