Robert Van Lierop

Last updated
Robert Van Lierop
Permanent Representative of Vanuatu to the United Nations
In office
1981–1994
Personal details
Born (1939-03-29) March 29, 1939 (age 85)
Harlem, New York City

Robert F. Van Lierop (born 1939) is a United States and ni-Vanuatu lawyer, diplomat, political activist, filmmaker, writer and photojournalist. [1]

Contents

Early life

Van Lierop was born in Harlem to a father from Suriname and a mother from the Virgin Islands. His paternal grandfather was from The Netherlands. He attended Stuyvesant High School, graduated from Hofstra University in 1964 and from New York University Law School in 1967. [2]

Van Lierop began his career as a lawyer, and became a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. [3] [4]

Career as filmmaker

Van Lierop was the director of A Luta Continua (1972) and O Povo Organizado (1975). Both films were produced in the United States, in the Portuguese language, with English subtitles. Set in Mozambique, they portray the struggles of freedom fighters against Portuguese colonial authorities, as well as the building of a new nation and the construction of schools and social facilities in the early independence era. [5]

Josh Plaut and Patricia Blanchet of New York University have described them as "landmark films [...] which are characterized by the most progressive ideas of human and personal liberation [and which] have deeply impacted an era of Black independent cinema." [5]

In addition to producing his own films about Mozambique, Van Lierop arranged the screening of Mozambican films in the United States in 1981, with the proceeds serving to build a hospital in Mozambique. [6]

Career as diplomat

In 1980, when the newly independent Vanuatu joined the United Nations, its Prime Minister, Walter Lini, asked Van Lierop to be its Permanent Representative at the United Nations. The two men had met when Vanuatu had been a topic of discussion at the U.N. just prior to its independence. Van Lierop accepted, and represented Vanuatu for over a decade. He was, throughout the 1980s, Vanuatu's only diplomat stationed permanently in New York City, and he visited Vanuatu twice a year on average. [7]

As Vanuatu's ambassador, and following instructions from the ni-Vanuatu government, he campaigned within the U.N. against apartheid in South Africa, and in favour of decolonisation for East Timor, Western Sahara, West Papua and New Caledonia, among others. Van Lierop stated in 1990 that "On the issue of decolonisation, in particular for New Caledonia, Vanuatu is recognised as one of the principal promoters of independence, and this has resulted in great respect for our country". [7]

In 1988, he was vice-president of 43rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly. [8] In 1990, Van Lierop became the first chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States, a position which he held until 1994; [9] [10] he emphasised the importance of the fight against climate change, to which Small Island Developing States are particularly vulnerable. [11] He was also chairman of the United Nations' Special Committee on Decolonization, in keeping with Vanuatu's long-standing efforts in that field. [12] In 1998, he co-moderated a United Nations conference on human rights in the context of cultural diversity. [13] On 8 December 2012, representing Saint Kitts and Nevis, he was elected vice-chair of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation, one of two main subsidiary bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. [14]

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References

  1. ↑ "Black Renaissance Film Society Announces its Inaugural Film Series", New York University
  2. ↑ Minter, William. "Interview with Robert Van Lierop". www.noeasyvictories.org. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  3. ↑ "The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS): The International Conscience", Asia-Pacific Magazine, may 2, 1996
  4. ↑ "In Harlem, Echo of Eloquent Dreams", New York Times, October 16, 2008
  5. 1 2 "Black Renaissance Film Society Announces its Inaugural Film Series", New York University
  6. ↑ Luís Carlos Patraquim (2005). Médias, pouvoir et identités. KARTHALA Editions. p. 270. ISBN   978-2-84586-594-5.
  7. 1 2 Huffer, Elise (1993). Grands hommes et petites îles: la politique extérieure de Fidji, de Tonga, et du Vanuatu. ORSTOM. pp. 272–273. ISBN   2-7099-1125-6.
  8. ↑ "Africana Diplomacy: The U.N. Experience on April 2" Archived 2008-11-19 at the Wayback Machine , Seton Hall University, March 28, 2008
  9. ↑ "Climate Change and Small Island States: The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)" Archived 2008-11-01 at the Wayback Machine , United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 2000
  10. ↑ "Momentum Towards the Success of Sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change" Archived 2008-10-21 at the Wayback Machine , Vanuatu government website, September 2000
  11. ↑ "US feels heat on global warming stance", New Scientist, February 16, 1991
  12. ↑ "Programme for special UN Decade on decolonization considered - International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism", UN Chronicle , March 1990
  13. ↑ "DPI/NGO CONFERENCE EXAMINES UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CONTEXT OF DIVERSE CULTURES", United Nations Press Release, September 14, 1998
  14. ↑ "Officers elected at COP 18/CMP 8", UNFCCC Official Document, December 8, 2012
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