SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS SUKEHIRO HASEGAWA OF JAPAN AS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE IN TIMOR-LESTE

Biographical Note                                          

Secretary-General appoints Sukehiro Hasegawa of Japan

as Special Representative in Timor-Leste

Sukehiro Hasegawa of Japan has been appointed as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Timor-Leste and Head of the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET).  He has replaced Kamalesh Sharma of India, who relinquished his position on 21 May.

Mr. Hasegawa had most recently served as the Deputy Special Representative in Timor-Leste.  He also served as the United Nations Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative for East Timor, and retains these functions in his present capacity.

Mr. Hasegawa had previously served as Special Adviser on Crisis Prevention and Recovery of the UNDP in Geneva.

Mr. Hasegawa started his career with the UNDP in 1969 as Programme Officer in the Bureau for Programming and Operations.  In 1972, he was appointed Area Officer and later Regional Programme Officer in the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific.  He later served as Deputy Resident Representative in Nepal (1978-1980), and Indonesia (1980-1984); Resident Representative of the UNDP and Resident Coordinator of the United Nations operational activities for development in Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau (1984-1986); and Deputy Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers in Geneva (1987-April 1994).

In 1993, Mr. Hasegawa coordinated the United Nations Volunteers electoral supervisors assigned to plan and administer general elections in Cambodia.  In April 1994, he was appointed Director of Policy and Planning of the United Nations peacekeeping operations in Somalia.  In January 1995, Mr. Hasegawa became the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator of the United Nations system, as well as Resident Representative of the UNDP, in Rwanda.  From July 1996 to August 1999, he served as the Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Regional Director of Asia and the Pacific in New York.  In September 1999, Mr. Hasegawa was appointed Director of the UNDP Tokyo Office.

Mr. Hasegawa holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, and a master’s degree in public international administration from the Graduate School of Public Administration, InternationalChristianUniversity, Tokyo, Japan, as well as a Ph.D in International Relations from WashingtonUniversity, St. Louis, Missouri.  He has also obtained two certificates in the French language, one from the University of Grenoble, France, and the other from McGillUniversity, Montreal, Canada.

Mr. Hasegawa was born on 28 November 1942.  He is married and has three children.

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