UN chief appoints Bangladesh's Rabab Fatima as special representative for Afghanistan

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Rabab Fatima of Bangladesh as his new special representative for Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). The appointment was announced in a UN statement yesterday.

Fatima succeeds Roza Otunbayeva of Kyrgyzstan, to whom Guterres expressed gratitude for her dedicated service. He also extended thanks to Georgette Gagnon of Canada, the deputy special representative who has been serving as the officer-in-charge of the mission.

Rabab Fatima brings to this crucial role more than three decades of extensive experience in national and international civil service. Her background encompasses bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, policymaking, advocacy, and program planning and implementation. She currently holds the position of under-secretary-general and high representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS).

Previously, Fatima served as Bangladesh's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in New York from 2019 to 2022. During this tenure, she led the executive boards of UNICEF in 2020 and UN Women in 2022, and served as vice-president of the executive boards of UNDP, UNFPA, and UNOPS in 2021. In 2022, she made history as the first woman elected chair of the Peacebuilding Commission and also served as a vice-president of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Her career also includes ambassadorships to Japan and various roles within Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and missions abroad, as well as positions at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Commonwealth Secretariat.