She was born
Joke Hendrina Hunter in
Haarlem, daughter of Cornelis Hunter and Hendrina van Smalen. She studied French and, as a student in 1969, married Herman Waller, of the old patrician family Waller from
Nijkerk, who died at the age of 48 in 1991. She started working for the province of
North Holland, and after that for many years at the
Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment. Her efforts at the
Earth Summit in
Rio de Janeiro in 1992 drew much attention, and even earned her the moniker
Dutch Maffia amongst opponents of a treaty. She was the first UN Director for the
United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, a position which she served from 1994 to 1998. From 1998 to 2002 she was director of the OECD Environment Directorate. She then joined the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change as Executive Secretary. She was awarded an
honorary doctorate from the
Vrije Universiteit in September 2005 citing
her contribution to society through her outstanding work in the field of sustainable development and protection of the global climate. After her death as the result of breast cancer at the age of 58 in a hospital in
Lohmar, the UN organized a memorial ceremony in
Bonn and a memorial concert in
Montréal. Childless, she left her estate to the Dutch environmental organization
Both ENDS. ==Sources==