WHITE PLAINS, NY– In the wake of the UN Oil-for-Food scandal, Louise Fréchette, United Nations deputy secretary-general, will discuss plans for reforming the 61-year-old institution at Pace Law School on Wednesday, February 1, at 7 p.m.

Fréchette, the first Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, having been appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1998, will be the guest speaker at the public policy series co-hosted by Pace Law School, the United Nations Association of the USA, The Westchester Chapter, and World Trade Council of Westchester.

“From overhauling basic management practices and building a more transparent, efficient and effective United Nations system to revamping our major intergovernmental institutions so that they reflect today’s world…we must reshape the organization in ways not previously imagined and with a boldness and speed not previously shown,” wrote Kofi Annan in his September 2005 report for decision by Heads of State and Governments, "In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights For All.” 

Fréchette will address this “reshaping” in her lecture, “Reform at the United Nations,” at the New York State Judicial Training Institute on the Law School campus, 78 North Broadway in White Plains. James Traub, contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, will be the moderator for the event.

The series, which is free and open to the public, features nationally renowned speakers and provides a forum for area residents on both sides of the political aisle to hear contemporaries on subjects ranging from the war in Iraq to government entitlements and homeland security.

Fréchette’s post of Deputy Secretary-General was established by the General Assembly at the end of 1997 as part of the reform of the United Nations, to help manage Secretariat operations, and to ensure coherence of activities and programs. She chairs the Steering Committee on Reform and Management Policy and the Advisory Board of the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP).

Before joining the United Nations, Ms. Fréchette was the Deputy Minister of National Defence of Canada, Associate Deputy Minister in Canada’s Department of Finance, and served as Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations.

Ms. Fréchette received a Bachelor of Arts degree from College Basile Moreau.  She earned a degree in history from the University of Montreal in 1970 and a post-graduate diploma in economic studies at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, in 1978.  She has received honorary doctorate degrees from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Kyung Hee University in Seoul, University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, and Laval University, Québec.  In 1998, she was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada.

Founded in 1976, Pace University School of Law has nearly 5,000 alumni/ae throughout the country. It offers full- and part-time day and evening JD programs on its White Plains, N.Y., campus. The School also offers the Master of Laws in Environmental Law and in Comparative Legal Studies. The School, which has one of the nation's top-rated environmental law programs, also offers the SJD program in that field. The School of Law is part of a comprehensive, independent and diversified University with campuses in New York City and Westchester County. www.law.pace.edu 

Pace is a comprehensive, independent university with campuses in New York City, Pleasantville and White Plains, N.Y., and a Hudson Valley Center at Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, N.Y. More than 14,000 students are enrolled in undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs in the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Lubin School of Business, School of Computer Science and Information Systems, School of Education, Lienhard School of Nursing and Pace Law School. www.pace.edu