NOVEMBER
RICHARD KINLEY CONFIRMED AS UNFCCC DEPUTY
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
Richard Kinley has been confirmed as the UN Climate Change Secretariat’s
Deputy Executive Secretary. The Secretary of the Conference of the
Parties since 1996, Kinley was also Officer-in Charge of the Secretariat
from September 2005 following the passing of former Executive Secretary
Joke Waller-Hunter, until the arrival of Yvo de Boer in September 2006.
Kinley had also served as Acting Deputy Executive Secretary since 1
August 2003. The confirmation of his Deputy position, which was
announced by Yvo de Boer at the close of COP/MOP 2 on 19 November, was
warmly applauded by delegates. IISD sources.
OCTOBER
UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY APPOINTS NEXT SECRETARY
GENERAL
The UN General Assembly appointed Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon of the
Republic of Korea as the UN’s next Secretary-General. He will succeed
Kofi Annan, who steps down on 31 December 2006. The Assembly’s selection
by acclamation came on 13 October 2006. Following his selection, Ban
pledged to carry out reforms and build on Annan’s legacy.
UN News Focus on
Secretary-General-Designate.
BAN KI-MOON LEADS RACE TO HEAD UN
Straw polls taken in the UN Security Council suggest that South Korea’s
Ban Ki-Moon could become the next United Nations Secretary-General. He
is currently the Republic of Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Current UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s term expires at the end of
2006.
UNSGselection.org news story (2 October 2006).
SEPTEMBER
JULIA MARTON-LEFEVRE NEW IUCN DIRECTOR
Assuming her duties on 1 January 2007, Julia Marton-Lefèvre, an expert
in development and conservation issues, has been appointed Director
General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Marton-Lefèvre is the
current Rector of the University of Peace in Costa Rica, and has been
the Executive Director of Leadership for Environment and Development
(LEAD) International, Executive Director of the International Council
for Science, and Vice Chair of the World Resources Institute. She
succeeds Achim Steiner, who left to take the Executive Director’s post
at UNEP in June 2006.
IUCN news release (19 September 2006).
HANS VEROLME APPOINTED WWF CLIMATE CHIEF
Hans Verolme, a Dutch National, has been appointed to head WWF’s Global
Climate Change programme. Currently in charge of the climate change
programme at WWF US, he succeeds Jennifer Morgan in the international
programme.
WWF announcement (14 September 2006).
ALISON DRAYTON NAMED NEW HEAD OF UNDP UN AFFAIRS
DIVISION
Alison Drayton has been named the new Director of UNDP’s Division for UN
Affairs in New York. She was previously the Deputy Director of the
Division. Prior to joining UNDP, she was Counselor in the Permanent
Mission of Guyana to the UN, with responsibility for the Second, Fifth
and Sixth Committees of the General Assembly as well as UN Reform. She
also coordinated the Group of 77 on sustainable development issues
during Guyana’s chairing of the G77 in 1999, and was a Vice-Chair of the
UN Commission on Sustainable Development in 2000 (IISD sources).
NEW REGIONAL FOREST COORDINATOR NAMED
Bastiaan Louman has been appointed to the position of Regional
Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean with the International
Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO)-Special Programme for
Developing Countries. The position is jointly established with CATIE
(Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Enseñenza), and is based
in Costa Rica.
IUFRO announcement (13 September 2006).
AUGUST
PETER CSOKA DEPARTS UNFF
After two years of service with the UNFF Secretariat, Peter Csoka will
resume his duties as Director-General of the State Forest Service of
Hungary.
Link to further
information
UNFF newsletter
(July/August 2006)
LEE KIMBALL RETIRES FROM OCEAN POLICY WORK
Lee
Kimball, who worked with IUCN over three decades, has decided to retire
from ocean policy. She was a member of the Commission on Environmental
Law and Advisor for GMP on Ocean Governance and International
Institutions.
Link to further
information
GMP News, page 12 (August 2006)
JENNIFER MORGAN DEPARTS WWF CLIMATE GROUP
After eight years as Director of WWF’s Global Climate Change Programme,
Jennifer Morgan is to join a new group, Third Generation
Environmentalism (E3G), to head up their climate work. Morgan has been
seconded from WWF to E3G for two years.
Link to further
information
WWF news story (7 September 2006)
YVO DE BOER NAMED NEW UN CLIMATE CHIEF
Yvo
de Boer has been appointed as the new Executive Secretary of the UN
Climate Change Secretariat. A 52-year old Dutch national, he has held a
number of government and United Nations posts. Most recently, he was
Director of International Affairs at the Dutch Ministry of Housing,
Spatial Planning and the Environment. He has been a negotiator at UN climate
change negotiations since 1996, and was also a Vice-Chair at the
fourteenth session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in
May 2006. The appointment, announced by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
on 10 August, ends many months of speculation over who would succeed the
late Joke Waller-Hunter, who passed away in October 2005. Since that
time, the Secretary of the UN Climate Convention’s Conference of the
Parties, Richard Kinley, has been acting as the Officer-in-Charge of the
Secretariat. Mr. de Boer will take up his new post on 4 September 2006.
Link to further
information
UN press release (10 August 2006)
DAVID UNTERHALTER APPOINTED TO WTO APPELATE BODY
On
31 July 2006, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body appointed David
Unterhalter of South Africa to the seven-member Appellate Body to
replace the late John Lockhart, who passed away in January.
Link to further
information
WTO
website
JULY
ANNA TIBAIJUKA RE-ELECTED UN-HABITAT EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR
Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka has been re-elected by the General Assembly
Under Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-HABITAT for another
term of four years. Her nomination by the UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan took place on 28 June 2006. Her current term expires on 31 August
2006 and the new one runs until 31 August 2010.
Link to further
information
UN-HABITAT web site
JUNE
NEW WORLD BANK GENERAL COUNSEL NAMED
Ana
Palacio, a Spanish national, has been appointed to serve as the World
Bank Group’s General Counsel. Ms. Palacio, a former member of the
European Parliament and foreign minister of Spain under President Aznar,
will also serve as Secretary General of the International Centre for
Settlement of Investment Disputes.
Link to further
information
World Bank
press release, 16 June 2006
WOMEN’S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION MONITORING COMMITTEE
ELECTED
On
23 June 2006, States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women elected 12 of the 23 experts that
serve on the Committee that monitors States’ compliance with the
Convention (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women). The 12 experts, to serve in their individual capacities, would
begin four-year terms on 1 January 2007, replacing the 12 experts whose
terms would expire on 31 December 2006. To preside over the fourteenth
Meeting of States Parties, the Committee then elected Andreas
Mavroyiannis (Cyprus) as Chairperson, as well as the following three
Vice-Chairpersons: Meshak Kitchen (Zimbabwe) from the group of African
States; Birute Abraitiene (Lithuania) from the group of Eastern European
States; and Sean McDonald (Ireland) from the group of Western European
and other States.
Link to further
information
UN news
announcement (23 June 2006)
GEF COUNCIL MEETING ELECTS NEW GEF CEO
The GEF Council has elected Monique Barbut as its new CEO. A French
national, she is the current Director of UNEP’s Division of Technology,
Industry and Economics and will succeed Leonard Good, who is retiring in
July 2006, at the GEF.
Link to further
information
GEF Press release, 9 June 2006
UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY ELECTS NEW PRESIDENT,
COMMITTEE CHAIRS
Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, the Legal Counsel to the Royal Family of
Bahrain, has been elected President of the 61st General Assembly
session. She becomes the third woman who will hold the post and the
first elected since 1969.
Meanwhile, several UN Committees have elected new chairs. The Second
Committee (Economic and Financial) elected Tiina Intelmann (Estonia) as
Chair, with Prayono Atiyanto (Indonesia), Aboubacar Sadikh Barry
(Senegal), and Benedito Fonseca Filho (Brazil) as Vice-Chairs. The Third
Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) elected Hamid Al Bayati
(Iraq) as Chair, with Jorge Ballesteros (Costa Rica), Lamin Faati (the
Gambia) and Sergei A. Rachkov (Belarus) as Vice-Chairs, and Elena
Molaroni (San Marino) as Rapporteur.
Link to further
information
UN news
release (8 June 2006)
UK APPOINTS “CLIMATE AMBASSADOR”
The
UK has appointed career diplomat John Ashton as its special
representative on climate change. Ashton has a headed the Foreign
Office’s Environment, Science and Energy department.
BBC News
article, 8 June 2006
The
announcement follows a recent decision by the New Zealand government to
appointment Adrian Macey as its first climate ambassador. Macey most
recently represented his government as the ambassador to France and
permanent representative to the OECD (IISD sources).
FRANCES SEYMOUR APPOINTED AS NEW DIRECTOR-GENERAL
OF CIFOR
Frances Seymour has been appointed the next Director General of the
Center for International Forestry Research. Ms Seymour is currently
Director of the Institutions and Governance Program of the World
Resources Institute. She will replace David Kaimowitz who will soon step
down after five years as
Director General.
Link to further
information
More information (9 June 2006)
MAY
FOUR ADDITIONAL CANDIDATES NAMED FOR TOP UN CLIMATE
JOB; TWO OTHERS WITHDRAW
Four further candidates for the post of Executive Secretary of the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change have been named, while two of the
five previously-listed candidates have withdrawn their names from
consideration.
In March 2006, five
candidates were named on the UN Secretary-General’s original shortlist.
However, no final decision was taken, and in late May 2006 the
Secretary-General announced that four additional candidates would be
interviewed: Sálvano J. Briceño (Venezuela), the director of the
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction secretariat; Luis Gylvan
Meira (Brazil), professor at the University of Sao Paulo’s Institute for
Advanced Studies; Richard James Kinley (Canada), Officer-in-Charge of
the UNFCCC; and Leela Krishnamurthy Ponappa (India), Ambassador of India
to the Netherlands. John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda and Luis Gomez
Echeverri of Colombia – two of the candidates shortlisted in March –
have recently withdrawn their candidacies.
Links to further
information
United
Nations News, 26 May 2006
IISD Reporting Services website
JAN ERIK HEINO TO HEAD FAO FORESTRY DEPARTMENT
Jan Erik Heino of Finland has been appointed the new Head of the
Forestry Department at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. He is a
former Director-General of the Forestry Department of the Ministry of
Agriculture of Finland, and currently Director-General of Metsahallitus,
the Finnish State Forest Enterprise. He will take up his new appointment
on 29 June 2006.
Link to further
information
More information (29 May 2006)
MARY FISHER TO BE UNAIDS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE
Mary Davis
Fisher, a prominent US-based writer, artist and motivational speaker who
travels around the world advocating for those who share her HIV-positive
status, has been appointed as Special Representative for the Joint
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
Link to further
information
UNAIDS news release, 18 May 2006
HEAD OF CENTER FOR EARTH SCIENCE INFORMATION NETWORK
STEPS DOWN
Roberta
Balstad has stepped down as director of Columbia University’s Center for
Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). She had led the organization
since 1993. Robert S. Chen has been appointed acting director. More
information (1 May 2006).
Link to further
information
CIESIN Columbia
University website
HEAD OF CENTER FOR EARTH SCIENCE INFORMATION NETWORK
STEPS DOWN
Roberta
Balstad has stepped down as director of Columbia University’s Center for
Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). She had led the organization
since 1993. Robert S. Chen has been appointed acting director. More
information (1 May 2006).
Link to further
information
CIESIN Columbia
University website
APRIL
GLOBAL COMPACT BOARD APPOINTED
Twenty business, labor and civil society leaders have been named by UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan to serve on the first Board of the Global
Compact, the UN voluntary initiative to advance corporate responsibility
to fight corruption, promote human rights and ensure environmental
sustainability. The Board includes ten businesses, four business
associations and labor groups, and four civil society organizations. It
will provide strategic advice to the Global Compact and its
stakeholders.
Link to further
information
UN news, 20 April 2006
New GEF Council Members NAMED
GEF
announced the list of new Council Members including Raphael Peter
Kabwaza (Malawi); Dhanendra Kumar (India), Mauricio Montalvo (Ecuador)
and Kenneth L. Peel (US).
Link to further
information
GEF notification on new focal points and alternate members, April
2006
MARCH
KLAUS TÖPFER STEPS DOWN AS UNEP EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Klaus Töpfer has concluded his eight-year tenure as the Executive
Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on 31 March
2005. His successor, Achim Steiner, currently Director General of the
World Conservation Union (IUCN), will start his term of office on 15
June 2006. In the interim period, UNEP’s Deputy Executive Director,
Shafqat Kakakhel (Pakistan), will serve as acting Executive Director.
Link to further
information
UNEP press release, 31 March 2006
PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD WATER COUNCIL RE-ELECTED
Loïc Fauchon has been re-elected for a three-year term as president of
the Board of Governors of the World Water Council. A French national,
Fauchon assumed the Presidency in March 2005, and is one of the
Council’s founding members.
Link to further
information
World Water Coucil press release, 19 March 2006
Olivier Deleuze to head UNEP’s GEF Division
Following the recent departure of Ahmed Djoglaf to head the Secretariat
of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Olivier Deleuze (Belgium),
who previously served as Policy Advisor to the Executive Director of
UNEP and as the organization's head of the Major Groups and Stakeholders
Branch, will head UNEP’s GEF Division.
Link to further
information
GEF announcement, March 2006
ACHIM STEINER NAMED AS UNEP EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Achim Steiner, the current Director-General of IUCN-the World
Conservation Union (IUCN), has been appointed as the next Executive
Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). On 15 March
2006, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced Steiner’s nomination as
the next UNEP head, and the General Assembly unanimously elected Steiner
as UNEP’s fifth Executive Director the following day. A German national,
Steiner will be given a four-year term, effective from 15 June 2006
to 14 June 2010.
Commenting in the General Assembly, the G-77/China congratulated Achim
Steiner on his appointment, and noted that, while the regional groups
had been informed, they had not been consulted on the appointment.
Current UNEP Executive Director Klaus Töpfer extended his
congratulations to Steiner, commenting that this appointment “will prove
to be a great decision bringing youth, dynamism, intellect and a deeply
held commitment to environment and sustainable development issues.”
Prior to his tenure as IUCN Director-General, Achim Steiner served as
the head of the World Commission on Dams, the chief technical advisor of
a programme for sustainable management of Mekong River watersheds, and
as Senior Policy Advisor of IUCN’s Global Policy Unit.
Links to further
information
UN press release, 15 March 2006
General
Assembly press release, 16 March 2006
UNEP press release, 16 March 2006
FINALISTS FOR TOP UN CLIMATE POST ANNOUNCED
UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan has announced a shortlist of five candidates who are in the
running to be the next Executive Secretary of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The finalists are:
-
John W. Ashe, Antigua and Barbuda’s Permanent Representative to the
UN;
-
Yvo de Boer, Director for International Affairs with the Ministry
of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment of the Netherlands;
-
Luis Gomez Echeverri of Colombia, who is Deputy Assistant
Administrator with UNDP;
-
Miklós Persányi, Hungary’s Minister
for the Environment and Water; and
-
Simon Upton, a former New Zealand Environment Minister and now
chair of the OECD’s Round Table on Sustainable Development.
However, additional
candidates who were shortlisted for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
Executive Director’s vacancy may also be considered. In particular,
there has been speculation that Rajendra Pachauri of India, who was
shortlisted for the UNEP position, might be considered for the UNFCCC
post. Pachauri is the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC).
The previous UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Joke Waller-Hunter, passed away
in October 2005. Her deputy, Richard Kinley, has been Acting Head of the
UNFCCC for the past six months.
Link to further
information
UN
announcement, 16 March 2006
NEW DEVELOPMENT OFFICER AT RAMSAR REGIONAL
CENTER
Carolina Hoyos has been appointed as Institutional Development Officer
at the Ramsar Regional Center for Training and Research on Wetlands in
the Western Hemisphere (CREHO). Before joining CREHO, she worked in
communications and fundraising in projects for tsunami relief within the
United Nations Volunteer Programme in Sri Lanka and in marketing and
communications for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) based in Germany
and México.
Link to further
information
Ramsar press
release, March 2006
STAFF CHANGES AT UN NON-GOVERNMENTAL LIAISON SERVICE
The
UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) has announced several recent
staff changes in its New York office. Elisa Peter has been appointed
Deputy Coordinator and Chief of the UN-NGLS New York office. She has
previously worked for several NGOs and as a policy analyst with FAO. The
previous Deputy Coordinator was Zehra Aydin-Sipos. NGLS has its main
office in Geneva.
Link to further
information
UN
Non-Governmental Liaison Service,
March 2006
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK APPOINTS NEW VICE
PRESIDENTS, SECRETARY GENERAL
The President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, has
announced the appointments of four new Vice Presidents and the Secretary
General of the institution. Joseph B. Eichenberger of the US is the new
Vice President of Planning Policy and Research and Zeinab Bashir El
Bakri of the Sudan is VP of Operations for the West and Central Africa
Region. South African Mandla Sizwe Vulindlela Gantsho is to be VP of
Operations for the North, East and South Africa Region, while Arunma
Oteh of the UK is to be VP, Corporate Management. Modibo Toure of Mali
was named as the new Secretary General.
Link to further
information
Press release, 1 March 2006
NEW UNFPA DEPUTY DIRECTOR NAMED
Mari Simonen (Finland) has been appointed Deputy Executive Director,
External Relations, UN Affairs and Management, of the UN Population Fund
(UNFPA). Simonen’s role will involve a focus on UN reforms in
particular. Simonen has worked as the Director of UNFPA’s Technical
Support Division since November 1999, and previously as the Chief of the
Office of UNFPA Executive Director.
Link to further
information
United
Nations web site,
March 2006
ANNAN NAMES MARK MALLOCH BROWN NEW DEPUTY
SECRETARY-GENERAL; IBARRA BECOMES CHIEF OF STAFF
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has announced several new appointments
among his senior staff, including the appointment of Mark Malloch Brown
as Deputy Secretary-General. Malloch Brown’s appointment, which was
announced on 1 March 2006, is designed to ensure that the UN Secretariat
will be able to carry out the full agenda remaining during Annan’s term,
which ends on 31 December 2006. Malloch Brown, who is from the UK, is
currently the UN Secretary-General’s Chief of Staff, and from 1999 to
the end of 2004 was the Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
As
well as the new Deputy Secretary-General, Kofi Annan has named
Alicia Bárcena Ibarra of Mexico as Acting
Chief of Staff in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General. Her
appointment would take effect upon the departure of the Deputy
Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, and Mark Malloch Brown’s assumption
of his new duties as Deputy Secretary-General.
In
addition, Vijay Nambiar of India has been named Special Adviser with the
rank of Under-Secretary-General, while Larry D. Johnson of the U.S will
become the next Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs. Johnson,
who is currently a professor at New York University, will begin in his
new role on 1 May 2006. He succeeds Ralph Zacklin.
The changes at the top of the UN hierarchy came just days before a new
report by Kofi Annan calling for a “radical overhaul” of UN management
structure and practices.
Links to further
information
UN Press
Release on Mark Malloch Brown, 3 March 2006
UN press
release on Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, 3 March 2006
UN press
release on Vijary Nambiar, 3 March 2006
UN press
release on Larry Johnson, 7 March 2006
SHORTLIST FOR UNEP’S NEXT DIRECTOR ANNOUNCED
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has revealed the shortlist of selected
candidates for the position of Executive Director of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP). The list, which was announced on 1 March
2006, includes: Borge Brende, Norway’s former Environment Minister;
Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Echandi, Minister of Environment and Energy of
Costa Rica; Shafqat Kakakhel (Pakistan), UNEP Deputy Executive Director;
Rajendra Pachauri (India), Director-General of the Energy and Resource
Institute; and Achim Steiner (Germany), who is currently
Director-General of IUCN-the World Conservation Union.
After informally canvassing the views of
the environmental community, a panel of senior UN officials, including
an outside expert, will interview the candidates and refer the finalists
to the Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General for the final
interview. The Secretary-General will then forward the name of his
recommended candidate for appointment for a four-year term.
The new Executive Director will succeed to Klaus Töpfer (Germany), whose
tenure as the head of UNEP began in February 1998 and will draw to a
close on the 31 March 2006.
The
Secretary-General has also noted that, given the similarities between
the UNEP position and the vacant position as Executive Secretary of the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the eligibility
of some of the candidates for both, the Secretary-General might conclude
that one of the candidates interviewed for UNEP is more suitable for
UNFCCC or vice versa and, therefore, make the appointment to that post
in consultation with the Bureau of the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties.
Links to further information
UN Press Release, 1 March 2006
UN
Secretary-General Press Release, 3 March 2006
Web India news story, 2 March 2006
NEW RAMSAR SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL REVIEW PANEL
APPOINTED
The scientific and technical
review panel (STRP) is a subsidiary body of the Ramsar Convention,
providing scientific and technical guidance to the Conference of the
Parties, the Standing Committee and the Ramsar secretariat. The
Convention’s STRP Oversight Committee has now appointed the members of
the STRP for the triennium 2006-2008. Heather Mackay (South Africa), the
Vice Chair from 2003-2005, was appointed Chair of the Panel, and Rebecca
D’Cruz of Malaysia was named Vice Chair.
Ramsar press briefing.
List of the
committee members.
PETER SCHEI TO BECOME CMS AMBASSADOR
Peter Schei, an experienced negotiator on biodiversity issues and
current Chair of BirdLife International and Director of the Norwegian
Fridtjof Nansen Institute, has been named as the next Convention on
Migratory Species Ambassador.
More
information.
SENIOR BIOSAFETY OFFICER LEAVES CBD SECRETARIAT
Cyrie Sendashonga, Senior Programme Officer for Biosafety, has left the
CBD Secretariat after more than seven years’ service.
More information.
FEBRUARY
NEW DIRECTOR NAMED AT UNESCO INSTITUTE OF
STATISTICS
Hendrik van der Pol of the Netherlands has been appointed as the new
Director of UNESCO’s Institute of Statistics in Québec, Canada.
Currently the representative of the UN Population Fund in India, he will
be joining UNESCO in April 2006.
UNESCO press release, 22 February 2006.
JANUARY
WORLD BANK INVESTMENT DISPUTE LEADER STEPS DOWN
The Secretary General of the International Centre for Settlement of
Investment Disputes (ICSID), Roberto Danino, is to leave his World Bank
position at the end of February 2006. The former President of Peru
joined the World Bank in 2003. According to news reports, his departure
follows disputes over new Bank President Paul Wolfowitz’s recent
appointments and management style.
IISD’s
Investment Treaty News, 31 January 2006.
NEW UNEP CHEMICALS BRANCH CHIEF APPOINTED
Maged Younes has been appointed as the new Head of the UNEP Chemicals
Branch in Geneva. Dr. Younes, has worked at the Institute of Toxicology,
Medical University of Lübeck and was also qualified as an Expert in
Toxicology through the German Society of Pharmacology and Toxicology. He
was then nominated Head of the Biochemical Toxicology Unit at the Max
von Pettenkofer-Institute of the German Federal Health Office in Berlin.
He was the responsible manager for the European Chemical Safety
Programme of the World Health Organization at the Bilthoven Division of
the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health. Maged has also
served as the Chief of the Assessment of Risks and Methodologies at the
International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS).
WTO NAMES CHAIRPERSONS FOR 2006
The
World Trade Organization has appointed its Chairpersons for 2006. The
appointments, which were agreed on 8 February, mean the TRIPs Council
will be chaired by C. Trevor Clarke (Barbados); the Committee on Trade
and environment by Shree Baboo Chekitan Servansing (Mauritius); and the
Special Session of the Committee on Trade and Environment by Toufiq Ali
(Bangladesh).
Full list of chairpersons.
NEW UNDP ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR APPOINTED
On 17 January 2006, Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Ad Melkert
(Netherlands) to serve as the Under-Secretary-General and the Associate
Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
starting on 1 March 2006.
UNDP press release, 17 January 2006.
SPECULATION MOUNTS OVER TOP UN POSTS
Speculation over who will be appointed to several high-profile UN
vacancies is mounting. In the next few weeks and months, announcements
are expected on a new Executive Director to replace Klaus Töpfer at the
UN Environment Programme. Töpfer is scheduled to depart at the end of
March. Also, U.N. Deputy
Secretary-General Louise Fréchette recently resigned to take up a
position back in Canada. Another high profile position is that of
Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, following
the passing of the previous incumbent, Joke Waller-Hunter, in October
2005. Finally, the top UN post of Secretary-General will be vacant from
January 2007, when Kofi Annan is expected to leave office.
On the UNEP race, a number of candidates
have been the subject of speculation, including Norway’s Minister for
the Environment, Børge Brende, and Shafqat Kakakhel of Pakistan, UNEP’s
current Deputy Director. Other names discussed include Juan Mayr,
Colombia’s former Environment Minister, as well as candidates from Costa
Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Myanmar, India, Antigua and Barbuda, New Zealand,
the Netherlands and the UK. Sources suggest that Valli Moosa,
South Africa’s former Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism,
who has also been mentioned in some circles, is not running for the
post.
Most commentators believe it is too early to speculate on a
possible successor to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan when he leaves
office in January 2007. However, several Asian candidates have been touted as
possible contenders, not least because it is generally considered to be
the region’s “turn” to fill the top UN post. Sri Lankan diplomat
Jayantha
Dhanapala and Thailand's Foreign Minister, Surakiart Sathirathai, are
both known to be interested in the position. Candidates from South
Korea, Malaysia and Singapore have also been mentioned, while several
eastern European candidates have been rumored. Former U.S President Bill
Clinton has also been mentioned, although some sources have noted
various political and diplomatic barriers to his taking the role.
Meanwhile, a recent report has called for the next Secretary-General to
be a woman, with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark among those
suggested. (IISD Sources, January 2006).
SOUTH AFRICA TAKES OVER AS G-77 CHAIR;
AUSTRIA
ASSUMES EU PRESIDENCY
South
Africa has taken over from Jamaica as Chair of the Group of 77. A
handover ceremony was held at UN headquarters in New York on 12 January
2006. More information.
Meanwhile, Austria has assumed the presidency of the European Union.
More information.
ALI HACHANI ELECTED PRESIDENT OF ECOSOC FOR 2006
Ali
Hachani of Tunisia has been elected President of the UN Economic and
Social Council for 2006. He succeeds Munir Akram of Pakistan.
More
information, January 2006.
PETER SUTHERLAND APPOINTED SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE
FOR MIGRATION
Peter
Sutherland, a former EU Commission and current Chair of BP, has been
named as the UN�s Special Representtive to assist in the preparation of
the high-level dialogue on international migration and development in
September 2006.
More
information, January 2006.
If you
would like to submit details of
recent appointments or departures,
send a message to
Diego Noguera, IISD
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Appointments, Departures