Ambassador Noel Sinclair, who recently completed his tour of duty as Caricom’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations, on August 26 was appointed as Deputy Chef de Cabinet to the President of the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Ambassador John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda.
A press release said that Sinclair’s appointment as Deputy Chef de Cabinet provides him an opportunity to advise the President of the UN General Assembly and to contribute to the effective management of the work of the Assembly as it confronts its 167-item agenda. This includes a number of items of special interest to Caricom states like the third international conference on Small Island Development States (SIDS) to be held in Samoa in 2014.
Sinclair, a past Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has had a long and distinguished Foreign Service career that includes diplomatic postings and high level responsibilities in national, regional and international organisations. He has held senior posts at the Guyana Embassies in Washington and Caracas, at the Guyana High Commission in Lusaka and, in New York where he served as Permanent Representative of Guyana to the UN Mission.
It was as part of this latter post that he served as President of the UN Security Council. He also acted as President of the United Nations Council for Namibia, promoting expanded recognition of the Council by the international community as the legal administering body for the territory of Namibia, then under illegal occupation by South Africa. He also served as Deputy Permanent Secretary of SELA (the Latin American Economic System) at its headquarters in Caracas.
Prior to becoming Caricom’s Permanent Observer, Sinclair was Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, where he presided over the peace talks and the weapons disposal process of the former antagonists to end their 10-year civil war.
