DELHI, 22 May 2006 (UNODC) - The Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, will visit India from 23-25 May 2006. This will be the first visit by an Executive Director of UNODC to the region in over a decade.
The Executive Director is scheduled to meet the Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, the Home Affairs Minister Shivraj V. Patil, the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar and the Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan.
Mr Costa will spend two days in Delhi and one day in Kolkata. He will meet UNODC partners from civil society as well as senior government officials at a youth event on 23 May.
Among his other activities, Mr Costa will be guest of honour at the launch of a UNODC study entitled "Drug Use in the Northeastern States of India" and will deliver a lecture entitled "Cutting the tentacles of terrorism." He will also make field trips to get acquainted at first hand with the drug and human trafficking problems in India.
Antonio Maria Costa, an Italian national, was appointed Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna in May 2002. He holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.
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For further information, please contact:
Gary Lewis
Representative
UNODC Regional Office for South Asia
Telephone: +91 11 4222 5000
E-mail:
gary.lewis@unodc.org
