United Nations Leader Charles Chauvel Speaks About Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies at Wilkes University on Feb. 13

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WILKES-BARRE, PA (01/31/2018) United Nations diplomat Charles Chauvel will speak about the United Nations Development Programme goals during his presentation, Implementing Sustainable Development: Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies at Wilkes University on Feb. 13. The lecture will begin at 4 p.m. in the Miller Room of the Henry Student Center, 84 W. South St. The event is free and open to the public.

Chauvel began his career at the United Nations Development Programme in 2013. Headquartered in New York City, Chauvel leads the Inclusive Political Processes team, which supports programming in 144 countries on civic engagement, constitution making, elections, parliaments and women's political participation. In 2016, he spent four months on assignment acting as the programme's country director, then resident representative, in Lao People's Democratic Republic.

He previously was a member of the House of Representatives in the Parliament of New Zealand, representing the New Zealand Labour Party, for seven years. Chauvel was the first person of Pacific Island ancestry to serve on the front bench of any New Zealand political party. When his party was in government, he was parliamentary private secretary to the attorney general. He chaired the parliament's finance, scrutiny of regulations and privileges committees. Chauvel also founded and chaired the New Zealand Chapter of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption, and chaired the New Zealand/European Union Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Chauvel was a partner in a law firm in Wellington, New Zealand, and later in Sydney, Australia. He became a New Zealand Public Health Commissioner; chair of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation; deputy presiding member of the New Zealand Lotteries Commission; deputy chair of the board of Meridian Energy Ltd.; a board member of the Pacific Friends of the Global Fund Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and was one of the UN Global Commissioners on HIV and the Law. He holds a master of jurisprudence degree with distinction.