UNSG Appoints new Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace Process etc.

Just after returning from the Annapolis conference, the UNSG BAN Ki-Moon said he would appoint Dutch diplomat Robert H. Serry as his “Envoy to the Quartet”. In addition, BAN said that Serry would be the “United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and his Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority”. The UN Security Council will be asked to approve this nomination. He was previously the Dutch Ambassador to Ireland, and before that, the UN announcment said, “he was Director and Deputy Assistant Secretary-General for Crisis Management and Operations at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, where among other functions he had informal contacts with Palestinian and Israeli security experts (including ex-IDF officers) on lessons learned by NATO in the Balkans”.

In addition, the UN spokesperson announced that Vladimir Goryayev, a former Soviet diplomat, who has worked for the UN’s Department of Political Affairs since 1988, was being appointed Executive Director of the office of the UN Register of Damage caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.  The announcement indicated that “the office of the UN Register of Damage, based in Vienna, is a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly operating under the administrative authority of the Secretary-General”.  The UN said that “In his new capacity, Mr. Goryayev will be responsible for overseeing and administrating the work of the office of the UN Register of Damage. As an ex-officio member of the Board of the Register of Damage, he will also be responsible for reviewing all the claim cases and presenting them to members of the Board for inclusion in the Register”. The announcement of this appointment is here.

The register of damages was sent up in response to the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in Occupied Palestinian Territory — which was handed down in 2004. (2004!)