Secretary-General Appoints Izumi Nakamitsu of Japan High Representative for Disarmament Affairs

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Izumi Nakamitsu of Japan as the next Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Office for Disarmament Affairs.  She will succeed Kim Won-soo of the Republic of Korea, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his commitment and dedicated service to the Organization.

Ms. Nakamitsu is currently Assistant Administrator of the Crisis Response Unit at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), a position she has held since 2014.  She has many years of experience within and outside the United Nations system, most recently as Special Adviser Ad Interim on Follow-up to the Summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants between 2016 and 2017.  She was previously Director of the Asia and the Middle East Division of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations between 2012 and 2014, and Director of the Department’s Division of Policy, Evaluation and Training, from 2008 to 2012.

Between 2005 and 2008, Ms. Nakamitsu was Professor of International Relations at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, where she also served as a member of the Foreign Exchange Council to Japan’s Foreign Minister, and as a visiting senior adviser on peacebuilding at the Japan International Cooperation Agency.  Between 1998 and 2004, she was the Chef de Cabinet and Director of Planning and Coordination at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Nakamitsu was a member of the United Nations Reform Team of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan.  She also held positions with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), including within the office of Assistant High Commissioner for Policy and Operations Sergio Vieira de Mello, and in UNHCR field operations in the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and northern Iraq.

Born in 1963, Ms. Nakamitsu holds a Master of Science degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and a Bachelor of Law degree from Waseda University in Tokyo.

She is married and has two daughters.

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*     This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1681-BIO/4896-REF/1245 of 1 November 2016.