EMINENT PERSONS CHARGED WITH FOLLOW-UP OF DURBAN ANTI-RACISM CONFERENCE HOLD FIRST MEETING IN GENEVA

EMINENT PERSONS CHARGED WITH FOLLOW-UP OF DURBAN ANTI-RACISM CONFERENCE

HOLD FIRST MEETING IN GENEVA

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 16 September (UN Information Service) -- The independent experts appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to follow up on the World Conference against Racism are meeting for the first time in Geneva from 16 to 18 September to discuss how they will carry out their mandate and cooperation with the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The eminent persons, representing all the regions of the world, bring their stature, expertise and a strong commitment to anti-discrimination and equality issues to the implementation of the Declaration and Programme of Action adopted at the World Conference in Durban in 2001.

The experts are:  His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan; Dr. Edna Maria Santos Roland of Brazil, who served as Rapporteur-General of the World Conference against Racism; Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim of United Republic of Tanzania, former President of the United Nations General Assembly and Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity; and Dr. Hanna Suchocka, former Prime Minister of Poland.

The fifth expert, Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari, former President of Finland, is unable to attend this first gathering, which will be held in Room X of the Palais des Nations.

Biographical Information

President Ahtisaari is currently the Co-Chairman of the East West Institute and Chairman of the International Crisis Group.  From March 1994 to the end of February 2000, he was the President of the Republic of Finland.  He joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1965 and held various posts, including in United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Somalia and Mozambique.  He has also served in various positions at the United Nations in relation to the former Yugoslavia and Namibia, and he was United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management from 1987 to 1991.  President Ahtisaari was born in 1937.

Prince El Hassan has founded and is actively involved in a number of Jordanian and international institutes and committees.  He co-chaired the Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues (ICIHI), 1983 and is currently President and Patron of the Arab Thought Forum, President of the Club of Rome, and Moderator of the World Conference on Religion and Peace.  His Royal Highness is founding member of the Parliament of Cultures, which was established in Istanbul in July 2003 to promote understanding among cultures of the world and to enhance dialogue among their thinkers and intellectuals.  The author of several books, he graduated with a degree in Oriental Studies.  His Royal Highness was born in 1947.

Dr. Santos Roland is a psychologist.  She is the President of the Board of Directors of the Fala Preta Organization of Black Women in Brazil.  She has published extensively on the topics of the Brazilian black women’s movement, women’s health needs in underserved communities, and the prevention of HIV/AIDS.  She served as the Rapporteur-General of the World Conference against Racism and was a member of the Brazilian delegation to the Conference.  She is currently working on racism and racial discrimination in the Latin American region for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).  Dr. Santos Roland was born in 1951.

Dr. Salim has a long and distinguished career in government and international public service.  He was Prime Minister of United Republic of Tanzania, as well as the country’s Minister of Defence and Minister for Foreign Affairs.  He was the President of the United Nations Security Council in 1976 and President of the General Assembly from 1979 to 1980.  He served as Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity from 1989 to 2001.  Dr. Salim is a member of the board of the Geneva-based South Centre (an Organization of Developing Countries) and he is currently President of the Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, United Republic of Tanzania.  Dr Salim was born in 1942.

Dr. Suchocka was a legal advisor for the “Solidarity” trade union in the 1980s.  Since the late 1980s, she has been a member of the Polish Parliament and has served in various official capacities, including as a member of the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs, the Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly, and the Venice Commission on Democracy through Law, as well as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Republic of Poland.  She was Poland’s first woman Prime Minister, serving in 1992 and 1993.  She holds a master's degree and a doctorate in law.  Dr. Suchocka was born in 1946.

For further information, contact José Luis Díaz (e-mail: jdiaz@ohchr.org, tel.: +41 22 917 9242, fax: +41 22 917 9004) or Gloria Nwabuogu (e-mail: gnwabuogu@ohchr.org, tel.: +41 22 917 9394, fax: +41 22 917 9050), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Office at Geneva.

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