New Brunswick, NJ (USA)/Vienna, 23 November 2003/P/RE/18434c-is

The International Progress Organization participated in this year's Model United Nations organized by students of Rutgers University (New Jersey) in New Brunswick, NJ (20-23 November 2003). The meeting was attended by over 1,000 students and focused on the contribution of international NGOs to the work of the United Nations Organization. One of the basic goals of the Rutgers University Model United Nations is to help students understand not only their role in global society, but also in the arts of diplomacy, compromise, and cooperation.

In his keynote address on "The Dialectic of Power and Law -- The United Nations in the 'New World Order'" the President of the I.P.O., Dr. Hans Koechler, spoke of the crisis faced by the United Nations Organization in the context of a unipolar world order and explained the dynamics of global power politics in which it has become increasingly difficult for the world organization to carry out its basic mission of conflict resolution and the preservation of peace and security.

In addition to his keynote address in the plenary, the President of the I.P.O. made special presentations, among others, in the committees dealing with the Security Council, the International Court of Justice, the General Assembly, the Palestinian Authority, and the Israeli Knesset. He particularly dealt with the legal and political aspects of the Palestine problem, with issues of international criminal justice, with the handling of the Lockerbie bombing case by the Security Council, with legal problems related to the detainees at Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), and with the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice. In his presentations which were followed by intense discussions, Dr. Koechler made the participants familiar with the work of the International Progress Organization, an NGO in consultative status with the United Nations, and its specific input  into the United Nations program.

The projects and publications of the I.P.O. were further presented at the International NGO Symposium which was held in the framework of the Model United Nations 2003.