Angela King

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Angela Evelyn Vernon King (August 28, 1938 - February 5, 2007) was a Jamaican diplomat. She worked for the United Nations for 38 years, from 1966 to 2004, working mainly for equal rights for women. She was appointed Assistant Secretary-General for gender issues in 1997, remaining in that post until she retired in 2004.

[edit] Early life

King was born in Kingston, Jamaica. Her father was Canon R.O.C. King; her brother was Peter King. She was educated at St Hilda's High School and Wolmer High School, in Kingston, and studied for a BA in history at the University College of the West Indies. She received an MA in educational sociology and administration from the University of London in 1962.

King then joined the Foreign Office of the newly-independent Jamaica, and was posted to Jamaica's Permanent Mission at the United Nations in New York.

[edit] UN career

King joined the UN in 1996, working on human rights and social development.

She was a founding member of the UN's Group on Equal Rights for Women (GERWUN), and chaired the UN's United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW). She took part in many UN conferences on womens rights, from the inaugural meeting in Mexico City in 1975, to the meeting in Beijing in 1995 which led to the Beijing Platform for Action.

She headed the UN Observer Mission in South Africa (UNOMSA) in 1992 to 1994, as apartheid was dismantled. Boutros Boutros Ghali's decision to choose a black woman to head the mission was praised by Nelson Mandela, who also complimented King her work.

Kofi Annan appointed her as the UN's first Assistant Secretary-General for "gender issues" in 1997. She organised a special session of the UN General Assembly in 2000 to review its implementation, known as "Beijing + 5", and pushed for the UN Security Council to adopt Security Resolution 1325, calling for greater protection for women in war, and prosecution of offenders against women.

She retired in 2004, but continued to attend UN meeting on women's issues.

She died of breast cancer. She was survived by her son.