United NationsE/1998/L.1/Add.14
Economic and Social Council
Distr.: Limited
27 April 1998
English
Original: French
Resumed organizational session for 1998
7 and 8 May 1998
Agenda item 7
Elections, nominations and confirmations
Election of nine members of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
1.The Secretary-General has received from the Syrian Arab Republic another nomination for election to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The person nominated for election is Mr. Sami Glaiel.
2.Biographical information concerning Mr. Glaiel is annexed hereto.
Biographical information on Sami Glaiel
Born in 1941, in Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic;
Primary and secondary education in Damascus and Lebanon;
University studies at the Universities of Damascus and Warsaw;
Holder of a graduate degree in French literature, a diploma in journalism and a doctorate in political science;
Appointed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1974;
From 1975 to 1981 served as First Secretary to the Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations in New York. As part of his functions he held office as Rapporteur of the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (Special Committee on Decolonization), and had participated in several United Nations missions;
Has represented his country in the First, Third and Fourth Committees of the General Assembly, as well as at sessions of the Economic and Social Council, and in the Committee on Information, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Special Committee against Apartheid;
From 1981 to 1984 served as Deputy Director of the International Organizations Department, later as Director of the Department for the Americas in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
From 1984 to 1987 served as Minister Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic in New York, with responsibilities covering the problem of the Middle East, the question of Palestine and special political and Security Council affairs;
In December 1987 was appointed Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations in Geneva and Vienna;
During this period, he participated very actively in the work of the Commission on Human Rights;
At the second regular session of the Economic and Social Council in 1988 was elected a member of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
From 1990 to 1994 served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Venezuela, accredited to the Governments of the Republic of Colombia, Jamaica, the Republic of Haiti, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean islands;
Since 1994, has been, successively, Director of the Africa Department and Director of the Economic Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a post he still holds;
For many years has been a member of Syrian delegations and has represented his country at various conferences, including the following:
(a)Conference of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Non-Aligned Countries, Lima (Peru), 1975;
(b)First special session of the General Assembly of the United Nations devoted to disarmament, 1978;
(c)International Conference in Support of the Peoples of Zimbabwe and Namibia, Maputo (Mozambique), 1977, at which he also represented the Special Committee on Decolonization and the Special Committee against Apartheid;
(d)Summit Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, New Delhi, 1981;
(e)United Nations Seminar on the Question of Palestine, Geneva, 1982;
(f)Proceedings of the Commission on Human Rights and of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
Head of the Syrian delegation to the International Conference on the Relationship between Disarmament and Development, New York, 1987;
Has accompanied the Minister for Foreign Affairs on a number of visits abroad.