Robert Van Lierop papers

1965-2001 [bulk 1971-1993]

Robert Van Lierop (1939- ) is a diplomat, filmmaker, lawyer, lecturer, political activist, and writer. He served in the United States Air Force from 1956 to 1960, and is a graduate of Hofstra University (1964) and New York University School of Law (1967).

Van Lierop began his professional legal career in 1967, serving as assistant counsel at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he litigated cases on school desegregation, employment discrimination, police brutality, and housing discrimination. In 1968, Van Lierop wrote a section of the brief in the case of Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., a landmark Supreme Court decision which banned racial discrimination in property rentals and sales. The following year, Van Lierop took a job as an associate at the law firm of Dornbush, Mensh & Mandelstam, where he worked on estates, corporate law, and commercial legal proceedings, while also continuing to litigate constitutional law cases.

Due to his ongoing commitment to political activism, Van Lierop travelled to Mozambique in 1971 to work on a film about the country's struggle for independence. A Luta Continua (The Struggle Continues) was released in 1972, and depicts Mozambique's revolution against Portuguese colonial rule. This was followed up with O Povo Organizado (The People Organized) (1976), about life in Mozambique after the revolution.

Upon returning to the United States in 1977, Van Lierop served as coordinator for the Mozambique Film Project. In this role he participated in a nationwide effort to raise money for the construction of a hospital and maternity clinic in rural Mozambique. Van Lierop arranged screenings of his documentaries, and travelled to high schools, colleges, churches, and community groups giving lectures about Southern Africa.

That same year, Van Lierop was appointed co-producer of WABC-TV's Like It Is, a news and public affairs show addressing issues relevant to African American communities in New York City. The program featured interviews with educators, activists, artists, writers, and politicians such as Michael Manley, Sidney Poitier, and James Baldwin. It also aired long-form programs, including documentaries produced by Van Lierop about such topics as Southern Africa and the United Nations.

Between 1977 and 1978, Van Lierop led delegations of African American activists to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Cuba. He returned to legal work in 1978, becoming a founding partner at the New York City firm, Van Lierop, Burns & Bassett. The firm advised governments and large organizations on civil rights, constitutional law, and international law, as well as litigating in the fields of sports and entertainment law.

In 1980, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific that had recently gained independence, asked Van Lierop to be the country's permanent representative to the United Nations. Van Lierop accepted the job and spent the next decade campaigning against apartheid in South Africa, as well as advocating for the decolonization of a number of countries including East Timor, Western Sahara, and New Caledonia. In 1991, Van Lierop was awarded the Vanuatu Independence Medal by Prime Minister Maxime Carlot Korman.

Van Lierop served as Vice President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1988, and was the founding chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States from 1990 to 1994. He also worked as chair of the Special Committee on Decolonization, chairman of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, and co-moderated a United Nations conference on human rights in 1998. Having recognized the importance in combatting climate change throughout his tenure as an ambassador, Van Lierop was elected Vice-Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2012.

Van Lierop has written many articles related to his political work which have appeared in such publications as Ebony, Essence, Southern Africa,Black World, The Guardian, The New York Times, and Newsweek. He has also worked as a contributing editor to The Review of African Political Economy, and served on the board of directors of the Black Economic Research Center, the American Committee on Africa, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the National Lawyers Guild, and WBAI.