Joke Waller-Hunter (15 November 1946 - 14 October 2005) was a Dutch

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

official who worked on several

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

issues including the

Kyoto Accord The was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that global warming is occ ...

Biography

She was born Joke Hendrina Hunter in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

, daughter of Cornelis Hunter and Hendrina van Smalen. She studied French and, as a student in 1969, married Herman Waller, of the old patrician famil
Waller
from

Nijkerk Nijkerk (; Dutch Low Saxon: ''Niekark'') is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city located in the middle of the Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. Population centres Some people state that ''Groot Corlaer'' is a ...

, who died at the age of 48 in 1991. She started working for the province of

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

, and after that for many years at the

Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment The Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning ( or ''VRO'') is a Dutch ministry (government department), government ministry. It was re-established in 2024 after having been disbanded in 2010. The current minister is Mona Keijzer. History The M ...

. Her efforts at the

Earth Summit The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio de Janeiro Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92, Cúpula da Terra), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

in 1992 drew much attention, and even earned her the moniker ''Dutch Maffia'' amongst opponents of a treaty. She was the first UN Director for the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, a position which she served from 1994 to 1998. From 1998 to 2002 she was director of the OECD Environment Directorate. She then joined the

UN Framework Convention on Climate Change The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the UN process for negotiating an agreement to limit dangerous climate change. It is an international treaty among countries to combat "dangerous Global warming, human interf ...

as Executive Secretary. She was awarded an

honorary An honorary position is one given as an honor, with no duties attached, and without payment. Other uses include: * Honorary Academy Award, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, United States * Honorary Aryan, a status in Nazi Germany ...

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

from the

Vrije Universiteit The (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the othe ...

in September 2005 citing ''her contribution to society through her outstanding work in the field of sustainable development and protection of the global climate''. After her death as the result of breast cancer at the age of 58 in a hospital in

Lohmar Lohmar (; Ripuarian: ''Luhme'') is a municipality and a town in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Lohmar is located about 20 km east of Cologne and 15 km north-east of Bonn in the Bergisches Land a ...

, the UN organized a memorial ceremony in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

and a memorial concert in

Montréal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. Childless, she left her estate to the Dutch environmental organization

Both ENDS Both may refer to: People * Both (surname) Music * The Both, an American musical duo consisting of Aimee Mann and Ted Leo; also their self-titled first album * "Both" (song), by Gucci Mane featuring Drake * BOTH, Belgian-French musical duo k ...

Sources

Joke Waller-Hunter
at

UNFCCC The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the UN process for negotiating an agreement to limit dangerous climate change. It is an international treaty among countries to combat "dangerous human interference with th ...

site.
"Mother of Kyoto"
at www.bothends.org (Dutch) 1946 births 2005 deaths Dutch officials of the United Nations Dutch environmentalists People from Haarlem {{UN-bio-stub