| |
Wednesday, April 5, 2006 - His Excellency Dr. Julian R. Hunte, Saint
Lucia’s Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, was unanimously elected as
Chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) on 10 March 2006 at the
Headquarters of the United Nations. Ambassador Hunte succeeds His Excellency Mr.
Jagdish Koonjul, former Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Mauritius to the
United Nations.
The AOSIS, a coalition of small Island and low-lying coastal countries, was
founded in 1990 with the main purpose of consolidating the voices of Small
Island Developing States (SIDS) to address global climate change. This alliance
has grown to become the driving force at the intergovernmental level which
brings together the SIDS from all regions of the world to give substance to the
international mandate of the Barbados Programme of Action (BPoA) emanating from
the 1994 Global Conference held in Barbados—where principles and strategies for
development to protect the fragile environments of small Island States were
elaborated. The status of the BPoA mandate was subsequently reviewed at the
Mauritius International meeting in January 2005.
The Alliance comprises forty three (43) members from all around the world,
thirty-seven (37) of which are members of the United Nations (UN). The non-UN
members of the alliance are observers. The membership of the alliance thus
represents 28% of the developing countries, 20% of the UN's total membership and
5% of the world population.
|