Eleanor Fuller became United Kingdom’s first female Permanent Representative in 2007. Her prior experience at the OSCE (Vienna), the UN, and World Trade Organization (Geneva) as well as three years as a staff member of United Nations Relief and Works Agency made her appreciate the importance of leadership and good governance for multilateral organisations to work as they should for the benefit of the citizens they serve. This guided her approach throughout her five years in Strasbourg.
She led an initiative to strengthen the selection process for the Secretary General, to ensure that the net was cast wide for suitable candidates and that those whose skills and experience best matched the requirements of the post were shortlisted. There were strong vested interests opposing change. Progress was only possible thanks to a determined informal alliance of member states large and small from all parts of Europe. The impact was immediate. Later it also led to the election of only the second female Secretary General in the Council’s history.
During the United Kindom’s chairmanship in 2011-12 the top priority was the effective operation of the European Court of Human Rights. Eleanor chaired negotiations on the best way forward. The outcome was adopted at a conference in the British seaside resort of Brighton and was later enshrined in Protocols 15 and 16 of the European Court of Human Rights.
She was awarded an OBE in the United Kingdom’s 2013 New Year Honours for services to human rights and diplomacy.
The project “75 women in 75 years of Council of Europe history” is organised by the Delegation of the European Union to the Council of Europe with the Council of Europe and the Permanent Representations of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
