UN Secretary-General appoints Louis M. Aucoin his Deputy Special Representative for Liberia
NEW YORK, December 5, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today the appointment of Louis M. Aucoin of the United States of America as his Deputy Special Representative (Rule of Law) for Liberia.
He will replace Henrietta Joy Abena Nyarko Mensa-Bonsu of Ghana, who completed her assignment on 31 October 2011. The Secretary-General is grateful for Ms. Mensa-Bonsu's dedicated service for the past four years.
Mr. Aucoin brings to the United Nations a wealth of experience in the area of rule of law. He is currently the Academic Director of the Fletcher School of Law LL.M. program in international law, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts. His prominent academic career includes teaching positions as a Fulbright Lecturer in the law department of the Sorbonne, an Associate Professor at the Institute of Comparative Law in Paris and at other renowned French universities. He was also a member of the law faculty at Boston University School of Law for 15 years where he taught comparative law, international human rights and trial advocacy.
In addition to his academic career, Mr. Aucoin advised numerous countries across the globe on matters relating to rule of law, transitional justice, and constitutional reform. These consultations occurred as part of missions conducted under the auspices of USAID, OHCHR, and the United States Institute of Peace, among others. In 1997-98 he served as the Legal Advisor to the Minister of Justice in Haiti, and in 2000, he was the Acting Head of Judicial Affairs in the United Nations Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET). In 2001, Mr. Aucoin was a United States Supreme Court Fellow, and from 2003 to 2006 he acted as the principal foreign advisor to the Haitian Parliament on the reform of their Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure. Mr. Aucoin has also acted as a foreign advisor to several countries in the development and drafting of their new constitutions. He served in this capacity in Cambodia in 1993, in Rwanda between 2001 and 2003, in East Timor between 2001 and 2002, and most recently in Kosovo between 2007 and 2008.
Mr. Aucoin graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, with a B.A. in Modern Languages in 1971, and received his Juris Doctor degree from Boston College Law School in Massachusetts in 1975. He is the author of numerous publications and reports on rule of law matters.
Mr. Aucoin was born on 26 January 1950.
New York
5 December 2011