United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced on 6 December 2019 the appointment of Nada Al Nashif of Jordan as Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. She will succeed Kate Gilmore of Australia to whom the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights are deeply grateful for her dedicated service to the United Nations human rights programme during the past four years.
Ms. Al Nashif has since 2015 served as Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences at UNESCO in Paris, leading a portfolio that targets the mobilisation of knowledge for inclusive, just and sustainable societies. She brings to the position close to 30 years of experience within the United Nations system around the world. As an economist and development practitioner, Ms. Al Nashif has taken on increasingly complex management roles during her career within the United Nations, including leading strategic organizational transformation processes.
Prior to joining UNESCO, she served as Assistant Director-General/Regional Director of the International Labour Organization’s Regional Office for Arab States, based in Beirut, Lebanon (2007–2014). She previously worked at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where she started her United Nations career in 1991, serving in Libya (1992-1995), Lebanon (2000-2004), Iraq (2003) and at Headquarters in New York (1995-2000, 2005-2006).
Ms. Al Nashif is bilingual in English and Arabic, with working knowledge of French. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (1987) from Balliol, Oxford University (UK) and a Master’s in Public Policy (1991) from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (USA).
