Earth Charter Initiative Handbook

was a member of the Greenland Home Rule Parliament for eleven years, serving for four years as a member ofthe Cabinet with the responsibility for Social Affairs and Labor; She was a delegate to the World Conferenceon Human Rights in Vienna in 1993, where her idea to find a permanent forum for indigenous peoples underthe United Nations system was widely recognized by representatives of both states and indigenous peoples;she was also a delegate to the UN Social Summit in Copenhagen in 1994. Ms. Rasmussen served for manyyears as Chief Technical Advisor in the International Labour Office on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, inGeneva and is a former Council member of IUCN – The World Conservation Union. She is an educator andjournalist.Alide Roerink (The Netherlands)P.O. Box 940201090 GA AmsterdamThe NetherlandsAlide Roerink is an anthropologist and has been involved over the years in networking,advocacy, and policy development for gender justice, international solidarity, and global governance. AlideRoerink was coordinator of Vrouwenberaad Ontwikkelingssamenwerking, a network of gender experts indevelopment agencies in The Netherlands. Since 2000 she has been working with the National Committeefor International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO) in the capacity of advisor internationalrelations, and is a member of the NCDO management team. Alide coordinates the NCDO Earth Charterprogramme and the Round Table of Worldconnectors for People and the Planet (www.worldconnectors.nl). Alide Roerink is board member of the Alliance for the University for Peace, NVVN (United NationsAssociations Netherlands) and SIGN (Schoolfeeding Initiative Ghana Netherlands). NCDO is Affiliatedto the Earth Charter Initiative and cooperated with the Earth Charter Initiative in the launch of the EarthCharter in 2000 in the Peace Palace in The Hague and in the Earth Charter+5 event in 2005 in Amsterdam.Alide Roerink initiated and co-edited the book Earth Charter in Action: Towards a Sustainable World. AlideRoerink was advisor to the Earth Charter Initiative before she joined the Council.Mohamed Sahnoun (Algeria)University for Peace Geneva Office7-9 chemin de Balexert,1219 ChâtelaineGeneva, SwitzerlandAmbassador Mohamed Sahnoun was, for many years, special adviser to the secretary general of the UnitedNations Kofi Annan, on the Horn of Africa region. Mr. Sahnoun has had a distinguished diplomaticcareer serving as adviser to the president of Algeria on diplomatic affairs, deputy secretary-general of theOrganization of African Unity (OAU), and deputy secretary-general of the League of Arab States in charge ofthe Arab-Africa dialogue. He has served as Algeria’s ambassador to the United States, France, Germany, andMorocco, as well as to the United Nations (UN).Previously, he served as special adviser to the director general of the United Nations Scientific and CulturalOrganization (UNESCO) for the Culture of Peace Programme, special envoy of the secretary-general on theEthiopian/Eritrean conflict (1998-1999), joint representative of the UN and the OAU in the Great Lakesregion (1997), special representative of the UN secretary general to Somalia (1992). He was a member of theEarth Charter InitiativeHANDBOOK |59|