Fwd: Last moment opportunity: Baku Assembly
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Sender: [email protected]
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 17:12:52 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: Fwd: Last moment opportunity: Baku Assembly
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Marten van Harten <[email protected]>
Fwd: Last moment opportunity: Baku Assembly
Dear Friends,
Please forward this last-moment appeal to your lists, and be welcome
yourself at the Baku Assembly, 28 October - 1 November!
Marten van Harten
hCa /Consultant South Caucasus
+31-20-6181780
----- Original Message -----
From: Marten van Harten <[email protected]>
Last moment opportunity - please spread this message further!
5th hCa General Assembly in Baku, Azerbaijan
28 October - 1 November 2000
INVITATION
To:
Peace and human rights activists, NGO leaders, journalists, students
of international relations, and other committed individuals
Welcome to Baku!
The International Secretariat of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly (hCa)
takes pleasure to offer you the opportunity to come to Baku,
Azerbaijan.
This city, located at the cross-roads between Eastern Europe, the
Middle East and South Asia, will host the 5th General Assembly of
hCa, next 28th of October to 1th November 2000.
Civic activists from the West are particularly welcome for many good
reasons, like supporting the vulnerable peace and human rights
movement in the Southern Caucasus, and breaking the isolation of
people in the conflict zones. But the best reason to come to Baku
would be to learn about civil society in the East.
N.B.: Individual participants will be guests of the Azerbaijan hCa
Committee, which arranges free accommodation and visa on the spot.
Costs are limited to travel fares, for instance for participants from
the Netherlands less than $500 (flight over Istanbul, see below).
Program
The main purpose of the Assembly is to foster the difficult peace
process in the Southern Caucasus 'from below'. Discussions are opened
with a special panel with Azerbaijani and Armenian citizens'
diplomats, who will have the first public meeting in Baku since 1992.
This also relates to the future of the region as a cross-roads for
civic integration between East and West. A panel with Christian,
Muslim and other community leaders will explore the basis for new
'Dialogue between Civilizations'.
In working-conferences, participants will elaborate proposals and
action models on the main topics:
1. Human rights: European standards and practices
2. Peace-making and conflict resolution
3. Refugees and IDPs: freedom to choose
4. Oil: regional economy and globalisation
Parallel, other working-conferences will adress specific questions,
related to the protection of minorities, the role of women and youth,
media and information blockades, local democracy and integration at
'low political' level. Also, there will be space for self-organised
workshops proposed by participants.
An introduction to the program with a provisional time schedule is
enclosed here. Detailed information is handed out at the Assembly
registration desk.
Low costs
We are making the threshold of coming to the Assembly as low as
possible. Individual participants from Western Europe and North
America will be personal guests of the Azerbaijan National Committee
of hCa, receiving accommodation and meals for free. Contribution to
programme costs will be voluntary.
In principle, formal representatives of a Western NGO or institution
are expected to cover their accommodation costs: accommodation&meals:
$25/night, single - $38/night programme costs: $50/person. If this is
an obstacle, you can apply as an individual participant.
By special cooperation with the authorities, visa will be issued for
free to preregistered participants, entering at Baku Airport on 28th
October. Transfers to the Assembly meeting place, and to the hotels,
are provided all day.
Convenient flights are:
by Turkish Airways, via Istanbul, arrival in Baku October 28th
afternoon (5.50 p.m.), departure November 1th morning (05.55), with
connections in all directions N.B.: Turkish Airlines offers cheap
fares from Amsterdam (Hfl 1150, less than $500), incl. evt. stop-over
in Istanbul. There are Istanbul - Baku nightflights on Tue, Wed, Sat
(10.00 p.m. - 3.00 a.m.), afternoon flights on Mon, Fri (1.10 - 5.50
p.m.). Through TA offices, or a good Turkish booking agency like Kizel
Tepe in Amsterdam, 020-6256060 (also stop-overs),
by Swiss Airways via Zurich - arrival in Baku October 28th early
morning (3.40am), departure November 1th, morning (4.30 a.m), also
with many connecting flights. The International Secretariat can inform
you about possible price reductions from Prague and other places,
also by Lufthansa via Frankfurt, British Airways via London, etc.
Register now:
Please return the following short application form. The extensive
application form and questionary, enclosed, can be submitted at the
Assembly registration desk in Baku.
------------------------------------------------------------
Undersigned registers as participant for the hCa General Assembly in
Baku,
28 October - 1 November 2000:
Name
Country, city
Phone /fax
Email
__ Representative of NGO or institution
__ Individual participant
__ Evt. contribution on topics:
Itinery:
__ Flying over Istanbul from (indicate city of departure)
__ over Zurich from (idem)
__ Other (idem)
Return by email <[email protected]> cc. [email protected]
or fax: +420 2 20397251
--------------------
>From the moderator: for more details, see MINELRES posting of 7 August, 2000 at
http://racoon.riga.lv/minelres/archive//08072000-18:20:43-8338.html
Boris
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