The Tokyo conference is being attended by high-level delegates from more than 70 nations and international organisations.
At the recently completed Munich Security Conference, hundreds of high-level delegates spent a long weekend together debating the many serious issues facing the world community.
Part of the conference's strategy was to put technical experts and high-level delegates together with children, adolescents and youth, so as to dialogue directly and publicly on issues, constraints, needs and hopes of young people.
At the opening ceremony of the UNICEF-supported seminar, youths from Henan Province who had been orphaned by AIDS presented an album of their stories and artwork to high-level delegates, including Party Secretary-General of Henan Xu Guangchun; Chinese Minister of Civil Affairs Li Xueju, and the Governor of Henan Province Li Chengyu.
'Moving in the right direction' Today's meeting, co-chaired by French Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Rama Yade, was attended by a number of high-level delegates and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy.
Because this forum took place just a few days ahead of the World Bank Spring Meetings, we were fortunate to have many high level delegates from ministries of finance and ministries of health from around the world in addition to representatives of bilateral donor agencies, philanthropic foundations, the private sector and prominent civil society organizations.
At a side event for high level delegates co-hosted by UNICEF, UNAIDS and the governments of Australia and Botswana during the High-Level Meeting, UNICEF announced the renewal of the Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS campaign, with its global challenge to help eliminate new paediatric HIV infections and achieve a 30 per cent decrease in new infections amongst young people.
The event, which is the biggest of its kind ever held, will take place over four days, and includes film screenings, theatre and art as well as the attendance of high-level foreign delegates.
Senior White House advisers, high-level United Nations delegates, senior British diplomats, many aid agencies, and the Prime Minister of Ethiopia who led the Tigray rebels at the time, had all refuted the BBC story, Geldof insisted, "and yet the World Service is so far off the rails it cannot recognise or acknowledge the truth".
The fourth and final meeting, which opened in June 2001 and is currently suspended, has drawn high-level government delegates, including ministers and over 50 personal representatives of Heads of State and Government.
