This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject , potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral.(September 2015) |
Jan Kenneth Eliasson (born 17 September 1940) is a Swedish diplomat who was Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations from July 2012 to December 2016. [1] [2] A member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party,Eliasson served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 24 April to 6 October 2006. Eliasson was appointed as Governing Board Chair of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in April 2017 and assumed his role as of 1 June 2017. [3]
Jan Eliasson was born in a working-class family in Gothenburg in Sweden. His father John was a taxi driver,previously a metal worker at SKF,and his mother Karin was a seamstress. His father was engaged in the labor union for transport. He was an AFS exchange student in Indiana,United States,from 1957 to 1958 and was commissioned a naval officer in the reserve after training at the Royal Swedish Naval Academy in 1962. During his time in the United States,he once met John F. Kennedy. In 1965 he earned a master's degree in economics from the School of Business,Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg where he was also a president of the local AIESEC committee. He also holds honorary degrees from American University (1994),University of Gothenburg (2001) and Uppsala University (2005).
Eliasson has authored and co-authored numerous books and articles and is a frequent lecturer on foreign policy and diplomacy. Since 1988 he has been a visiting lecturer on mediation,conflict resolution and UN reform at Uppsala University.
Eliasson started his diplomatic career in 1965,when he was employed at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. From 1982 to 1983 he served as Diplomatic Advisor to the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme,and from 1983 to 1987 as Director General for Political Affairs in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
From 1980 to 1986,Eliasson was part of the U.N. mission,mediating in the Iran–Iraq War. From 1988 to 1992 he served as Sweden's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York,where he also served as the Secretary-General's Personal Representative on Iran/Iraq.
In 1991,Eliasson was chairman of the U.N. General Assembly's working group on emergency relief and Vice President of the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) from 1991 to 1992. In 1992 he was appointed as the first U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. He was involved in operations in Somalia,Sudan,Mozambique and the Balkans. He also took initiatives on issues such as land mines,prevention and humanitarian action.
In 1993–94 Eliasson served as mediator in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). [4]
From 1994 to 1999,Eliasson served as Swedish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs. From 2000 to 2005 he served as Sweden's Ambassador to Washington,D.C.,United States. On 13 June 2005 he was unanimously elected President of the United Nations General Assembly,for its sixtieth session. He served as president from 13 September 2005 to 11 September 2006. [4]
From 24 April 2006 to 6 October 2006 he also served as Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Social Democratic cabinet of Göran Persson. Following the 2006 Swedish general election when his party lost the election,he announced that he will teach at Uppsala University. [4]
Eliasson condemned the 2006 Lebanon War:"The military offensive of Israel is an extremely dangerous escalation of the situation in the region". He also condemned the attacks of Hezbollah. [5]
In December 2006,then U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced Eliasson as Special Envoy to Darfur,Sudan. He left this mission in June 2008. [4]
In March 2009,Eliasson gave a lecture entitled "Armed Conflict:The Cost to Civilians" at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace &Justice Distinguished Lecture Series.
Eliasson is an Eminent Member of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation and he currently sits on the advisory board of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. Eliasson was Chair of WaterAid Sweden. Since 2010 he serves in the UN Secretary-General's Advocates Group for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Eliasson is a former Board member of DARA.
On 2 March 2012,Jan Eliasson was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He took office as Deputy Secretary-General on 1 July 2012. [4]
He always carries in his pocket a print of the UN charter.
On 23 October 2017,the Tallberg Foundation announced that its Global Leadership Prize will henceforth be named after Jan Eliasson. [6]
On 27 April 2017,the Swedish Government appointed Jan Eliasson as Chair of the SIPRI Governing Board. Eliasson has formally assumed the position as of 1 June 2017. [7]
On 13 May 2022,Eliasson published a memoir titled Ord och Handling :ett liv i diplomatins tjänst ("Words and Action :a life in service of diplomacy"). [8]
Eliasson is married to Kerstin Eliasson,former Swedish State Secretary for Education and Science. They have three children:Anna,Emilie and Johan. He is a GAIS supporter. [9]
Sten Sture Andersson was a Swedish social democratic politician,who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs 1985–1991 and as President of the Nordic Council in 1994.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an international institute based in Stockholm. It was founded in 1966 and provides data,analysis and recommendations for armed conflict,military expenditure and arms trade as well as disarmament and arms control. The research is based on open sources and is directed to decision-makers,researchers,media and the interested public.
Carl Sverker Åström was a Swedish diplomat.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is a ministry in the Government of Sweden responsible for policies related to foreign policy,democracy,human rights,international development cooperation and foreign trade.
Leif Pagrotsky is a Swedish politician,economist,and diplomat. He served as Minister of Culture from 2004 to 2006 and Minister for Business and Industry from 2002 to 2004 under Prime Minister Göran Persson. After this,he held the position of Consul General of Sweden in New York City from 2016 to 2018.
Per Johan Valentin Anger was a Swedish diplomat. Anger was Raoul Wallenberg's co-worker at the Swedish legation in Budapest during World War II when many Jews were saved because they were supplied with Swedish passports. After the war,he spent a lot of time trying to clarify Wallenberg's fate.
Asha-Rose Mtengeti Migiro is a Tanzanian politician and diplomat who was the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations from 2007 to 2012. She was appointed as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa on 13 July 2012.
Tobias Lennart Billström is a Swedish politician of the Moderate Party. He has most recently served as Minister for Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Ulf Kristersson and has been Member of the Riksdag since the 2002 general election,representing MalmöMunicipality (2002–2022) and Stockholm County.
The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation,is an autonomous,non-governmental,non-profit foundation established in 1962 in memory of Dag Hammarskjöld,the second Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Jan Stefan Attefall is a Swedish politician and civil servant who currently serves as Governor of Uppsala County since 2023. He previously served as Minister for Public Administration and Minister for Housing from 2010 to 2014. He is a member of the Christian Democrats.
Lars Olof Hjälmered is a Swedish politician for the Moderate Party. He was member of the Riksdag from 2006 to 2022,representing Gothenburg Municipality. Since October 2022,Hjälmered is state secretary with responsibility for state owned companies at the Ministry of Finance under Minister for Finance Elisabeth Svantesson.
Sven Olof Morgan Andersson was a Swedish Social Democratic politician. He served as Minister of Defence from 1957 to 1973,and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1973 to 1976. Andersson also served as Minister of Communications (Transport) from 1951 to 1957.
Dan Smith OBE is a British author,cartographer and peace researcher. He is currently the Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Dan Tore Eliasson is a Swedish lawyer and civil servant. He served as Director–General of the Swedish Migration Agency from 2007 to 2011,as Director–General of the Swedish Social Insurance Agency from 2011 to 2014,as National Police Commissioner from 2014 to 2018 and as Director–General of the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) from 2018 until his dismissal in 2021. After his dismissal in 2021,he was placed as Director-General of the Division of Crisis Preparedness of the Ministry of Justice until the end of 2022.
The Health and Social Care Inspectorate is a Swedish government agency under the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. The agency was founded on 1 June 2013. The agency controls supervision and control over healthcare as well as social services.
The 2017 Gothenburg Synagogue attack took place on 9 December 2017 when individuals in a large gang threw firebombs at the synagogue in Gothenburg,which hosted an event with about 40 youth inside. The people inside fled to the basement but nobody was hurt. The incendiaries started a fire among the parked vehicles in the yard but the building did not catch fire. Of the about ten masked individuals at the scene,two stateless Palestinians and one Syrian was later identified and were sentenced to jail for having committed an act or terrorism and hate crime.
Fredrik Wetterqvist is a Swedish diplomat and music administrator.
Peter Wallensteen,born 29 July 1945 in Stockholm,is a peace and conflict researcher in Sweden,now Senior Professor in Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. He was the first holder of the Dag Hammarskjöld Chair in Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University,1985-2012. He was the Richard G. Starmann Sr. Research Professor of Peace Studies,at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at University of Notre Dame,2006-2018. From 1972 to 1999 he directed the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry was a ministry in Sweden,established in 1920 when certain matters were taken over from the Ministry of Finance. The ministry was headed by the minister of commerce and industry. The ministry ceased to exist in 1982 and matters were transferred to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.