Secretary-General Appoints Ján Kubiš of Slovakia Special Representative for Iraq

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Ján Kubiš of Slovakia as his Special Representative for Iraq and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

Mr. Kubiš succeeds Nickolay Mladenov of Bulgaria to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his dedication and leadership of UNAMI, serving in one of the most challenging United Nations duty stations and at a time of important political and security developments in the country.

Mr. Kubiš, who served as Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), from 2012 to 2014, brings with him several years of experience in diplomacy, foreign security policy, and international economic relations both internationally and in his own country.

Mr. Kubiš served as the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe from 2009 to 2011, as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Slovakia from 2006 to 2009, as Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe from 2007 to 2008, and as Secretary-General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) from 1999 to 2005.

Mr. Kubiš also served as the European Union’s Special Representative for Central Asia with the office in Brussels and as the Personal Representative of the Chairman-in-Office of OSCE for Central Asia, as the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Tajikistan and Head of the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan from 1998 to 1999.  He was previously the Director of OSCE’s Conflict Prevention Centre.  Mr. Kubiš worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the former Czechoslovakia from 1976 to 1992 and thereafter at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia.  In 1993 he served as Permanent Representative of Slovakia to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva.

Mr. Kubiš is a graduate in international economic relations of the Moscow State Institute of International Affairs and speaks Slovak, Czech, English, French and Russian.

Born in 1952, he is married and has one daughter.

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*     This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1311-BIO/4332 of 23 November 2011.