Secretary-General Appoints Matti Pellonpää to the Board of the United Nations Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Press release 84/2007
14 May 2007

The UN Secretary-General has appointed Matti Pellonpää, Justice of the Supreme Administrative Court, to the Board of the United Nations Register of Damage Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The independent Board of three experts will define the Register’s rules and forms of activity, and will administer the Register’s work after its establishment. The Register will be based in Vienna.

Alongside Justice Pellonpää, the Board members are Michael F. Raboin from the United States and Harumi Hori from Japan. In selecting the Board members, independence, impartiality and credibility as well as a sound international reputation were emphasised. 

The Register now being established stems from the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice of July 2004 on the "Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occcupied Palestinian Territory" and on resolutions of the emergency special sessions of the UN General Assembly from the years 2004 and 2006, requesting that the UN Secretary-General establish a Register to record the damage arising from the construction of the wall. 

Among his other appointments, Justice Pellonpää has previously served as Judge of the European Court of Human Rights.

Additional information: Counsellor Sofie From-Emmesberger, Unit for the Middle East and North Africa, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5406