Archbishop Desmond Tutu will visit Vienna on 27 June 1998 to participate in a high-level United Nations Conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the 5th anniversary of the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993. Archbishop Tutu will be representing President Mandela who was originally invited by the United Nations.
Presiding over the celebrations will be the Secretary General of the UN, Mr Kofi Annan, and also participating will be other Nobel laureates, including ex-President Jimmy Carter, Mr Wole Soyinka of Nigeria, and Mrs Elena Bonner (wife of the late Andre Sakharov). The celebrations will include a High-level Seminar on "Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Societies in Transition" followed by a Public Assembly on Human Rights which will discuss "Human Rights and the Rule of Law in the 21st Century".
For further enquiries please contact Ms Greta Buys at the South African Embassy in Vienna on cell phone: 0943-664-355 74 83.
ISSUED ON BEHALF OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN EMBASSY IN VIENNA, AUSTRIA BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS PRETORIA 26 JUNE 1998