Biographical Note

John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda Elected President

 

of Sixty-eighth General Assembly Session

 

John W. Ashe ( Antigua and Barbuda) was elected President of the sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly on 14 June 2013, while serving as Permanent Representative to both the United Nations and the World Trade Organization since 2004.

Mr. Ashe has served in a leadership capacity on many of the governing bodies of major United Nations environmental agreements.  He was the first Chairman of the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.  He also chaired the Convention’s Subsidiary Body on Implementation, and, most recently, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol.

Known for his abilities as a mediator, Mr. Ashe successfully led negotiations that resulted in Chapter X of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, and co-chaired the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in 2012.  In 2004, he presided over the thirteenth session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, the body responsible for reviewing programmes on the implementation of Agenda 21, the blueprint for rethinking economic growth, advancing social equity and ensuring environmental protection.

A veteran of the multilateral process, Mr. Ashe was elected in 2008 to chair the New York chapter of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, the largest coalition of developing nations in the United Nations system.  He also chaired the General Assembly’s High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation, the main policymaking body of the United Nations dedicated to furthering cooperation for development among the countries comprising the global South.

Well versed in the Organization’s administrative and budgetary processes, Mr. Ashe was Chairman of the General Assembly’s Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) in 2004, successfully guiding negotiations on the world body’s 2006-2007 biennial budget.  In addition, he has served on the governing boards of major United Nations funds and programmes, including as President of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Population Fund, and United Nations Office for Project Services Executive Board in 2010, and as President of the UNICEF Executive Board in 2012.

Mr. Ashe was awarded the Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 2007, in recognition of his global diplomatic service.

He joined his country’s foreign service in 1989, and holds a doctorate in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States.

Born on 20 August 1954 in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda, he is married and has two children.

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*     This supersedes Press Release BIO/3696 of 13 September 2006.

For information media • not an official record