Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe (image: Cisac, Stanford University)
Update 18:50 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - US President Barack Obama has nominated two more women for key posts in Geneva. Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe is nominated as US ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, as a member of the US Mission to the United Nations. Her name had been circulating earlier in the year as a possible candidate for the post of US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, and thus head of the US Mission, but Obama 24 October nominated Betty King for that post.
Laura Kennedy has been nominated as US ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament (CoD), as part of the Department of State, but the CoD is based in Geneva. The Conference has 65 member nations, and it famously ended a 12-year stalemate in May 2009 with a new work programme. The new agenda’s priority work is to develop the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, which would end production of fissile materials for use in atomic bombs.
The two nominations, as well as that of Betty King, are subject to review by the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, which then makes recommendations to the full Senate, and it votes on each appointment. The process normally takes two to three months.
