SISULU NOMINATED TO SERVE ON THE UN HIGH LEVEL COMMISSION

South Africa’s Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has been nominated to serve in the United Nation’s High Level Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor. 

Minister Sisulu is one of the only two serving ministers from Sub-Saharan Africa, nominated to serve on this commission comprising primarily of Heads of Government. She was nominated by Peru’s world renowned economist and anti poverty campaigner Hernando de Soto’s Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD), Mr de Soto was in South Africa recently. 

The commission is built on the conviction that the fight against poverty can only be achieved if governments succeed in democratising the rule of law. It is based on the work of Mr de Soto, which demonstrates how legal exclusion produces poverty and alienation. The commission is envisaged to commence in September 2005 and will meet for two and half years for two or three times a year at the UN Headquarters in New York. 

Mr de Soto co-chairs the commission with former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. 

The minister has not indicated whether she would serve on the commission as she was awaiting the President’s decision on the matter. However, Minister Sisulu indicated that she was humbled and honoured by the nomination. 

There will be five technical sub commissions with experts to support the commission. What we need are commissioners with the intellectual and political ability to solve a crucial world problem that has not yet been properly addressed, says Mr de Soto.  

‘Two thirds of the world’s population have assets and businesses without the benefit of legal property rights in spite of the fact that Article 17 of the universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes that all citizens should have these rights,’ states Mr de Soto. 

SOME OF THE PROMINENT NOMINATED MEMBERS ARE: 

From Sub-Saharan Africa:

* Benjamin Mkapa, President of Tanzania

Wangari Mathaai, vice-minister of Environment, Nobel Peace Price Laureate, Kenya  

From Middle East/North Africa:

Gamal Mubarak, Egypt 

From East Asia/Pacific:

* Michael Moore, former Prime Minister, New Zealand, and former head of the WTO

Zhu Ronghij, former Prime Minister of China 

From South/Central Asia:

* Milinda Moragoda, former Minister of Economy, Sri Lanka 

From Latin America:

* Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico

* Fernando Cardoso, former President of Brazil 

From North America:

* James Wolfensohn, former head of the World Bank

Steve Forbes, publisher 

From Europe:

Gordon Brown, Finance Minister of the U.K.

* Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, former High Commissioner of Human Rights 

*Members that have been invited and have accepted 

Issued by the Ministry of Housing 

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Date:                    09 May 2005