Tom Koenigs is commissioner of human rights policy and humanitarian aid at the German Federal Government's Foreign Office. His tasks include observing international developments in these areas, helping to shape bilateral and multilateral dialogue with governments and non-governmental organizations, and submitting operative proposals on Federal Government policy to the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs. From 1999 to 2005, Mr. Koenigs worked for the United Nations. As deputy special representative of the secretary-general of the United Nations in Kosovo, he was responsible for the general civil administration there from 1999 to 2002. From 2002 until 2005, he headed the UN Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) as Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The mission was established to monitor the peace agreement signed in 1996 between the former parties of the civil war. Mr. Koenigs began his career in the public sector in the 1980's when he held several posts in the Frankfurt city government including head of the Department of the Environment, treasurer, and acting mayor. From 1990 to 1999, Mr. Koenigs was chairman of the Climate Alliance Commission, an international NGO which links 800 European cities with the peoples of the Amazonian rainforest and works for the protection of the global climate.