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Broadcasting Union and UNifeed. During the sixty-first session of the Commission on
Human Rights in 2005, the Service moderated 19 briefings organized by OHCHR and given by
special rapporteurs, special representatives, independent experts and other mandate holders.
64.
For Human Rights Day, the Service’s TV and Radio Section conducted interviews with
the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the theme of human rights and poverty, which
were transmitted through UNifeed and sent to UN Radio in New York. In addition, following a
UNTV field mission to Colombia, several pieces on human rights violations in the country were
produced and distributed to global television including two features for CNN World Report.
A 10-minute Special Feature was also distributed on UNifeed and Eurovision to global
broadcasters.
65.
Of special note was the UNTV mission to Niger in July 2005 with the Special Rapporteur
on the right to food, which triggered enormous international attention and a humanitarian
response. The UNTV images of the famine in the country were the first to be aired widely and
were transmitted through various broadcasters, including BBC, CNN, Télévision Suisse
Romande and the European Broadcasting Union. UN Radio interviews were also broadcast
extensively. Subsequently, the Service’s TV Unit assembled a DVD compilation of UNTV
material on the Niger famine for various United Nations agencies. Additionally, the Service’s
television coverage of the Secretary-General’s subsequent visit to Niger was fed from Africa and
distributed through Eurovision and via UNifeed.
66.
The Geneva Graduate Study Programme, organized annually by the Service and held
during the first three weeks of July, contains a segment dedicated exclusively to human rights for
which substantive input is received from OHCHR. The 82 and 83 students who took part in the
forty-third and forty-fourth programmes, respectively, benefited greatly from workshops and
general lectures which touched upon the overarching theme of human rights.
67.
The Visitors Service of the United Nations Office at Geneva covers human rights in each
of its tours. The 50-minute tour devotes about 5 minutes specifically to this subject, and guides
are frequently asked questions about human rights. During the reporting period, the Service
organized 40 briefings on human rights for groups of students in conjunction with a guided tour,
and 60 seminars that included a human rights lecture as part of an information programme on the
work of the United Nations tailored to the needs of students, diplomats and NGOs.
B. Activities of the United Nations Information Service
at the United Nations Office at Vienna
68.
UNIS Vienna considered human rights one of its priorities and organized a range of
activities to promote the work of the United Nations in this field. In addition to promoting the
newly established Human Rights Council, UNIS Vienna maximized the opportunity to distribute
information materials on human rights themes such as trafficking in human beings and
migration, and issued relevant press releases, including the Secretary-General’s Human Rights
Day message, in the countries it services (Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia).
69.
Human rights issues featured prominently in the two conferences on the theme of global
security that UNIS Vienna co-sponsored in Bratislava, both of which discussed the fight against
international terrorism. UNIS Vienna has encouraged and strongly supported the establishment
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