Biographical Note

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS JULIAN HARSTON OF UNITED

 

KINGDOM SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR WESTERN SAHARA

 

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon informed the Security Council of his decision to appoint Julian Harston of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara and the Head of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). 

Since May 2004, Mr. Harston has been the Director of the United Nations Office in Belgrade.  Prior to that appointment, he was Director of the Asia and Middle East Division in the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Director for Post-UNTAET Planning in the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH), and Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the Mission de Police des Nations Unies en Haiti (MIPONUH).

Mr. Harston began his service with the United Nations as Head of the Political Unit of the SRSG in UNPROFOR in 1995 after serving for many years as a career diplomat for the United Kingdom in Malawi, Portugal, Zimbabwe and Geneva.  From 1969-1971 he was a radio and television broadcaster in Canada.

Mr. Harston was born in Kenya in 1942.  He graduated from the King´s School, Canterbury, England and holds degrees from the University of London and the University of Rhodesia.  Mr. Harston is fluent in French and Portuguese and also speaks Danish and German.  He has one son.

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