The Hindu : New Delhi News : JNU professor meets UN officials

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Saturday, Dec 08, 2007
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JNU professor meets UN officials

Staff Reporter

Addresses environmental issues

NEW DELHI: A Jawaharlal Nehru University professor, who had drafted a proposal for up-gradation and strengthening of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), had an opportunity recently to share his views on international environmental governance with representatives of the world organisation in New York. Bharat H. Desai, who holds the Jawaharlal Nehru Chair in International Environmental Law at JNU’s Centre for International Legal Studies, had been invited by Peter Maurer, the permanent representative of Switzerland at the UN, to deliberate on issues and look at several “building blocks” to address the “crisis of international environmental governance”.

Future of UNEP

“I presented my proposal for the United Nations Environment Protection Organisation. I also expressed my views on the future of the UNEP, synergies and inter-linkages among multilateral environmental agreements as well as a possible environmental ‘supervisory’ organ at the UN headquarters,” Prof. Desai told mediapersons here on Friday. Last month Prof. Desai met Peter Maurer and his Mexican counterpart Claude Heller who have been authorised by the UN General Assembly to chair the “Informal Consultative Process on the Institutional Framework for the United Nations’ Environmental Activities”.

“We spoke in detail on the need for a ‘supervisory’ organ for UNEP as the General Assembly can’t routinely keep a tab on it. We discussed the possibility of revival of the UN Trusteeship Council and giving it a new mandate to cater to global environment needs,” the professor pointed out.

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