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Biograhphy of Louise Arbour

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Biograhphy of Louise Arbour VULNERABLE POPULATIONS: INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITIES World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland Monday, October 31, 2005 SPEAKERS’ BIOGRAPHIES KEYNOTE ADDRESS: ERNESTO ZEDILLO, Ph.D., Director, Center for the Study of Globalization, Yale University Ernesto Zedillo is the Director of the Center for the Study of Globalization and Professor in the Field of International Economics and Politics at Yale University. He was President of Mexico from December 1994 to December 2000. He earned his undergraduate degree at the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico and his master and doctoral degrees at Yale University. After leaving office, Mr. Zedillo became Chairman of the UN High Level Panel on Financing for Development and was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. He served as Co- Coordinator of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Trade and was Co- Chairman of the UN Commission on the Private Sector and Development along with Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada. He is currently Chair of the Global Development Network and Co-Chairman of the International Task Force on Global Public Goods. In April he was appointed by the UN Secretary-General to serve as his Envoy for the upcoming September 2005 Summit in which heads of state and government will review implementation of the Millennium Declaration. Mr. Zedillo is a member of the Trilateral Commission, serves on the International Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Board of Directors of the Institute for International Economics and is a trustee of the World Economic Forum. MODERATOR: RALPH BEGLEITER, Distinguished Journalist in Residence, University of Delaware; former CNN World Affairs Correspondent Ralph Begleiter brings more than 30 years of broadcast journalism experience to his appointment at the University of Delaware, where he teaches communication, journalism, and political science. During his two decades with CNN, Begleiter was the network’s most widely-traveled correspondent. He continues to travel, with university students to Cuba and Antarctica, and conducting media workshops in several countries under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State. He has visited some 93 countries on 6 continents. At CNN during the 1980’s and 1990’s, he covered the U.S. State Department, hosted a global public affairs show, and co- anchored CNN’s prestigious “International Hour.” In 1998, Begleiter wrote and anchored a 24-part series on the Cold War. He covered many historic events at the end of the 20th century, including virtually every high-level Soviet/Russian-American meeting; the Persian Gulf Crisis in 1990-91; the Dayton Bosnia Accords; Middle East Peace efforts; and many UN and NATO summit meetings. In recent years he has hosted the Foreign Policy Association’s annual “Great Decisions” television discussion series. He has received numerous press awards including, in 1994, the Weintal Prize from Georgetown University’s Graduate School of Foreign Service, one of diplomatic reporting’s highest honors. Begleiter has moderated each of the previous Hilton humanitarian conferences. PANELISTS: LOUISE ARBOUR, LL.L., United Nations High Commissioner For Human Rights Louise Arbour was appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2004. Ms. Arbour, a Canadian national, began a distinguished academic career in 1970, culminating in the positions of Associate Professor and Associate Dean at the Osgood Hall Law School of York University in Toronto, Canada. In 1987, she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ontario (High Court of Justice) and in 1990 she was appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario. In 1995, Ms. Arbour was appointed by Order-in-Council as single Commissioner to conduct an inquiry into certain events at the Prisons for Women in Kingston, Ontario. In 1996, she was appointed by the Security Council of the United Nations as Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. After three years as Prosecutor, she resigned to take up an appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada. Ms. Arbour completed an LL.L (with distinction) from the Faculty of Law, University of Montreal in 1970. Following the Quebec Bar Admission Course, she was called to the Quebec Bar in 1971 and the Ontario Bar in 1977. Ms. Arbour has received honorary doctorates from twenty-seven universities and numerous medals and awards. She has published extensively on criminal law and given innumerable addresses on both national and international criminal law. MAYRA BUVINIC, Sector Director for Gender and Development, World Bank Mayra Buvinic is Sector Director for Gender and Development, PREM Network (Poverty Reduction Economic Management), World Bank. Between 1996 and 2004 she was Division Chief for Social Development at the Inter American Development Bank (IDB), where she oversaw work on the social sectors, including health, urban development, labor markets, early childhood development, social inclusion and violence prevention, and both the Women in Development Unit and the Indigenous Peoples Unit. Prior to working at the IDB, Ms. Buvinic was a founding member and President of the International Center for Research on Women (1978-2004). She is past President of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) and member of a number of non-profit boards, including the International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka, and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Nigeria. A Chilean national, her published works are in the areas of gender, poverty and development; health and reproductive health; violence prevention; social inclusion and social cohesion; and project and program evaluations. MELVIN L. CHEATHAM, M.D., FACS, Samaritan’s Purse Melvin L. Cheatham is a neurosurgeon and a member of the Board of Directors of Samaritan's Purse and of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Dr. Cheatham gave up his very successful neurosurgical practice to devote his full energies to medical relief work in developing countries and in areas of war and conflict. He and his wife volunteer their time doing relief work around the world through World Medical Mission, the medical arm of Samaritan's Purse. Dr. Cheatham is a Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of California (Los Angeles) Medical Center. He is past President of the California State Neurosurgical Society and a past President of the Western Neurosurgical Society, an organization of the top neurosurgeons from the Western United States and Canada. He is co-editor of an internationally renowned surgical textbook and has received prestigious awards from both the American and California Associations of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Cheatham speaks nationally and internationally on humanitarian relief work, and is a special assistant to Dr. Franklin Graham, President of Samaritan’s Purse. He is the author of three books: “Come Walk With Me”, “Living A Life That Counts”, and “Make A Difference”, each book focusing upon our need to bring humanitarian assistance to “vulnerable populations” of the world. Because of Dr. Cheatham’s work he has received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. 2 FRANCIS M. DENG, Ph.D., Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Kluge Center of the U.S. Library of Congress Francis Mading Deng is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Kluge Center of the Library of Congress and Research Professor of International Politics, Law and Society and the Director of the Center for Displacement Studies at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. From 1992-2004, Dr. Deng served as Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons and was concurrently a Senior Fellow of the United States Institute of Peace during 2002- 03. He also has served as Human Rights Officer in the United Nations Secretariat, as Ambassador of Sudan to Canada, the Scandinavian countries and the United States, and as Sudan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Dr. Deng co-founded the Brookings (now Brookings-SAIS) Project on Internal Displacement and was a Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has authored or edited more than 20 books and two novels. He holds an LL.B (Honours) from Khartoum University and an LL.M. and J.S.D. from Yale University. BINETA DIOP, Executive Director and founder of Femmes Africa Solidarité Bineta Diop of Senegal began her career in human rights 25 years ago as Program Coordinator of the International Commission of Jurists, where she obtained extensive experience in human rights issues in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Ms. Diop has led Femmes Africa Solidarité in numerous peace-building programs, including the creation of a strong West African women’s movement, the Mano River Women’s Peace Network (MARWOPNET). In 2003, the General Assembly awarded MARWOPNET the UN Prize in the field of Human Rights. Ms. Diop has observed elections in post-conflict areas and facilitated peace talks, particularly for Burundian and Congolese women. In 1999, she was appointed General Rapporteur to the UNESCO Pan-African Women’s Conference on a Culture of Peace. As a member of the African Women’s Committee for Peace and Development (AWCPD), Ms. Diop played an instrumental role in achieving gender parity within the African Union Commission in 2003. These efforts culminated in July of 2004 as the African Union adopted the “Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa.”
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