Angela E.V. King, a Jamaican diplomat who became a leading advocate for women’s equality and the first special adviser to the U.N. secretary-general on women’s advancement, died Monday at Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital. She was 68 years old and had been suffering from lung cancer.

During a 38-year career at the United Nations, King led efforts to end discrimination against women and promote gender equality within the organization and globally. She was also one of a handful of women to lead a U.N. peacebuilding mission in South Africa from 1992-94 during the country’s first democratic, non-racial elections.

In 1997, former Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed her to a new post as his special adviser on gender issues and advancement of women with the rank of assistant secretary-general to help ensure U.N.-wide implementation of the Beijing platform.

Mr. Annan’s successor at Turtle Bay, Ban Ki-moon, called King “a fervent champion of the equality of women and men, and women’s enjoyment of their human rights.”

As the secretary-general’s special adviser, King organized a special session of the General Assembly in 2000 to review progress on implementation the Beijing blueprint.

King also played a key role with women’s rights groups in promoting adoption of a Security Council resolution in 2000 that called for women to be included in decisionmaking positions at every level of peacemaking.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, King studied at the University of the West Indies, the University of London, and New York University.

She was one of the first two women foreign service officers posted to Jamaica’s U.N. Mission after the country’s independence from Britain in 1962. She joined the U.N. Secretariat in 1966, working in recruitment, human resources and promotion of equality between men and women.

Shortly before she retired in 2004, King warned that without acceptance of women as full partners in critical areas such as peace negotiations and economic development, “there will be no true democracy, sustainable peace and enjoyment of human rights.”

At the time of her death, she was working on a project to re-launch the global fight for women’s equality.