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Late Breaking News on Habitat II

Last updated 2 June 1996 --

Shafqat Kakakhel (Pakistan)
Pre-Conference consultations concluded today here in Istanbul. Delegates recommended that the Conference elect Shafqat Kakakhel (Pakistan) as Chair of Committee 1. Committee I will negotiate the main Habitat II output, the Habitat Agenda: Goals and Principles, Commitments and Global Plan of Action . Delegates also recommended that Martti Lujanen (Finland) be elected Chair of Committee II, which will hold hearings on the role and contribution of local authorities, the private sector, parliamentarians, NGOs and other partners in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda.

Martti Lujanen (Finland)
In Saturday's first pre-Conference negotiating session, delegates recommended a general schedule and structure for the Conference. They also recommended that President of Turkey, Süleyman Demirel, be elected President of Habitat II. Pre-conference consultations also agreed to a number of procedural matters. Details on these decisions, negotiating strategy and reaction to the storming of an alternative NGO forum are in the Earth Negotiations Bulletin's first issue from Habitat II.

Here is the conference document (sorry for the mess, but we didn't post this disaster of HTML coding!! Please blame the United Nations!!) that will be debated in Istanbul.

We will continue our live coverage of Habitat II through 19 June. We will have color photos, recorded RealAudio interviews (and perhaps a delayed feed from the Conference opening) and daily issues in English and French of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin. The wires are a little frayed right now on our end, so other elements of our coverage may be delayed. The opening issue of the Bulletin for Habitat II will be available by Monday morning. Stay tuned!!

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The Third Session of the Preparatory Committee for the UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) ended in New York during February. Although the spirit of negotiation was good, procedural bottlenecks and the volume of work to be finished produced less than favorable results.

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin has prepared a comprehensive summary of the Third Session of the PrepCom, which includes an analysis of the process to date.

In addition, we have posted RealAudio recordings of the final statements If you have any late-breaking news, updates or recent material on Habitat II, send us e-mail at enb@igc.apc.org

We published daily issues of the Earth Negotiations Bulletinin French and English from here in New York. Our daily issues are 2000-word summaries of the official proceedings.

Here is a link to the UN's gopher for press releases on Human Settlements.