SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS HEIDI TAGLIAVINI OF SWITZERLAND AS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR GEORGIA, HEAD OF UNOMIG

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS HEIDI TAGLIAVINI OF SWITZERLAND

AS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR GEORGIA, HEAD OF UNOMIG

Today, the Secretary-General appointed Heidi Tagliavini (Switzerland) as his Special Representative for Georgia and head of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia.  She will succeed Mr. Dieter Boden, who has served as the Special Representative for two and a half years.  The Secretary-General expressed his deep appreciation for Mr. Boden’s untiring efforts to advance the Georgian-Abkhaz peace process and for his dynamic leadership of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia.

Ms. Tagliavini is a seasoned diplomat who brings extensive regional knowledge and experience to this post.  She has been Deputy Head of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (1998-1999), Personal Representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office for the Caucasus (2000-2001) and was a member of the first OSCE Assistance Group to Chechnya (1995).  Earlier in her career, she served in the Directorate of Political Affairs of the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs and in Swiss Embassies in Moscow and The Hague.  Ms. Tagliavini was Minister and Deputy Head of Mission of the Swiss Embassy in Moscow (1996), head of Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy in the Department of Foreign Affairs (1999) and the Swiss Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina (2001-2002).  She joined the Swiss diplomatic service in 1982.

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