Rwanda elected to chair Committee of Permanent Representatives to the UN Habitat

Rwanda elected to chair Committee of Permanent Representatives to the UN Habitat

Today at the UN Habitat head quarters in Nairobi during the 59th Regular Meeting of Committee of Permanent Representatives (CPR) to UN Habitat, members held elections to replace the departing members of the bureau for 2014-2015 biennium.

The elections saw Rwanda’s High Commissioner to Kenya who also doubles as Rwanda’s Permanent Representative to UN Habitat, Ambassador James Kimonyoelected to chair the committee for the next two years.

High Commissioners of Colombia Her Excellency Maria Correa, Honorable Tobias Glucksman of the United States of America and the Ambassador of Ukraine His Excellency YevheniiTsymhalink were elected first, second and third Chairpersons respectively.

In his acceptance speech, Ambassador Kimonyo expressed his gratitude to his colleague for entrusting and electing Rwanda and him as the Chair of the bureau for the next two-year term.

“I accept this position with high expectation of your support and advice on how together we can facilitate UN Habitat to deliver to its objectives. The new bureau assumes this rather complex but off course exciting responsibility at a very critical moment of preparation for the Habitat III and drawing linkages to SDG’S. I pledge full commitment to this task and call upon all of you to make human settlement better and sustainable”. Kimonyo said

The outgoing Chair His Excellency Mlynar Michel congratulated the newly elected incoming Chair.

“I wish the new Chair success and I am sure that through him we can enjoy Rwanda’s best human settlements and urbanization experiences” Michel said

The Committee of Permanent Representatives among other things is responsible for the execution of the decisions of the Governing Counciland monitoring of the implementation of the work programme of the UN Habitat.

The governing council is composed of 58 member states elected by the UN General Assembly.

The CPR is composed of ambassadors or foreign envoys of member states accredited to Kenya and Permanent Representatives to the UN-Habitat.