United Nations — Today, Thursday, the United Nations General Assembly approved the appointment of the former Iraqi president Barham Saleh As the next head of the United Nations refugee agency, the first from the Middle East since the late 1970s.
The 193-member global organization elected the 65-year-old Kurdish politician as UN High Commissioner for Refugees by consensus and with a hammer blow by the association’s president, Annalena Baerbock. Diplomats in the parliament hall exploded in applause when Saleh’s election became official.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, a former refugee commissioner who recommended Saleh for the position, said he brings “high-level diplomatic, political and administrative leadership experience” to the position, including as a “refugee, crisis negotiator and architect of national reforms.”
At the age of 19 in 1979, Saleh was reportedly arrested twice by Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party on charges of involvement in the Kurdish National Movement and spent 43 days in detention. When he was released, he finished high school and fled to the United Kingdom to avoid further persecution.
After Saddam was overthrown by the US-led coalition in 2003, Saleh returned to Iraq and held various positions in the government. become President of Iraq In 2018, following the Islamic State’s rampage across Iraq and the battle to reclaim territory seized by the extremist group. He served until 2022.
Saleh succeeds agency veteran Filippo Grandi, whose second five-year term expires on December 31. Saleh’s five-year term begins on January 1.
Saleh will assume the duties of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, based in Geneva, at the end of the year A devastating year For several United Nations organizations, including the refugee agency. The United Nations sharply reduced spending and thousands of jobs in the wake of the crisis Reducing foreign aid contributions By the United States – traditionally the largest donor – and other Western countries.
In a statement after his election, Saleh said that his experience as a refugee “will shape a leadership approach based on compassion, pragmatism and a principled commitment to international law.”
He added that with record rates of displacement and a severe shortfall in humanitarian funding, helping the world’s refugees requires a “renewed focus on impact, accountability and efficiency.”