| The former
UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen
Lewis is co-Director of AIDS-Free World, a
new international AIDS advocacy organization. Mr. Lewis
is also a Professor in Global Health, Faculty
of Social Sciences at McMaster University. He is
also Senior Advisor to the Mailman School of Public
Health at Columbia University in New York.
Mr. Lewis is co-chair of the Leadership Programme Committee
for the XVII International AIDS Conference, which will
be held in Mexico City in August 2008. Mr. Lewis also
serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), and is
the chair of the board of the
Stephen Lewis Foundation.
Stephen Lewis’ work with the United Nations spans
more than two decades. He was the UN
SecretaryGeneral’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS
in Africa from June 2001 until the end of 2006. From
1995 to 1999, Mr. Lewis was Deputy Executive Director
of UNICEF at the organization’s global headquarters
in New York.
In 1997, in addition to his work at UNICEF, Mr. Lewis
was appointed by the Organization of
African Unity to a Panel of Eminent Personalities to
Investigate the Genocide in Rwanda. The ‘Rwanda
Report’ was issued in June of 2000.
In 1993, Mr. Lewis became coordinator for the international
study known as the Graça Machel
study on the "Consequences of Armed Conflict on
Children". The report was tabled in the United
Nations in 1996.
From 1984 through 1988, Stephen Lewis was Canadian Ambassador
to the United Nations. In this capacity, he chaired
the Committee that drafted the FiveYear UN Programme
on African Economic Recovery. He also chaired the first
International Conference on Climate Change, which drew
up the first comprehensive policy on global warming.
From 1970 - 1978, Mr. Lewis was leader of the Ontario
New Democratic Party, during which time he became leader
of the Official Opposition.
Mr. Lewis holds 25 honorary degrees from Canadian universities.
He is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians
and Surgeons of Canada, and is a Senior Fellow of Massey
College at the University of Toronto.
Mr. Lewis was appointed a Companion of the Order of
Canada, Canada’s highest honour for
lifetime achievement, in 2003. The same year, Maclean’s
magazine honoured Mr. Lewis as their inaugural “Canadian
of the Year.” In April 2005, TIME magazine listed
Stephen Lewis as one of the ‘100 most influential
people in the world’.
During the course of his tenure as Special Envoy, Mr.
Lewis received a number of prestigious awards. Amongst
them are the Jonathan Mann Health and Human Rights Award
from the International Association of Physicians in
AIDS Care (2003); the Pearson Peace Medal, awarded by
the United Nations
Association in Canada to celebrate outstanding achievement
in the field of international service and understanding
(2004); the International Council of Nurses’ Health
and Human Rights Award, awarded
quadrennially for outstanding contributions to international
health and human rights (2005); the Baylor International
Pediatric AIDS Leadership Award, from the Baylor International
Pediatric AIDS Initiative, Baylor College of Medicine,
Houston, Texas (2006); the Harry Jerome President’s
Award from the Black Business and Professional Association
in Toronto (2006); and the William G. Davis Children’s
Champion Award, Peel Children’s Aid Foundation,
Mississauga (2006).
Stephen Lewis’ bestselling book, Race Against
Time was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust Award
and the Trillium Book Award. It won the Canadian Booksellers
Association’s Libris Award for nonfiction book
of the year, and Mr. Lewis was named the CBA’s
Author of the Year for 2005.
|
|
