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Ban mourns death of first woman serving as UN under-secretary-general

Xinhua, September 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday mourned the passing of Dame Margaret Anstee, who was the first woman to be appointed UN under-secretary-general, the highest ranks of the world body.

During her four decades of service to the United Nations, she was also the first woman to lead a UN peacekeeping mission in Angola and the first woman resident representative for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

"The secretary-general said that she brought energy, humility, courage and a sense of adventure to everything she did, from negotiating peace with rebels in Nigeria to spiriting UN staff out of Chile in the days following the 1973 coup," Dujarric said.

A message will be delivered on the secretary-general's behalf at the funeral, which is scheduled to take place on Friday in the United Kingdom, he said.

"Right until the end of her life, Margaret Anstee called for greater international cooperation and collective action for peace, sustainable development and human rights," Ban said in a message to pay tribute to Anstee.

"She was a true global citizen whose career is a powerful testament to the power of individuals to make a difference in our world," he said.

The secretary-general said that Anstee had dedicated herself for many years to working in difficult conditions in developing countries around the world. This included, at different points in her career, being responsible for delivering disaster relief in Bangladesh and in Mexico, helping the children of Chernobyl after the nuclear accident, and running peace operations in Angola.

Anstee passed away on Aug. 25. She had served the United Nations for 41 years before retiring in 1993. However, she remained actively involved in international affairs.

Born in 1926 in rural England, she graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1944, three years before the institution began admitting women to full degree status, and went on to further study and academia before joining the United Nations in 1952, where she subsequently had a string of "firsts" to her name. Endit