Mideast peace process/Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace Process, PersRep to PLO, PA – Press release

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS TERJE RØD-LARSEN OF NORWAY AS UNITED

NATIONS SPECIAL CO-ORDINATOR FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS

Ambassador Also to Serve  as Personal Representative to Palestine Liberation
Organization and Palestinian Authority

The Secretary-General has appointed Ambassador Terje Rød-Larsen of Norway as United Nations Special Co-ordinator  for the  Middle East  Peace Process  and  his  Personal  Representative  to the Palestine Liberation Organization  and the  Palestinian Authority.    He  will hold  the rank  of Under-Secretary-General.  Ambassador  Rød-Larsen will succeed Chinmaya  R. Gharekhan who will complete his duties on 30 September 1999.

Ambassador Rød-Larsen, who  was born on 22 November 1947, began his career as an  academic, studying history, philosophy and sociology.  He taught Sociology and Philosophy  at the Universities of  Bergen and  Oslo, before establishing  the Fafo Institute for  Applied Social  Science in Oslo in 1981.

As Director of Fafo, he initiated a  research project into the living conditions  of  Palestinians  in the  West Bank and Gaza  Strip.  The relationships  with  both Palestinians  and  Israelis  that  he  established during  the period of preparing and  implementing this project led to a request by the Palestinian  Liberation Organization  in 1992, that he help establish a secret channel for negotiations between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Government of Israel.  Those negotiations concluded  with the signing of the Declaration of Principles at the White House on 13 September 1993.

In 1993, Mr. Rød-Larsen was appointed Ambassador and Special Advisor  to the Norwegian Foreign Minister for the Middle East peace process.  In mid-1994, he was  appointed United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Special Co-ordinator in the Occupied Territories, based in Gaza.  He returned to Norway at the end of 1996, and served as Minister of Planning.

In January 1998, Mr. Rød-Larsen was appointed  Ambassador,  Special Adviser by  the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with responsibility for the Middle East peace process.  He also serves as Honorary Chair of the Programme for International Co-operation and Conflict Resolution at the Oslo-based Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science.

He was born on 22 November 1947.
 

* *** *