| Notes |
Historical trends in governments
Gouvernment of 08-12-2004 Minister of State
Gouvernment of 07-12-1997 Minister of State
Gouvernment of 19-09-1996 Minister
Gouvernment of 27-11-1992 Minister External relations
Gouvernment of 21-11-1986 Minister Town Planning and Housing
Gouvernment of 24-08-1985 Secretary General Presidency of the Republic
Presentation
Official Biography
Full name: OYONO FERDINAND Leopold
Date of birth: 14 September, 1929
Place of birth: Ebolowa, South Province (Cameroon)
Nationality: Cameroonian
Marital status: Married and father of 3 (three) children
Primary education: Ebolowa, South Province (Cameroon)
Secondary education
- Lycée Leclerc, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
- Lycée de Provins, Académie de Paris, France.
Higher education
- Faculty of Law and Economics, Paris Sorbonne
- Collège de France, course on Development Economy under the supervision of Professor François Perroux, Member of the Institute.
- Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA) de Paris. Diplomacy Section.
Certificates
- Baccalauréat moderne in Philosophy
- Degree in Law and Economics
Training courses
- French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Quai d'Orsay (1959)
- French Consulate General in Genoa, Italy
- French Embassy in Italy (Palais Farnese in Rome)
Career
I – Central Administration :
1960 :
Member of the Cameroonian Delegation to the 15th United Nations General Assembly (1960) during which Cameroon was admitted as member of the United Nations Organisation.
Cameroon’s Delegate designate to the United Nations
1961 :
Jurisconsult and Research Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Yaounde.
Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Head of Cameroon’s Delegation to the following countries : Austria, Russia (USSR), Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Yugoslavia, where he negotiated and signed Friendship, Cooperation, Political, Economic, Cultural and Scientific Treaties between Cameroon and the above-mentioned countries.
Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Cameroon to the Heads of State of Ghana (NKRUMAH), Mali (MODIBO KEITA), Guinea (SEKOU TOURE), the King of Morocco (HASSAN II), member of the Casablanca Group charged with presenting Northern Cameroon’s file in the dispute between Cameroon and Great Britain at the International Court of Justice.
1962 :
Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the European Economic Community where, on behalf of Cameroon, he negotiated the Yaounde I convention on the Association of African and Madagascan States with the E.E.C. In that capacity he :
chaired the Commission on Institutions and published on behalf of the Commission a book titled :
"Les Institutions de l'Association";
published an article in the Common Market Revue
titled : "Problématique des préférences";
chaired an International conference organised by the Brussels Free University on the problem of Associating Africa with the E.E.C.
1963 :
Member of Cameroon’s Delegation to the Constitutive Summit of the Organisation of African Unity (O.A.U.).
II – External Services :
1965 :
Cameroon’s Ambassador to Liberia
1965-1968 :
Cameroon’s Ambassador to the BENELUX countries and to European Communities where he negotiated the Second Convention on the association of African and Madagascan States with the E.E.C. (Yaounde II).
1969-1974 :
Cameroon’s Ambassador to Paris covering Spain, Italy, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
1974-1982 :
Cameroon’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United States in New York. During that period, he occupied the following positions :
Representative of his country as non-permanent member of the Security Council. In that capacity, he chaired on December 16, 1975 the 1866th sitting of the Security Council in lieu and place of Mr. Ivor Richard of
the United Kingdom.
Vice-Chairman of the 34th United Nations ordinary General Assembly (1979).
Chairman of the Programmes Committee of UNICEF from 1st August 1976 – 31st July 1977.
UNICEF Board Chairman (1st August 1977 to 31st July 1978) elected in Manila in the Philippine (where he was later succeeded by Mrs OGATA, current United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).
Chairman of the Policy Commission at the Conference of Ministers of Non-aligned countries in Lima (PEROU).
Rapporteur General of the same Conference in Colombo, (SRI LANKA).
Chairman elect of the 1st Commission on the 37th United Nations Ordinary General Assembly Session (1982) but could not effectively assume this high responsibility because of change of position.
Chairman of the United Nations Council on Namibia, Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Secretary General of the United Nations in the following countries : Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Gulf Countries, Libya, Iraq, Portugal, to present Namibia’s independence case.
Member of the United Nations Committee on the Cyprus issue.
Chairman of the Committee of 7 on the Comoro Islands issue.
1982-1983 :
Cameroon’s Ambassador to Algeria and Libya.
1984-1985 :
Cameroon’s Ambassador to Great Britain and Scandinavia.
III – Government Functions:
1985-1987 :
Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon.
1987-1990 :
Cameroon’s Minister of Town Planning and Housing. Participated at a Colloquium organised by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, on Urban Development.
1992 :
Cameroon’s Minister of External Relations. In that capacity he was also :
* Vice-Chairman of the World Human Rights Conference in Vienna, Austria (1993). Initiator of the draft resolution adopted during the conference on the Bosnian issue.
* Current Chairman of the United Nations Consultative Committee on Security Issues in Central Africa (CCSI – CA) from April 4, 1994 to March 24, 1995.
* Current Chairman of the Council of O.A.U Foreign Ministers and the Central Organ of the O.A.U Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Settlement (1996). In that capacity, he notably chaired the fourth extraordinary session held in Addis Ababa on November 11, 1996, on the crisis in the Great Lakes Region, and particularly in Eastern Zaire.
* Representative of the Head of State to the Arusha II (30-31 July 1996) and III (12 October 1996) regional Summits on the situation in Burundi, as well as the Nairobi regional Summit (November 5, 1996) on the crisis in Eastern Zaire.
1997 :
Minister of State in charge of Culture
Publications
- Author of the following novels in french : "Une vie de Boy"(Paris, Editions Julliard, 1956) ; "Le Vieux nègre et la Médaille"(1960) ; "Chemin d'Europe"(1960). Well received by the Wolrd press and dealing with the human condition of Africans during the colonial era, these novels have been translated into english, german, spanish, russian, polish, swedish, norwegian, portuguese and into almost all languages and are constantly republished. They have also inspired doctoral theses defended in many universities in Africa, France, Great Britain, the Unites States, and are on the school curricula of many countries.
Decorations and other distinctions
- Grand Officer of the Order of Valour (Cameroon)
- Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (France)
- Grand Officer of the Order of Merit (France)
- Grand Officer of the Order of Pleiades (France)
- Grand Ribbon of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)
- Grand Ribbon of the Order of Leopold I (Belgium)
- Grand Ribbon of the Order of Chêne (Luxemburg)
- Grand Ribbon of the Order of African Redemption (Liberia)
- Grand Officer of the Order of WISHAM ALAOUITE (Maroc)
- Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (France)
- Member of the Société Africaine de la Culture
- Member of the French National Writer’s Committee
- Member of the Gaulois Royal Circle (Belgium) and other philosophical and philanthropic organisations
- Member of the Jury of the Grand Prix Littéraire des Ambassadeurs (France)
- Member and President of the Jury of the Grand Prix de la Littérature d' Afrique Noire
- Wounded while on official mission during the Skhirat coup d’Etat (Morocco).
Other activities
- Has accompanied the Head of State on several Official trips in Africa, Asia (China), Europe, the United Nations, America, New Zealand (admission of Cameroon into the Commonwealth of Nations)…
- Has been the special envoy of the Head of State to his counterparts in Africa an Europe.
- During his stay in Paris as Ambassador (1969-1974) and in New-York as Cameroon’s Ambassador and Representative at the United Nations (1974-1982), he held several conferences including notably those on :
· Europe/Africa relations, at the Faculty of Law and Economics (Doctoral level, course by Mme TEITGEN, 1972), and at the University of New York (1981).
Language proficiency
- French : Fluent reading, spoken and written;
- English : Functional reading and spoken, little written
Sports
- Jogging;
- Cycling.
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