SG/A/690

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS CATHERINE O'NEILL DIRECTOR OF UN INFORMATION CENTRE IN WASHINGTON,D.C.

15 March 1999


Press Release
SG/A/690
PI/1118


SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS CATHERINE O'NEILL DIRECTOR OF UN INFORMATION CENTRE IN WASHINGTON,D.C.

19990315 Biographical Note Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Catherine O'Neill as Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Washington, D.C..

Ms. O'Neill is the founder of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, which for ten years has been a leading United States-based advocacy organization focusing on the needs of refugee women and displaced families. During the past 20 years, she has led or participated in humanitarian missions to all regions of the world affected by war and has been a public advocate on international humanitarian issues, testifying before various committees of the United States Congress and appearing on numerous radio and television programmes, among others, CNN, National Public Radio and Nightline. She has also written on humanitarian issues for the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times.

Ms. O'Neill, who has received numerous awards for her editorial writing and her civic leadership, has also worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Westinghouse Broadcasting, the Foreign Policy Association and the International Herald Tribune. A delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, she has also served for 17 years on the Board of Directors of the International Rescue Committee, where she sits on the Programme Committee and the Executive Committee.

A Board member of USA for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Women's Foreign Policy Group, Ms. O'Neill has also served on the Board of the Los Angeles League of Women Voters. She is a Founding Member of the Pacific Council for International Affairs and the Leadership Council for Children in Armed Conflict.

Ms. O'Neill, who holds graduate degrees in international relations and social welfare, is married and has three children.

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For information media. Not an official record.