MEETING OF STATES PARTIES

Seventeenth meeting

New York

7 October 1997

                        ELECTION, IN ACCORDANCE WITH ARTICLES 28 TO 34 OF THE

                        INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS,

                        TO FILL A VACANCY ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE

Note by the SecretaryGeneral

1.         In conformity with articles 30, paragraph 4 and 34 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the 17th meeting of States parties to the Covenant will be convened by the SecretaryGeneral at United Nations Headquarters on Tuesday, 7 October 1997, for the purpose of filling a vacancy on the Human Rights Committee resulting from the death of Ms. Laure Moghaizel (Lebanon) who had been elected at the 16th meeting of States parties for a term that was to expire on 31 December 2000. For the information of the States parties, the current membership of the Human Rights Committee is contained in annex I below.

2.         In accordance with article 33, paragraph 2, and article 34 of the Covenant, the SecretaryGeneral, in a note verbale dated 16 June 1997, invited the States parties to submit in conformity with article 29 of the Covenant, their nominations for the election of one member of the Committee within two months, i.e. by 15 August 1997.

3.         In compliance with the provisions of article 34, paragraph 2, of the Covenant, the SecretaryGeneral has the honour to indicate below the names of the persons nominated for election to the Human Rights Committee, and the States parties which have nominated them. Their biographical data are provided in annex II.

Name of candidate                                                                  Nominated by

Mr. Maurice GlèlèAhananzo                                             Benin

Ms. Sonia Marlina Dubon Villeda                                         Honduras

Mr. Mohammed Tarawneh                                                     Jordan

Mr. Abdallah Zakhia                                                              Lebanon

GE.9718102 (E)

Annex I

MEMBERS OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE

19971998

Mr. Nisuke ANDO*                                                               JAPAN

Mr. Prafullachandra Natwarlal BHAGWATI*                      INDIA

Mr. Thomas BUERGENTHAL*                                           UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Mrs. Christine CHANET*                                                     FRANCE

Lord COLVILLE**                                                               UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT                                                                                                    BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND

Mr. Omran EL SHAFEI*                                                       EGYPT

Mrs. Elizabeth EVATT**                                                      AUSTRALIA

Mr. Eckart KLEIN*                                                               GERMANY

Mr. David KRETZMER*                                                       ISRAEL

Ms. Pilar GAITAN DE POMBO**                                       COLOMBIA

Mr. Rajsoomer LALLAH**                                                   MAURITIUS

Mrs. Cecilia MEDINA QUIROGA*                                      CHILE

Mr. Fausto POCAR**                                                            ITALY

Mr. Julio PRADO VALLEJO*                                              ECUADOR

Mr. Martin SCHEININ**                                                      FINLAND

Mr. Danilo TÜRK**                                                              SLOVENIA

Mr. Maxwell YALDEN**                                                     CANADA

 * Term expires on 31 December 1998.

** Term expires on 31 December 2000.

Annex II

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA

Mr. Maurice GlèlèAhananzo

(Benin)

            Bibliographical data, when made available to the Secretariat, will be reproduced in an addendum to the present document.

Sonia Marlina Dubon Villeda

(Honduras)

Place of birth                                                  El Paraíso, Department of Copán

Date of birth                                                   24 October 1959

Civil status                                                      Married

Professional experience

Legal experience

Successively (19801991), legal representative, unpaid clerk, secretary, processserver, court clerk and public prosecutor

Administrative experience

Successively, administrative secretary I, administrative secretary II, technical assistant I, special technical assistant II and more recently, assistant principal officer

Human rights experience

Analyst                                                           Complaints unit, Office of the National Human Rights Commissioner (19911992)

Director                                                          Department for Social Protection and Care,                                                                         Office of the National Commissioner for                                                                                           the Protection of Human Rights

Special human rights                                      Public Prosecutor's Office

prosecutor                                                       (1994 to date)

Representative of the Office of the National Human Rights Commissioner on the Presidential Central Penitentiary Action Commission

Contributor to the report “The facts speak for themselves”, Office of the National Human Rights Commissioner (1993)

Member of the Governing Body of the Honduras Bar Association (19941996)

Representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office to the HighLevel Inter-Agency Commission for an Amicable Solution to the Complaints Submitted to the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights against the State of Honduras (1997)

Coordinator of the exhumation work in the southern part of the country aimed at producing a scientific identification of Honduran citizen Nelson Mackay Chavarria, a detainee who disappeared on 21 February 1982. (First case of

enforced disappearance fully identified in Honduras, with the cooperation of a team of medical anthropologists, “Doctors for Human Rights”, from the United States of America.)

Those responsible for this crime have now been legally charged and are fugitives from Honduran justice

Coordinator of the exhumation team which disinterred the body of Honduran citizen Gustavo Adolfo Morales Funez, a detainee who disappeared on 18 March 1984. Due to the poor condition of the remains, we were unable to obtain a DNA-based identification; we therefore worked on the case procedurally and succeeded in obtaining a court ruling to the effect that the disinterred remains were those of Honduran citizen Gustavo Adolfo Morales Funez. At the judicial level, criminal proceedings against those responsible for his death are under way

Academic degrees

Degree in Legal and Social Sciences, Autonomous National University of Honduras (1987)

Lawyer and notary public: titles awarded by the Supreme Court of Justice (1996)

Participation in professional events

Workshop on “The media and human rights”, InterAmerican Institute of Human Rights, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, April 1997

Techniques for the preparation of reports to international treatymonitoring bodies. United Nations, Mar del Plata, Argentina, November 1996

The situation of human rights in Honduras. InterAmerican Institute of Human Rights, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, May 1996

Seminarworkshop on techniques for the treatment of victims of torture

Centre for the Prevention of Torture and the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and Their Relatives, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, February 1996

Seminarworkshop on Justice, peace and human rights, Servicio Paz y Justicia, La Paz, Bolivia, December 1995

Mohammed Saleem Al Tarawneh

(Jordan)

Place and date of birth:                                   Karak, 15 August 1959

Marital status:                                                 Married

Experience

Clerk of Justice:                                              19821983

Judge of First Instance:                                  19841988

Judge of Second Instance:                              1988present

Education

Cairo University                      B.A. Law                                          19781982

Jordan University                    M.A. Human Rights                         19861989

Lebanon University                 PhD Human Rights                          Still studying

Lund University                      Diploma, Human Rights                   1995

Research and studies

Human rights in Jordan, Comparative study with International Law, Jordan University, 1989

Human rights in legislation, a study to be presented to the Lebanon University as a PhD thesis

Studies in Human Rights, 1996

Research presented to the Centre for Human Rights in Geneva

Conferences and seminars

Human rights international law seminar, Amman, 1992

Protection of refugees seminar, Amman, 1986

Human rights in Islam seminar, Amman, 1992

Relation between Islam and the Worlds Acts in human rights affairs, seminar, Amman, 1994

Advanced international programme on human rights, Lund, Sweden 1995

Legal assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina, seminar, Ankara, Turkey, 1996

US Jordan legal exchange, Amman, 1995

Round table on implementation of international humanitarian law at the national level, Amman, 1997

Human rights and the judicial system, Amman, 1996

The role of the judicial system in protecting human rights, Amman, 1995

Membership of associations

Arab Human Rights Organization

Jordanian Law Society

Jordan Environment Society

Jordanian Society for Human Rights

Abdallah Zakhia

(Lebanon)

Born in 1932, two children

Lebanese and French nationality

Counsellor lawyer in human rights and environmental legislation

Lawyer at the court of Beyrouth

Degree in French and Lebanese law, University of Saint Joseph, Beyrouth, 1956

Lebanese delegate at UNESCO world heritage meetings Paris and Mexico

Permanent member and environmental officer of the National Heritage Foundation

Environmental officer, Lebanese Association of Human Rights; member of the administrative committee

Juridical counsellor and consultant (law and environment)

Guild of Engineers of Beyrouth

Nautical Research Center, Beyrouth

UNDP

UNEP/World Bank

FAO

Member of the National Committee for the struggle against desertification

Teaching

Lecturer in environmental and rural rights at the University of Kaslik and at the University of Saint Joseph, Beyrouth

Participation at international conferences

Participation at the conference about the natural reserves and the Fauna and Flora's protection:

Lebanon and Amman (1995), Tunisie (1996)

World heritage meetings, Paris and Mexico (1996)

Various human rights activities

Many conferences, articles, publications, studies, television programmes, debates, national conferences, daily studies, workshops etc., about human rights in general and women's rights in particular since 1956 and the environmental right as an integrant part of the human rights since 1972

Participation in the preparation of laws or orders

Adviser to the Minister of the Environment for legal legislation, in particular:

Draft environmental law

Draft order on environmental impact

Bill on nature reserves

Bill on the revision of the status of the Minister of the Environment

Many bills on new nature reserves

Languages: Arabic and French (speak and write perfectly)

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