GENEVA / SYRIA NEW ENVOY PEDERSEN

Veteran Norwegian diplomat Geir Pedersen assumed his post as the United Nations’ Special Envoy for Syria at the UN Geneva office. UNTV CH

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:08
• Production Date: 8 January 2019
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: GEIR PEDERSEN
• Subject Topical: PEACE PROCESS
• Geographic Subject: SYRIA
• MAMS Id: 2345613
• Parent Id: 2345613
• Alternate Title: unifeed190108b

Description

STORY: GENEVA / SYRIA NEW ENVOY PEDERSEN
TRT: 01:08
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 08 JANUARY 2019, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / RECENT

Shotlist

RECENT - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Exterior shot, UN Palais des Nations

08 JANUARY 2019, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / RECENT

2. Med shot, UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen and Alessandra Vellucci, Director of UN Information Service
3. Close up, Pedersen
4. Med shot, Pedersen in his office
5. Wide shot, Pedersen
6. Close up, Pedersen
7. Med shot, Pedersen with UN photographer
8. Various shots, Pedersen walking with staff in corridor
9. Various shots, press briefing room with photo shoot

Storyline

Veteran Norwegian diplomat Geir Pedersen assumed his post Monday (7 Jan) as the United Nations’ Special Envoy for Syria at the UN Geneva office.

Pedersen succeeds Staffan de Mistura, who served more than four years as the UN's point person for the conflict in Syria. He is the fourth person to hold the position after former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Algerian envoy Lakhdar Brahimi quit the post in 2012 and 2014, respectively.

The crisis in Syria, which started with largely peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, has so far claimed over 400,000 lives and driven some 11.7 million people from their homes, including over 5.5 million to seek refuge into neighboring countries.

Born in Oslo in 1955, Pedersen was recently serving as Norway’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China since 2017. He also served as Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations between 2012 and 2017.

Pedersen has worked for the United Nations in various roles, including as Special Coordinator for Lebanon from 2007 to 2008 and as Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for Southern Lebanon from 2005 to 2007. He also assumed the post as Director of the Asia and Pacific Division in the Department of Political Affairs.

Pedersen was Norway’s representative to the Palestinian Authority in the late 1990s.

In 1993, he was a member of Norway’s team to the Oslo negotiations that led to the signing of the Declaration of Principles and the mutual recognition between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel.

From 1995 to 1998, he held different positions at his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo, among them as Chief of Staff for the Foreign Minister of Norway.