Lena Sundh appointed head of OHCHR-Nepal
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, Wednesday the appointment of Lena Sundh as head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR-Nepal).
Sundh, a Swedish national, will assume her responsibility in Nepal in the coming weeks, for a period of six months, a press statement issued by the OHCHR-Nepal said.
While announcing the appointment, Arbour said her Office was fortunate to benefit from Sundh’s considerable international and human rights experience during this most important period in Nepal’s transition to peace.
“The Seven Party Alliance Government and the CPN-Maoist have made it clear that they seek the support of my Office in the protection and promotion of human rights during the peace process,” the High Commissioner said, adding, “I am confident that with Ms Sundh’s leadership OHCHR will continue its role in strongly defending human rights in Nepal through this sensitive and critical period.
Sundh is a conflict management expert and has been involved in peacekeeping during her 30-year international career, according to the OHCHR. She worked at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1976 and has served in Thailand, Namibia, Morocco, and at the United Nations in Geneva and New York. She was the ambassador of Sweden to Angola from 1995 to 2000. She has also served as director at the Departments of African Affairs and of Global Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sweden.
She has worked in Cambodia with the UNHCR and was a member of the UN Monitoring Mechanism on Angola Sanctions. Most recently, Sundh was appointed as the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in this position was the Deputy Head of the UN peacekeeping mission, MONUC.
Sundh has represented Sweden in numerous United Nations conferences and meetings since 1983, including in the General Assembly, ECOSOC, the Commission on Human Rights, the Commission on the Status of Women and Human Settlement as well as in the Fourth World Conference on Women. She was the chief negotiator and the head of Swedish negotiation team to the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, which took place during the Swedish Presidency of the European Union.
Before being appointed as the head of OHCHR-Nepal, Sundh was ambassador and head of the Project on Conflict Solutions in Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on issues relating to conflict prevention, conflict management and peacekeeping. nepalnews.com mk Oct 18 06
