The United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic (UNA-DR), Global Foundation for Democracy and Development/ Fundacion Global Democracia y Desarrollo (GFDD/FUNGLODE), officially inaugurated the International Conference of the Americas (CILA for it’s name in Spanish), with the participation of 1,500 national and international students.

During the inauguration act, Koffi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations transmitted a very special message to all the participants where he stated “When I was instated to my position 10 years ago, I knew that humanity had three major challenges ahead. The first challenge was to guarantee that globalization would benefit everyone around the globe; the second one was to remedy the chaos developed pos the cold war; and the third consisted on protection human rights and dignity”.  He emphasized during his speech that we have come a long way to achieve these goals, but nonetheless we still have a long way to go.

He manifested his wish that this conference allows participants to put themselves in the place of member states of the United Nations and show them the benefits of having solutions to global issues.

Presiding the table was Natasha Despotovic, Executive Director of Global Foundation for Democracy and Development, she was accompanied by Lelei Lelaulu, President of Counterpart International; Pilar Sandoval, President of the United Nations Association for the Dominican Republic; Juan Carlos Brandt, Chief of the DPI/ NGO Section of the United Nations; Johanna Mendelson, Head Adviser for the United Nations Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH); Marta Estrellas, Officer of the Interamerican Development Bank’s Youth Program; Irving Stolberg, President of the United Nations Association of the United States Connecticut Chapter; Catherine Acosta, Coordinator of the Model of the United Nations; Laiden Fuster, Secretary General of the International Conference of the Americas (CILA 2006).

During the conference, students will distribute themselves in 14 committees that will develop the topics to be worked on.  During the four days of the conference, students from all over Dominican Republic and the world will represent all the member states of the United Nations Organization and debate all the important topics for each country and try to develop consensus on solutions.

CILA 2006 will be taking place until Sunday October 14th in the Bavaro Convention Center in Dominican Republic.