Biographical Note

Secretary-General Appoints Louis M. Aucoin of United States

 

His Deputy Special Representative for Liberia

 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today the appointment of Louis M. Aucoin of the United States as his Deputy Special Representative (Rule of Law) for Liberia.

He will replace Henrietta Joy Abena Nyarko Mensa-Bonsu of Ghana, who completed her assignment on 31 October 2011.  The Secretary-General is grateful for Ms. Mensa-Bonsu’s dedicated service for the past four years.

Mr. Aucoin brings to the United Nations a wealth of experience in the rule-of-law field.  Currently the Academic Director of the Fletcher School of Law’s Master of Laws programme in international law at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, his academic career has included teaching positions as a Fulbright Lecturer in the law department of the Sorbonne, an Associate Professor at the Institute of Comparative Law in Paris and other renowned French universities.  He was also a member of the law faculty at Boston University School of Law for 15 years, where he taught comparative law, international human rights and trial advocacy.

In addition to his academic career, Mr. Aucoin advised numerous countries across the globe on matters relating to the rule of law, transitional justice and constitutional reform.  Those consultations occurred as part of missions conducted under the auspices of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the United States Institute of Peace, among others.

Having served as Legal Advisor to Haiti’s Minister for Justice in 1997-1998, he was the Acting Head of Judicial Affairs in the United Nations Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET) in 2000.  In 2001, Mr. Aucoin was a United States Supreme Court Fellow, and from 2003 to 2006 he acted as the principal foreign adviser to the Haitian Parliament on the reform of that country’s Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure.  Mr. Aucoin has also advised several countries on developing and drafting new constitutions, serving in that capacity in Cambodia in 1993, in Rwanda between 2001 and 2003, in East Timor between 2001 and 2002, and most recently in Kosovo between 2007 and 2008.

Mr. Aucoin graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, with a BA in modern languages in 1971, and earned his Juris Doctor degree from Boston College Law School in 1975.  He is the author of numerous publications and reports on rule of law matters.

He was born on 26 January 1950.

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For information media • not an official record