Advisory Board on Human Security

Mr. Knut Vollebaek is a former Norwegian Ambassador to the United States of America (2001-2007) and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway (1997-2000). During his diplomatic and political career, he has also served as Assistant Secretary General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1994-1997); Director General, Department of Bilateral Co-operation (1994-1994); Norwegian Ambassador to the Central American States, based in Costa Rica (1991-1993); Deputy Minister (State Secretary) of Foreign Affairs (1989-1990); Director of UN Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1986-1989); Norwegian Delegate to the UN General Assembly (1982-1983 and 1986-1988); and held diplomatic assignments in India, Spain and Zimbabwe.

Mr. Vollebaek has held a number of international positions, including Commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons (2013-); Primus inter Pares of the Panel of Eminent Persons on Strengthening of the Effectiveness of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (2005); Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (1999); Chairman of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (1999-2000); and Chairman of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (1997-1998).

He obtained his M.Sc. in Economics from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen in 1972; honorary Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, St. Olaf College, Minnesota, USA in 2003; and, honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, Concordia College, Minnesota, USA in 2003.

He received Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 2000 and decorations from Costa Rica, Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, the Netherlands, and Spain.
Since August 2013, he is heading the Norwegian Government’s Commission on Norwegian Travelers.

Mrs. Sadako Ogata is the former President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Honorary Chair of the Advisory Board on Human Security (ABHS), having served as Chair of the ABHS from its establishment in 2004 until 2010. Mrs. Ogata co-chaired the Commission on Human Security (June 2001 to April 2003) and was Scholar-in-Residence at the Ford Foundation. While at the Commission, she was also appointed the Special Representative of the Prime Minister of Japan on Afghanistan Assistance and co-chaired the International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan in January 2002 in Tokyo, Japan.

Mrs. Ogata served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from 1991 to 2000. Before her career at UNHCR, she was the Independent Expert of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on the Human Rights Situation in Myanmar in 1990. From 1982 to 1985, she was the Representative of Japan on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Also, from 1978 to 1979, Mrs. Ogata was the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations, and served as the Minister there from 1976 to 1978.

Mrs. Ogata has also been a prominent academic figure. She was the Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo (1989-1991). Prior to this, she was the Director of the Institute of International Relations at the same university (1987-1988), and Professor from 1980. She served as Associate Professor, Diplomatic History and International Relations at the International Christian University in Tokyo (1974-1976), and Lecturer in International Relations at the International Christian University and at the University of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo from 1965 to 1974. She received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1963. She holds an M.A. in International Relations from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and a B.A. from the University of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo.

Since 2001, Mr. François Fouinat has been advancing the United Nations’ work on human security in a number of ways.  First, as the Executive Director of the Commission on Human Security (CHS), he managed the work of the Commission and supervised the elaboration of its report, Human Security Now: Protecting and Empowering People.  Later, as the Executive Secretary of the Advisory Board on Human Security (ABHS), he led the Board’s initial efforts to promote and disseminate the findings and conclusions of the CHS.  After the establishment of the Human Security Unit, he served as Special Adviser to the ABHS and to the UN Trust Fund for Human Security.

Since January 2006, Mr. Fouinat has been the Senior Adviser to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Migration and Development. In this capacity, he has played a central role in the conception and the establishment of the Global Forum on Migration and Development, the first global intergovernmental process that considers the links between migration and development through dialogue and cooperation.

As a retired international civil servant, Mr. Fouinat has represented the United Nations in a number of important humanitarian functions in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. After serving as the Chef de Cabinet to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), he was in charge of UNHCR in the Asia Pacific region. In 1992-1993 he served as the Coordinator for UNHCR’s activities in the former Yugoslavia and in 1999, he was selected as UNHCR’s Chief of Operations for the Kosovo Emergency.

Mr. Fouinat graduated from the Faculty of Law and received a post-graduate diploma from the Institut des Hautes Etudes de l’Amérique Latine in Paris.

After 30 years in exile, Dr. Ginwala returned to South Africa as a member of the African National Congress (ANC) Presidents’ Secretariat and its negotiating team. Following democratic elections, she entered parliament and became the First Speaker of the National Assembly. Prior to being elected to the National Assembly, Dr. Ginwala was actively involved in the ANC where she formed the taskforce to establish a Women’s League.

Dr. Ginwala has dedicated her entire life to addressing democracy, governance, human rights and development. She served as the co-Chairperson of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, was a member of the African Union’s Audit Panel, and served as a member of the Advisory Panel of High-Level Personalities on African Development to the UN Secretary-General. Throughout her work, Dr. Ginwala has called for women’s involvement in conflict resolution and peace building and has worked with women in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Palestine and Israel.

Dr. Ginwala was a member of the Advisory Board on Corruption, which was established under the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption.

Mr. Matjaž Kovačič is the former Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations in Geneva. Prior to his position in Geneva, Mr. Kovačič worked in the areas of human security, international relations, human rights, minority rights and women’s rights as a representative of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia.

In 1991, after Slovenia’s independence, Mr. Kovačič became the country’s first Secretary-General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Later, he was selected the alternate Permanent Representative of the Republic of Slovenia to the United Nations in New York as well as the Consul-General of the Republic of Slovenia in New York.

After serving as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Slovenia in Portugal and the Kingdom of Morocco, Mr. Kovačič continued to represent the Government of the Republic of Slovenia in a number of functions including as the National Coordinator for the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe and the South Eastern Europe Cooperation Initiative, the National Coordinator for the Human Security Network, the National Focal Point for the Alliance of Civilizations, and the National Coordinator for Cooperation with the International Organization of Francophone countries.

Ms. Sonia Picado is the President of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights. From 2010-2016, she served as the Chair of the Advisory Board on Human Security. Ms. Picado is a former member of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica in San José and the former President of the National Liberation Party. In 1999, she led the International Commission of Inquiry on East Timor to study human rights situations there and presented her report to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She was the Costa Rican Ambassador to the United States from 1994 to 1998 and Executive Director of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights from 1984 to 1994. Between 1988 and 1994, she also served as the Judge and Vice-Chair of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Ms. Picado represented her country on the Experts Committee for the Promotion of Human Rights in Central America, at the Commission of European Communities from 1992 to 1994, as co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, DC from 1993 to 1994, and at the International Commission for the Recovery and Development of Central America from 1987 to 1989.

In 1980, Ms. Picado became the first woman to be elected Dean of the University of Costa Rica’s School of Law. She has also taught in Salzburg, Austria, at the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, the University of Dayton (Ohio), the World University Service in Austria and Columbia University.

Bradford Smith is president of the Foundation Center, the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide. The Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. and, increasingly, global grantmakers—a robust, accessible knowledge bank for the sector, together with research, education and training programs designed to advance knowledge of philanthropy at every level. Before joining the Foundation Center in 2008, Mr. Smith was president of the Oak Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland, a major family foundation with programs and grant activities in 41 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. With the Ford Foundation, he worked as representative in Brazil before becoming vice president in the New York headquarters, responsible for the global Peace and Social Justice Program. During his 10-year tenure as vice president, the program provided hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations working on issues of human rights, international cooperation, governance, and civil society in the U.S. and around the world, while supervising field operations on three continents and overseeing the creation of TrustAfrica.

Mr. Smith holds an M.A. in Economics from the New School for Social Research in New York and a B.A. in Anthropology and Ethnomusicology from the University of Michigan.

Mr. Akihiko Tanaka is President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Before assuming the present post, he was Professor of International Politics at the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies and at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo. Most recently he was Vice President of the University of Tokyo (2011-2012), Executive Vice President of the University of Tokyo (2009-2011), and Director of the Division of International Affairs of the University of Tokyo (2008-2010).

He obtained his B.A. in International Relations at the University of Tokyo in 1977 and his Ph.D. in Political Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981.

Mr. Tanaka’s specialties include theories of international politics, contemporary international relations in East Asia, and Japan’s foreign policy. He has numerous books and articles in Japanese and English including Posuto kuraishisu no sekai (The Post-Crisis World) (Tokyo: Nihon keizai shimbun shuppansha, 2009), Ajia no nakano Nippon (Japan and International Politics in Asia) (Tokyo: NTT Shupan, 2007), and the New Middle Ages: The World System in the 21st Century (Tokyo: The International House of Japan, 2002).

He received the Medal with Purple Ribbon for his academic achievements in 2012.

On 8 May 2017, the Secretary-General reappointed Mr. Yukio Takasu as Special Adviser on Human Security. From April 2012 to May 2017, he served as United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Management. He was previously appointed as Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Human Security in December 2010 by then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. As a diplomat, Mr. Takasu has worked to advance the notion of human security in the United Nations and amongst Member States. While serving as Director-General for Japan’s Department of Multilateral Cooperation in 2000, he supported the activities of the Commission on Human Security, co-chaired by Mrs. Sadako Ogata and Professor Amartya Sen. In 2006, as the Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations, he initiated the formation of the informal Friends of Human Security group. These efforts, combined with those of other Member States, culminated in the formal meeting of the General Assembly plenary on human security in May 2010 and the consensus resolution 66/290 on human security at the GA in 2012.

Mr. Takasu has held a wide range of positions at the United Nations including as Controller at the Assistant Secretary-General level and Member of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ). He also has nearly 40 years of experience in multilateral diplomacy, notably as Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations in New York; Ambassador, Embassy of Japan, Washington; Ambassador, Scientific Cooperation, Human Security and United Nations Reform, Tokyo; and Permanent Representative of Japan to the International Organizations in Vienna, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).