Anna Cataldi
United Nations Messenger of Peace
Anna Cataldi, (Italy) author, journalist and human rights activist, was appointed United Nations Messenger of Peace by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in November 1998. Cataldi has been involved in human rights activities in war-affected countries for more than a decade and is a committed advocate on behalf of children affected by war. As a Messenger of Peace, she is committed to raising awareness of the plight of children in armed conflict, refugees and demining activities, and developmental programmes for people in post-conflict situations.
As a freelance journalist in crisis situations, Cataldi has reported in Chechnya, Inghusetia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sarajevo and Albania. Her articles have appeared in the Italian magazines Panorma, Rizzoli, La Stampa, and Epoca, and L’Expresso as well as in The Nation, The International Herald Tribune and La Regle Du Jeu. Cataldi was an associate producer of the Academy-award winning film “Out of Africa.” She has also published in newspapers and journals in other parts of Europe and in selected publications in the United States..
As a media consultant, Cataldi undertook four missions for UNICEF to Sarajevo between 1993 and 1994 and also compiled reports on refugee camps in Croatia, Krajina and Bosnia. Her experiences in Sarajevo had a lasting impact on her and lead her to compile “Letters from Sarajevo”, a book that chronicles the impact of war on its victims — Croats, Muslims, and Serbs, men, women, and children — whose fears and hopes are voiced poignantly through letters which were smuggled out of the country to the outside world, letters that were intended for relatives who had already escaped “the largest concentration camp in the world.”
Since her designation as UN Messenger of Peace, Cataldi has undertaken several missions on behalf of the United Nations to raise awareness of the plight of refugees and war-affected children. Cataldi has visited Afghanistan on five occasions since 1996 in her capacities as journalist and Messenger of Peace. Since 1999, she has worked with UNHCR to raise awareness of the dire situation of Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons, and in 2000, she visited Pakistan (Islamabad and Peshawar) and Afghanistan (Jelalabad, Kabul, Herat) in order to bring the plight of the Afghan people to the world’s attention.
Since 2001, Cataldi has worked closely with fellow Messenger of Peace and world renowned opera singer, Luciano Pavarotti, and UNHCR to organize a benefit concert for three successive years in Italy to raise awareness of, and funds for, refugees. The 2001 concert raised more than $2.5 million for humanitarian assistance to Afghan child refugees in Pakistan and earned Pavarotti and Cataldi, a special UNHCR award for their voluntary work. She assisted Pavarotti in organizing subsequent fundraising concerts in 2002 and 2003 in aid of Angolan refugees and Iraqi refugees, respectively.
In other activities on behalf of the UN, in 1997, Cataldi undertook an assignment on behalf of the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs to raise awareness of the issues of landmines in Angola. In 1999, in cooperation with the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, she visited Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Sudan to report and advocate about the plight of child victims in armed conflicts. In 1999, Cataldi also returned to Kosovo to report on the Kosovo liberation by KFOR troops. In July 2005, Ms. Cataldi joined Mr. Otunnu in a press conference at UN Headquarters to announce the adoption of the landmark resolution, by the UN Security Council, on monitoring and reporting mechanisms concerning the recruitment of child soldiers and other abuses committed against children during armed conflict.
With her many years of experience as an advocate for mine clearance activities in Bosnia, Afghanistan and elsewhere, in 2003 Cataldi took on the role of spokesperson and advocate for the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) of the UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations. In that capacity she will visit mine-affected countries to help raise awareness of UNMAS’ work and its NGO partners. Cataldi’s first assignment for UNMAS was to bring awareness to a newly launched project for mine clearance equipment to Iraq. She represented UNMAS at a UN/NGO event at Brindisi in June 2003 to publicize the first shipment of mine action equipment to Iraq. In May 2004, she visited Afghanistan to focus attention on the work of the UNMAS there, by visiting demining sites in and around Kabul and in four other provinces as well as a number of demining educational projects. She published an article on her visit in the UN Chronicle magazine (Sept 2004).
Cataldi’s contributions are varied in the field of human rights. To mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Right, she initiated a project to create and distribute a “passport” version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for Children”. She also wrote a book commemorating the anniversary, entitled “Fifty Years Later.” She has also contributed to “Crimes of War”, a publication by The Crimes of War Project, a unique collaboration of journalists, lawyers and scholars that seeks to raise awareness of the laws of war among the media, governments, the human rights and humanitarian communities, and the general public.
In other related activity, in February 2004, Ms. Cataldi was invited to become a member of the research group on “Genocides and Crimes of War: The role of the international community?” a major project being cosponsored by the University of Milano-Bicocca and the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research – the result of which are expected to be published in 2005.
In February 2005, Ms. Cataldi visited Banda Aceh in the aftermath of the tsunami, in a tour of the province organized by the UNICEF National Committee in Italy. During the visit Ms. Cataldi visited UNICEF projects and met with UN staff serving the tsunami survivors in Banda Aceh.
Profile prepared by Y. Acosta, UN Headquarters (acostay@un.org)
Updated: 15 February 2006
