SecGen appoints Commissioner-General of UNRWA – Press release

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS PETER HANSEN, OF DENMARK,

AS UNRWA COMMISSIONER-GENERAL

biographical note

After consulting the members of the Advisory Commission for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has decided to appoint Under-Secretary- General for Humanitarian Affairs Peter Hansen as Commissioner-General of the Agency, effective from 20 January. Mr. Hansen, a national of Denmark, is replacing Ilter Turkmen, of Turkey.

Established by the General Assembly in 1949, UNRWA provides education, health, relief and social services to some 3.2 million registered Palestine refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Agency employs more than 20,000 staff, mainly teachers and health workers, and nearly all of them Palestinians. Its budget for the 1996-1997 biennium is about $666 million, nearly half of which is for education programmes.

A biographical note of Mr. Hansen is contained in Press Release SG/A/573-BIO/2839, of 11 February 1994.

Qazi Shaukat Fareed, Director, New York Office of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, will be Officer-in-Charge pending the appointment of Mr. Hansen's replacement.

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