Bradnee Chambers (1966-2019)
Nature and humanity lost a true friend with Bradnee Chambers’ passing on January 23, 2019.
A Canadian, Bradnee began his United Nations career at United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) working on investment and transparency and then at the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies; but he found his real calling when he moved to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in 2008. He has held many environmental leadership positions in the UN system, including heading the Law and Governance Branch or UNEP’s Division for Environmental Law and Conventions, leading the UNEP Secretariat in the Helsinki-Nairobi Ministerial Process resulting in the strengthening of UNEP at the Rio +20 Conference in 2002, and most recently as the Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. He also worked on many other projects relating to biodiversity, including the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and Global Environmental Outlook 4. He was particularly interested in improving international governance and wrote numerous books and articles towards that end. He taught many courses, including in Japan.
CIEL was fortunate to work with Bradnee in various ways, including to create the UNEP Compendium on Human Rights and the Environment, on Bradnee’s initiative, and the database of multilateral environmental agreements and decisions that became Informea.org. He was a highly constructive colleague, and a friend to CIEL. And we will miss him.