Thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties

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The 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties was officially opened by Prime Minister of Thailand H.E. Mr Thaksin Shinawatra on the afternoon of 2 October 2004 following opening statements by Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand H.E. Mr Suwit Khunkitti, CITES Standing Committee Chairman Mr Kenneth Stansell, UNEP Executive Director Dr Klaus Töpfer, and CITES Secretary-General Mr Willem Wijnstekers. This is being at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, Bangkok, Thailand, and is scheduled to close on 14 October 2004.

The meeting was preceded by the sixth dialogue meeting of the African elephant range States and the 51st meeting of the CITES Standing Committee.

Working documents, proposals to amend Appendices I and II and the comments from the Parties and comments and recommendations from the Secretariat on the amendment proposals are available on this site.

For representatives from the media, please check the press kit which has a brief introduction to each proposal to be debated at the meeting. Media accreditation procedure and the form can be downloaded from this site. Please see also the media accreditation criteria of the United Nations.

Algonquin Travel and MKI Conference Management Inc. (MKI) has been appointed the official travel agent for the meeting. Any delegate who wishes to book accommodation through MKI should fill in and mail or fax the attached form directly to MKI. For further information or to make a hotel reservation please consult MKI's website.

ATTA, the Association of Thai Travel Agents, is the official local travel agent for excursions and tours before, during and after CoP13. You are invited to take a look at the Web pages they have set up for information on their offers in relation to this event.

Parties are reminded that national organizations that wish to participate must be approved in advance by the Management Authority of the State in which they are located, in accordance with the provisions of Rule 2, paragraph 2. b), of the Rules of Procedure of meetings of the Conference of the Parties. The names of the observers from these organizations, and evidence of the approval of the Management Authority, must be submitted by 2 September 2004, in accordance with Rule 3, paragraph 5.