Iraq conference next week

Just a reminder about next week's international conference on refugees and internally displaced people in Iraq and the surrounding region. So far, more than 450 participants from at least 60 nations, 37 inter-governmental organisations and 64 non-governmental organisations have registered for the conference, which begins Tuesday, April 17, at 10 a.m. in the Palais des Nations Assembly Hall. It concludes on Wednesday afternoon with a press briefing at 1:15 p.m. in the Council Chamber by UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Conference Chairman António Guterres. As I mentioned at Tuesday's briefing, the first hour of the conference will be open to media and will include addresses by High Commissioner Guterres, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes; Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq Ashraf Qazi and ICRC Director General Angelo Gnaedinger. The rest of the conference will be in closed session. For those who may want to do an advancer on the conference, we will provide you today with a press kit containing background and statistics on Iraq displacement, including a special issue of Refugees magazine that we're hoping to get back from the printer this morning. We'll put the kits in Press Room 1.