In Memoriam of Michel Barton  (1949 - 2003)

Born in 1949, Mr Barton had a B.A in History (1970) and an M.A in Modern History (1974) from the University of California at Santa Barbara, USA.

After two years as a history teacher, Mr Barton joined the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva as Resettlement Officer in 1975. He became Head (1976-1978) of the Sub-Office in Gedaref, Sudan, before he was appointed Information Officer in 1979. In 1980 he was assigned to Thailand as Executive Assistant, and subsequently moved to Macau as Liaison Officer. From 1981 to 1987, he was Senior Information Officer and Editor-in-Chief of UNHCR's Refugees Magazine. Afterwards, from 1987 to 1992, he served as Information Officer at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). Among other special assignments, he was appointed Chargé de Mission for UNHCR in Sudan-Eritrea in 1991.

In 1993, Mr Barton transferred to the World Health Organization (WHO), where he served as Programme Manager and Spokesperson for the Director-General until 1994. In 1995, he became the Director of the Bureau of Public Information at the International Labour Office (ILO). Despite a limited budget, he achieved considerable international press coverage for the ILO. In order to decentralize the Organization's communication activities, he developed an internal training programme in communication for programme specialists and field representatives. He also served as Spokesperson in the Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), East Timor, in 1999.

On July 2, 2001, Mr Barton, became the Director of UNESCO's Bureau of Public Information in charge of implementing a new communication strategy approved by the Executive Board. During his two years at UNESCO, he radically refocused the approach to public information, moving towards a media-oriented strategy as opposed to in-house communication. He showed determination in improving the quality of material released to the media. His work was largely praised by Member States during the last General Conference.

The Memorial Register is now closed. If you want to send a message of condolences, please send it directly to v.kariuki@unesco.org who will forward it to the family. Thank you.