ICFTU ONLINE...
231/981029/LD
The Week AheadNovember 2-8 1998
Brussels, October 29, 1998 (ICFTU OnLine): The following is a selection of next week's events. This selection has been prepared for the information of subscribers to the ICFTU's OnLine service, and does not necessarily reflect the position of the ICFTU.
Monday November 2: Colombian President Andres Pastrana arrives in Caracas to begin an official two-day visit to Venezuela.
Monday November 2: The World Trade Organisation is to hold an African seminar on trade and the environment. The seminar is taking place in Côte d’Ivoire and Trade and Environment ministers from 34 African countries have said they will attend. The seminar is one in a series of identical meetings held in different regions, supported by the Norwegian government.
Monday November 2: The Conference of the parties to the Convention on Climate Change, which is the follow-up to the Kyoto conference in December 1997, will take place from November 2 to 13 in Buenos Aires (Argentina). Trade union organisations intend to present their position, prepared at a joint trade union meeting in Brussels on October 7, organised by the ICFTU, the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) and the International Trade Secretariats.
Tuesday November 3: US citizens will vote for their House of Representatives. After the last election on November 5,1996, the Republicans won 228 seats to the Democrats' 206 seats. 35 (out of 50) States will also be voting for their State Governors.
Tuesday November 4: The prosecutor from the war crimes tribunal
in The Hague, Ms. Louise Arbour, is due to visit Prishtina, capital of the province of
Kosovo.
Thursday November 5: "Human rights: conflict and reconciliation" is to be
the theme of a conference organised in Charlottesville by the University of Virginia and
the Institute for Asian Democracy. Guests will include Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu,
the Dalaï Lama, Elie Wiesel and José Ramón Horta.
Thursday November 5: The ICFTU’s Swiss affiliate the Union
syndicale suisse holds its Congress in Davos.
Thursday November 5: The African Development Bank is to hold a meeting of its
principal donors in Copenhagen.
Thursday November 5: The autumn session of the Governing Body of the International Labour Office opens in Geneva and continues until November 19. This will be the last session for Michel Hansenne, the current Director General of the ILO. Next March Juan Somavia will take over the reins as the head of the organisation.
Sunday November 8: Legislative elections are to take place in Venezuela. They will be closely followed by observers, coming shortly before the presidential elections of December 4. Hugo Chavez, leader of an earlier military putsch, is heading the polls.
Sunday November 8: The 20,000 inhabitants of New Caledonia will vote in a referendum on the proposed autonomy of this French territory in the Pacific.
Sunday November 8: Legislative elections are due to take place in Sao Tome and Principe, a former Portuguese colony in west Africa.
Sources: These forecasts have been prepared in cooperation with Future Events News Service in London (FENS), 8-10 Wiseton Rd, London SW17 7EE. Tel.:++44 181 672 31 91. Http://www.hubcom.com/fens
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