Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been appointed to an
18-man UN Secretary General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation.
In a press release by the UN Secretary General Antonio
Gutierrez, the board was described as a part of the “surge in diplomacy for
peace” Gutierrez has consistently advocated.
The board is said to be expected to allow the UN work more
effectively with regionaly organizations, non-governmental groups and others
involved in mediation around the world.
Obasanjo, in the release, was described as “one of the most
distinguished elder statesmen of Africa.”
Gutierrez wrote:
He served as President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, and
before that as Head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria and
Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces from 1976 to 1979. Over his long career, Mr. Obasanjo has been
involved in numerous international mediation efforts, including in Angola,
Burundi, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. In 2008 he was appointed the
United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on the Great Lakes Region.
Others on the board are President Michelle Bachelet (Chile),
Radhika Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka), Leymah Gbowee (Liberia), Jean-Marie Guéhenno
(France), Tarja Halonen (Finland), David Harland (New Zealand), Noeleen Heyzer
(Singapore), and Nasser Judeh (Jordan).
Ramtane Lamamra (Algeria), Graça Machel (Mozambique),
Asha-Rose Migiro (Tanzania), Raden Mohammad and Marty Muliana Natalegawa
(Indonesia), Roza Otunbayeva (Kyrgyzstan), Michèle Pierre-Louis (Haiti), José
Manuel Ramos-Horta (Timor-Leste), Gert Rosenthal (Guatemala), and the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby (United Kingdom) are also on the board.
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