Secretary-General Appoints Ján Kubiš of Slovakia Special Coordinator for Lebanon

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today announced the appointment of Ján Kubiš of Slovakia as his Special Coordinator for Lebanon.

Mr. Kubiš succeeds Acting Special Coordinator Pernille Dahler Kardel of Denmark, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedication and leadership of the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon.

Mr. Kubiš, who served as Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), from 2015 to 2018, brings with him many years of experience in diplomacy, foreign security policy, and international economic relations, both internationally and in his own country.

Mr. Kubiš served as Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) from 2011 to 2015, as the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) 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 well 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, Russian and basic French.

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

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*     This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1547-BIO/4696 of 24 February 2015.