March/April 2004
People

University welcomes former UN Under-Secretary-General

Staff and students at the University were given an insight into the career of the first woman Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) recently.

The University's Department of Peace Studies hosted a talk on 'Peace Building and Democracy: The Prospects for Angola' by Dame Margaret Anstee.

The University's Professor Tom Gallagher with former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) Dame Margaret Anstee who visited the University recently. Tom is holding a copy of her book 'Never Learn to Type: A Woman at the United Nations'. ISBN: 0-470-85424-3

Professor of Ethnic Conflict and Peace in the University's Department of Peace Studies Tom Gallagher said: "The Department was delighted to host a talk by Dame Margaret who has spent much of her professional life trying to advance many of the Department's peace-building goals.

"As the United Nations' chief envoy in Angola during the early 1990s, she made tireless efforts to advance the peace process there.

"It was the culmination of a career in the UN during which she advanced to the position of Under-Secretary-General."

Dame Margaret Anstee served the United Nations for four decades at the New York Headquarters and in some of the poorest countries of the world. Throughout this time she worked relentlessly to overcome the inequalities between the developed and developing world, a battle that she considers essential for the survival of both worlds.

She was UN Under-Secretary-General, Director General of the UN Office at Vienna and Head of the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs between 1987 and 1992.

From March 1992 to June 1993, Dame Margaret was Under-Secretary-General, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Angola and Chief of the United Nations' Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM II).

16 April 2004

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