President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has, on Monday, November 1, 2021, appointed Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al Hussein, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as an advisor to the Maldives’ delegation attending the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) being held in Glasgow, United Kingdom (UK). Zeid served as the UN Human Rights Commissioner from September 1, 2014, to August 31, 2018.
President Solih is in Glasgow accompanied by a high-level delegation from the Maldives, including former President Mohamed Nasheed, Maldives’ Speaker of Parliament, Aminath Shauna, Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Technology, and Sabra Ibrahim Noordeen, Maldives’ Special Envoy for Climate Change.
Zeid is the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the International Peace Institute (IPI), Perry World House Professor of the Practice of Law and Human Rights at the University of Pennsylvania, and a member of the Elders, a group founded by Nelson Mandela.
A veteran multilateral diplomat, Zeid served as Jordan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from September 2010 until July 2014, and then previously from 2000 to 2007. Zeid also served on the UN Security Council, chaired the UN Peace-Building Commission’s configuration committee, and began his career as a UN Peacekeeper in the former Yugoslavia. His appointment as the advisor to the Maldives’ delegation at COP26 is regarded as a crucial strategic partnership for the Maldives, in its climate negotiations.
COP26, hosted by the UK from October 31 to November 12, 2021, brings together parties in a bid to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
