Secretary-General Appoints Independent Panel of Experts to Examine, Assess New Information Related to Death of Late Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld

On 29 December 2014, the General Assembly, in its resolution 69/246, requested the Secretary-General to appoint an independent panel of experts to examine and assess the probative value of new information related to the tragic death, in September 1961, of Dag Hammarskjöld and the members of the party accompanying him.

The General Assembly also encouraged Member States to release any relevant records in their possession and to provide to the Secretary-General relevant information related to the death of Mr. Hammarskjöld.

The Secretary-General is today pleased to announce that he has appointed the following as members of the Independent Panel of Experts:

Mohamed Chande Othman (United Republic of Tanzania) as Head of the Panel

Kerryn Macaulay (Australia)

Henrik Larsen (Denmark)

The Independent Panel of Experts will, inter alia, review and assess the probative value of the information provided to the Secretary-General by the Hammarskjöld Commission, as well as any relevant records or information released by Member States or by other sources.  The Independent Panel of Experts will commence its work on 30 March and submit its report to the Secretary-General no later than 30 June.

List of Members

Mohamed Chande Othman (United Republic of Tanzania) was appointed Chief Justice of the United Republic of Tanzania in 2010 after serving as a Justice of the Court of Appeal of Tanzania and a Judge of the High Court.  From 1998 to 2001, he was the Chief of Prosecutions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and thereafter Prosecutor General in Timor-Leste serving with the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor.  Prior to that, he served as Head of the Delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent to Guinea and to Viet Nam.  He has held several appointments with the United Nations Human Rights Council, served as a member of the Advisory Committee on the Archives of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia and was appointed by the President of the United Republic of Tanzania in 2007 to serve as chairman of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on the Relocation of Pastoralists.  He is a graduate of the University of Dar es Salaam and Webster University and has attended courses at The Hague Academy of International Law.

Kerryn Macaulay (Australia) is Australia’s representative on the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).  She has also served as chair of the ICAO Council’s Air Transport Committee (2012-2013).  She joined the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in 1995 as an air accident investigator and worked in a wide range of agency operations, including with a focus on investigations, safety analysis and research.  She led a number of significant ATSB projects, including on the development of multi-modal transport safety investigation legislation and on the implementation of the ATSB Safety Investigation Information Management System.  She is a commercial pilot and flight instructor with an Airline Transport Pilot License.  She is a trained teacher, and holds a Diploma of Transport Safety Investigation and an Executive Masters of Public Administration.

Henrik Ejrup Larsen (Denmark) is a ballistics expert at the National Centre of Forensic Services in the Danish National Police, where he has served for the last 25 years working on all stages up to and including court proceedings.  He has also served as Staff Sergeant First Class in the Royal Danish Guards and is a graduate of the Copenhagen Engineering College in Mechanical Engineering and of the Strathclyde University of Scotland accredited by the Chartered Society of Forensic Science.  He is member of the European Firearms Experts and a member of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) Ballistic Information Network Steering Committee.  He has participated in training with the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok, Thailand; the Forensic Science University in Gujarat, India; and the Forensic Police Academy in Beijing, China.