Speakers
Dr. Noel Brown
President, Friends of the United Nations; and Former Director, United Nations Environment Program, North American Regional Office
Dr. Noel Brown is the former Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, North American Regional office. Dr. Brown holds a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from Seattle University, an M.A. in International Law and Organization from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in International Relations from Yale University. He also holds a diploma in International Law from The Hague Academy of International Law.
Over the past two decades, Dr. Brown represented the United Nations Environment Program at a number of the major international conferences and negotiations on environment and development issues and on international law, including the historic Earth Summit in Rio, 1992. He has initiated numerous innovations in the service of the earth's environmental protection and sustainable development. He is a founding member of the Aspen Global Change Institute, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, and Indigenous Development International.
Dr. Brown currently serves as President of the Friends of the United Nations, a non governmental organization dedicated to advancing the cause of the United Nations by mobilizing public support on its behalf and directing public attention to its major programmes and achievements. He is a fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, Chairman of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism and Chairman of the Rene Dubos Center for Human Environments.
Dr. Brown serves on the Board of Directors of the Climate Institute, the Earth Communications Office, the Rainforest Alliance, MUSE, Film & Television, the Center for Resource Management, Global Education Associates, Trust for the Americas, the International Leadership-Development Institute, Roots for Peace, International Sea-keepers Society, the Timbuktu Heritage Institute and Jamaica National Parks Trust Fund. Dr. Brown has consulted and lectured extensively around the world and has produced a number of publications. Through his work with the Peace Child International, he sponsored and encouraged a group of young people to rewrite Agenda 21 (the Earth Summit's Blueprint for Sustainable Development) in a style and language that would be meaningful to their generation and which resulted in Rescue Mission, now an international best- seller within the environmental youth community. In keeping with efforts to address the moral dimension of the environmental crisis, Dr. Brown introduced the Environmental Sabbath Programme to the United Nations, now celebrated worldwide by thousands of congregations in connection with World Environment Day, and he has recently edited a volume entitled Ethics and Agenda 21: Moral Implications of a Global Consensus.
Dr. Brown has numerous awards acknowledging his service to the environment, including: the Lions Club Award, the Friends of the United Nations Award, the Gaia Award, and the Global Education Associates Award for Distinguished Service in Care of the Earth. Dr. Brown is a recipient of the 1998 World Academy of Arts and Science Award for Distinguished Public Service. One of the most dedicated and ardent champions of the environmental sustainability and planetary viability for the past 30 years, he has initiated a number of activities that have significantly advanced the cause of the environment in many areas of human endeavor.
