Ambassador Amina C. Mohamed, CBS, CAV, is the second
African we will be profiling that is nominated for the WTO post of
Director-General. She is from Kenya and the First African we profiled is MrAlan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, from Ghana.
Ambassador Amina Mohamed is
a committed international civil servant who has had a distinguished career in
both public and. foreign
service. She has served in strategic government positions and been elected to
key international positions. Her work experience in over twenty six years covers
a broad spectrum of domestic and international assignments. She rose through the
ranks in Kenya's diplomatic service to the highest level of Ambassador/Permanent
Representative Kenya Mission to the UN at Geneva from 2000-2006. She served as
Director, Europe and the Commonwealth and Director Diaspora from mid-2006-2007
and was Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and
Constitutional Affairs in 2008. Since July, 2011 she has served as United
Nations Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director of the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at Nairobi.
She is an excellent
strategist and visionary anticipating the management needs of every
organization she has been involved with. With her profound knowledge of the WTO
and her strong managerial skills, Ambassador Amina Mohamed has all the required
competencies to lead the WTO into the future. She is fluent in English,
Russian, Swahili and has a working knowledge of French.
Ambassador Amina Mohamed
has had a distinguished diplomatic career since 1986 and rising through
the ranks to become Ambassador/Permanent Representative, Permanent
Mission to the Republic of Kenya at
Geneva in 2000. As the Permanent Representative, she represented Kenya
in the UN system, and the WTO among other international
organizations. Her strong interpersonal
skills in negotiations, developed during her career
in the multilateral fora, enabled
her to effectively articulate Kenya's interests in the WTO. She participated in
drafting and interpretation of International
Trade Treaties.
An
Expert in Public Sector and Institutional Reform
Ambassador Amina
Mohamed was instrumental in restructuring, reforming
and rationalizing the Kenya's Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Missions abroad. She chaired the
team that drafted Kenya's foreign trade policy
focusing on economic and commercial diplomacy. As Permanent
Secretary, Ministry of
Justice, National Cohesion and
Constitutional Affairs, she supervised the drafting, negotiation, national
referendum and promulgation of the new Constitution of Kenya
2008- 2010, including institutional reforms
on elections, ethics and integrity, access to justice
and the development of a national cohesion policy. At UNEP, Ambassador Amina
Mohamed has spearheaded the implementation of UNEP's Medium Term Strategy and
Programmes as well as on-going reforms. Most recently she
has been actively engaged with intergovernmental processes in implementing the
RIO+20 outcomes and support efforts to enhance the funding base of the
organization.
A
Distinguished Legal Practitioner
Through her
experience in the multilateral fora, she has provided legal advice during
Kenya's tenure in the Security Council, negotiations in the WTO, particularly
in launching the Doha trade talks and contributed texts in the Kenya's
constitution where foreign trade has been integrated with Foreign Affairs.
Result-oriented
Team Leader
Throughout her
career, Ambassador Amina Mohamed has demonstrated solid leadership ~nd proven negotiations
skills. She chaired three key WTO bodies: the Dispute Settlement Body, the
Trade Policy Review Body and the General Council during her tenure in Geneva.
During which important decisions and recommendations were made. Under her
leadership as the General Council Chair, the accession of Saudi Arabia was
concluded; she guided the negotiations and preparation for the 2005 Hong Kong
Ministerial Conference where substantial progress was made on Doha Development
Agenda; the LDC's waiver on market access was successfully concluded and members
agreed to amend the TRIPS agreement to legally allow WTO members without
capacity to produce pharmaceutical products to import and address public health
concerns.
At UNEP she
has been instrumental in enhancing the
capacity of the institution and
seeking additional resources to initiate new goals and action plans.
Key
Positions Held in UN
2011-To date:
United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director, UNEP
2008- 2011:
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and
Constitutional
Affairs
2010-2011;
President of the United Nations Conference on Transnational Crime, Vienna
2006- 2007: Director,
Europe and Commonwealth Countries and Director for
Diaspora matters~ Chairman the Task Force Sub
- Committee on Strengthening
and restructuring of the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic
Affairs
2000- 2006:
Ambassador Permanent Representative, Kenya Mission to the UN and
other International Organizations at Geneva.
~ Chairman, Coordinator and the Spokesperson
for the African Group in the
WTO, Human Right Commission
~ Served as President of the Conference on Disarmament in 2002
~ Chairman the International Organization for Migration in 2002
~ Chairman the Trade Policy Review Body in 2003
~ Chairman Dispute Settlement Body in 2004
~ Chairman General Council in 2005
~ Member of the Executive Boards and Committees of the WHO, UNHCR,
WIPO, ILO, UNCTAD
AND UNAIDS 2001-2005
1990-2000: Kenya's
Legal Advisor in various Missions abroad, including the 6th Committee
of the UN
1986-1990: Legal
Advisor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Honours
National Award of
Chief of Burning Spear (CBS)
Cavaliere
dell'Ordine della Stella della solidarieta italian a
Life Member, RedCross Society Member of the Life and Peace Institute International Advisory
Council, Sweden
Member of the World
Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Arctic
Member of the
Strathmore Law School Advisory Board, Kenya
LLM University of
Kiev and Kenya School of Law
Post Graduate
Diploma in International Relations, Oxford University
UNITAR Fellow
