OSCE Permanent Council recommends appointment of new ODIHR Director

VIENNA, 16 January 2002 - The Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) agreed on Thursday to recommend the appointment of Ambassador Christian Strohal of Austria as Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

It recommended that the OSCE Ministerial Council, comprising the foreign ministers of the 55-nation Organization, should appoint Ambassador Strohal for a three-year term starting on 1 February 2003.

Ambassador Strohal replaces Ambassador Gerard Stoudmann of Switzerland, whose term as ODIHR Director expired in November 2002.

Ambassador Strohal, who was born in May 1951 in Vienna, has an extensive background in human rights, having served as Austrian Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, as a delegate to the UN General Assembly and as representative to the European Union working group on human rights.

From 1994 to 2000, he was Director for Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law and Minority and Gender Issues at the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

At present he is Austria's Ambassador to Luxembourg.