AfricaPress-Tanzania: United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has announced today the appointment of Elizabeth Mrema of the United Republic of Tanzania as Executive Secretary to the Convention. to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The UN boss decided to promote Elizabeth Mrema, who has been the acting as Executive Secretary since December 2019, following consultation with the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties.
“Before that, she served as Director of the Law Division at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya with more than two decades of experience at the United Nations, she brings to her new position extensive experience in global environmental law and policymaking, implementation of environmental and sustainable development programmes, and a deep knowledge of multilateral processes,” according UN.
From 2009 to 2012, Ms. Mrema was the Executive Secretary of the UNEP/Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.
She also served as the Acting Executive Secretary of the UNEP/ASCOBANS [Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas], as well as Interim Executive Secretary of the UNEP/Gorilla Agreement, all based in Bonn, Germany.
Before joining UNEP, Ms. Mrema worked in the United Republic of Tanzania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, while also lecturing in public international law and conference diplomacy at the country’s Centre for Foreign Relations and Diplomacy.
Ms. Mrema holds a Master of Laws from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, a post-graduate diploma in international relations and diplomacy from the Centre for Foreign Relations and Diplomacy in Dar-es-Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania, and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Dar-es-Salaam.
