Anders B. Johnsson (born 1948) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

jurist and a former Secretary General of the

Inter-Parliamentary Union The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; french: Union Interparlementaire, UIP) is an inter-parliamentary institution, international organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and coop ...

(IPU).

Biography

Johnsson was born in

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

, Sweden. He holds a Bachelor of Law degree from

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

, Belgium, and holds a Master of Comparative Law degree from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. He worked for over 15 years at the Office of

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

(UNHCR) where he held senior positions in Honduras, Pakistan, Sudan and Viet Nam. He also served as Senior Legal Adviser to the High Commissioner at the UNHCR Headquarters. Johnsson joined the IPU in 1991 where he directed the development of the IPU's program on strengthening parliaments and promoting democracy. He was Deputy Secretary General and Legal Adviser from 1994 to 1998 and Assistant Secretary General from 1991 to 1994. He was elected IPU Secretary General in 1998 for an initial four year mandate and has since been re-elected three times. Johnsson is the IPU's seventh Secretary General from the organization's founding in 1889. Johnsson's fields of expertise include international law and organisation, refugee law and human rights, and parliamentary diplomacy. He has authored several papers and articles on those matters. On 28 July 2011 the Congress of the State of Chiapas, Mexico, bestowed the Medal "Fray Matías de Cordoba" to Anders B. Johnsson in recognition of his work to strengthen parliaments, human rights, gender equality, and the promotion of democracy. This was partly in recognition of the IPU conference held in Chiapas on 3 November 2010 on "Parliaments, Minorities and Indigenous Populations, towards effective political participation" which resulted in the "Chiapas declaration" on strengthening involvement of minorities in parliamentary politics. Johnsson is married to a Mexican writer. They share three children.http://www.ipu.org/strct-e/sg.htm IPU website. Biographical note

References

External links

Interview with Anders B. Johnsson in Diva International
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnsson, Anders 1948 births Living people Lund University alumni New York University School of Law alumni People from Lund Swedish jurists United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees officials Swedish officials of the United Nations