UN SECRETARY-General Ban Ki-moon has announced the appointment of Canadian Elizabeth Spehar as his new Special Representative in Cyprus on an interim basis.
Her appointment will be only the second time the UN has appointed a woman to the top UN post in the 44-year history of the UN in Cyprus. There have been altogether some 20 envoys, resident and non-resident, permanent and temporary, and 18 were men.
Spehar, who is currently Director of Europe and Americas Division at the UN’s Office of Political Affairs, will replace Michael Moller, who has been Special Representative since early 2006.
She arrives on the island this afternoon from New York. Moller’s last official day will be Saturday.
Moller’s departure and Spehar’s arrival coincide with the visit on Sunday of a UN assessment team led by UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe.
Pascoe is bringing a team to assess the latest developments, and the results of last Friday’s talks between President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
He is likely to go back to New York with two signs of concrete progress.
Work for the opening of Ledra Street is under way, and the two sides have made huge strides in setting up working groups and technical committees to pave the way for full negotiations in three months’ time.
Spehar will take over from Moller in facilitating the process. It’s an open secret that Moller’s appointment in 2006 was never fully endorsed by the Turkish side and he found himself under fire from Ankara only two months after he took up office when they refused him a visit implying he was pro Greek Cypriot and could not be an objective mediator on Cyprus.
The UN simply said his contract had expired.
Yesterday, Government Spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said the Greek Cypriot side hoped the changeover would not affect the pace of the new talks’ process.
Stefanou said the Turkish demand to replace Moller’ had been raised some months ago.
“It was our position that issues concerning the Cyprus problem should be managed in a way that serves both communities and in general the Cyprus question,” he said.
Spehar, who will now take over the huge Cyprus portfolio, joined the Department of Political Affairs of the UN Secretariat in September 2007 as Director for the Americas and Europe Division.
Prior to that, she was a senior official with the Organisation of American States (OAS) for over 12 years, serving in Washington, and also heading the OAS Electoral Support Programme in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 2005 and 2006.
Prior to the OAS, Spehar had served as the Head of the Americas Programme of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (ICHRDD) in Montreal, and before that had worked for a variety of institutions dealing with human rights, democracy and development issues, including MATCH International in Ottawa, Canada, the UNDP Office in Cape Verde, West Africa, and consultancies with the International Development and Research Centre (IDRC), and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
She holds a BA Honours Degree from Queen’s University, Canada, a Master of Arts Degree in International Affairs from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA), Carleton University, Canada, and a Diplome d’Etudes Sup?rieures from the University of Pau in France.
The last time a woman was appointed as Special Representative in Cyprus was in 1998 when Dame Ann Hercus took over as Deputy Special Representative and Chief of Mission.
Hercus was a member of New Zealand’s parliament from 1978 to 1987 and between 1984 and 1987 served as Minister of Social Welfare, Minister of Police and Minister of Women’s Affairs.
She was given the UN Cyprus portfolio in July 1998 and a year later was appointed to the post of full Special Representative.
Hercus conducted shuttle talks between the two sides far from the public eye during her year as deputy and was given the permanent post in July 1999. She only held the position for a month when she submitted her resignation in August 1999 citing family reasons.
At the time, there was much speculation about the tough-lady tactics employed by Hercus within the force. The situation reached a climax in August 1999 when reports surfaced in British newspapers that the Irish UN Civilian Police were about to rebel because Hercus had banned the wearing of shorts on duty.
