Ms. Maartje van Putten, a Dutch national, was appointed to the Inspection Panel in 1999 and served to 2004.

Previously, Ms. van Putten was a member of the European Parliament. She has extensive exposure to developing countries, and is active with non-governmental organizations and extremely committed to the cause of development. She has been a highly active member of the Committee on Development and Cooperation. Ms. van Putten has produced many reports on the effects of the GATT/Uruguay Round on the developing countries, fair trade, development aid for Asia and Latin America, the EU program for tropical forests and European policies towards indigenous peoples. Ms. van Putten has closely worked with the WWF European Policy Office as a key political partner to promote better EU conservation and sustainable development policies. She was also a consistently active member of the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific Group)-European Union Joint Assembly. Ms. van Putten was a freelance multimedia journalist for most of her professional career, and was a Senior Fellow of the Evert Vermeer Foundation from 1981 to 1989.

Ms. van Putten holds a HBO (Bachelor’s) Degree in community development from Sociale Academy Amsterdam, and a Master's Degree in social sector management from Protestantse Voortgezette Opleiding (PVO) Amsterdam. She is the author of many articles and books on globalization, international division of labor and on gender issues.