Secretary-General Appoints Birgit Gerstenberg of Germany United Nations Resident Coordinator in Belize and El Salvador

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Birgit Gerstenberg of Germany as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Belize and El Salvador, with the host Governments’ approval.

Ms. Gerstenberg brings 25 years of service to the United Nations, with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and in three peacekeeping missions in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa, namely the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador, the United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala and the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).  For the past year and a half, she served as the OHCHR Regional Representative for South America.  She also served as Senior Human Rights Adviser in Jamaica (2014‑2018), OHCHR Representative in Uganda (2009‑2014) and held leadership positions for OHCHR in Colombia (2006‑2009), Sudan (2005), Guatemala (2002‑2004, 2005‑2006) and in peacekeeping missions in El Salvador (1991‑1994) and Guatemala (1997‑2002).

Born in 1958, she holds a bachelor and master’s degree in philosophy from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany; a doctorate in history of philosophy in Latin America from University Rostock, Germany; and completed the PhD course and pre‑thesis in Law and Fundamental Rights of the Bartolome de las Casas Institute of the Carlos III University in Madrid, Spain.