The United Nations has appointed senior Bangladeshi diplomat Rabab Fatima as the new head of its mission in Afghanistan. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres named Fatima as his Special Representative for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), according to a statement issued on Wednesday.
Fatima, a former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, currently serves as Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States. She will succeed Roza Otunbayeva of Kyrgyzstan.
The UN said Fatima brings to the UNAMA role "over 30 years of experience in national and international civil service, encompassing bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, policymaking, advocacy, programme planning and implementation". She served as Bangladesh's Permanent Representative to the UN from 2019 to 2022.
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During her tenure in New York, Fatima served as President of the UNICEF Executive Board in 2020 and the UN-Women Executive Board in 2022. She was also Vice-President of the Executive Boards of the UN Development Programme, UN Population Fund and UN Office for Project Services in 2021. In 2022, she became the first woman elected Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission and also served as a Vice-President of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.
Earlier, Fatima served as Bangladesh's ambassador to Japan from 2016 to 2019 and as Director-General in the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2015 to 2016. She also held diplomatic assignments at Bangladesh's missions in New York, Geneva, Beijing and Kolkata. From 2012 to 2015, she served at the International Organisation for Migration as Regional Adviser for South and South-West Asia and Regional Adviser for Climate Change and Migration. She was Regional Representative for South Asia from 2007 to 2011 and Head of Human Rights at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London from 2006 to 2007.
Fatima holds a master's degree in international relations and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the United States and a bachelor's degree in social science from the University of Canberra in Australia. She speaks Bangla and English and has a working knowledge of Hindi and Urdu. Her appointment places an experienced Bangladeshi diplomat at the helm of the UN's Afghanistan mission.
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