Agency Report:
November 8, 2017: The United Nations (UN) has offered the former Nigeria President Olusegun Obasanjo a High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation along with 17 other current and former global leaders. The Secretary-General, Antonio Gutierrez had in September announced the establishment of the board to provide him with advice on mediation initiatives and back specific mediation efforts around the world.
The Board is composed of 18 current and former global leaders, senior officials and renowned experts who bring together an unparalleled range of experience, skills, knowledge and contacts to “surge in diplomacy for peace”.
The Board is expected to allow the UN to work more effectively with regional organizations, non-governmental groups and others involved in mediation around the world. In 2008, Obasanjo was appointed as one of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on the Great Lakes region.
Also appointed into the board are President Michelle Bachelet (Chile) who is serving her second non-consecutive term as president; Radhika Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka); a 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate, Leymah Gbowee (Liberia); Jean-Marie Guéhenno (France), former President of Finland, Tarja Halonen (Finland); David Harland (New Zealand), Noeleen Heyzer (Singapore), and Nasser Judeh (Jordan).
Others are 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 Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby (United Kingdom).