United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi Reconfirmed by General Assembly Decision

Following the recommendation of the Secretary-General, after consultation with Member States, the General Assembly confirmed Filippo Grandi of Italy as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for a further two and a half years beginning on 1 July 2023 and ending on 31 December 2025.  Mr. Grandi is currently serving the first two-and-a-half-year period of his second term as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) High Commissioner.

While the Secretary-General had intended to request the General Assembly to elect Mr. Grandi for a second term of five years, Mr. Grandi was agreeable, owing to personal reasons, to the shorter term.  The Secretary-General proposed to the General Assembly that Mr. Grandi’s term be extended for a further two and a half years after Mr. Grandi conveyed to the Secretary-General that he is available to serve a full five-year term.

Before becoming High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Grandi was engaged in international cooperation for over 30 years, focusing on refugee and humanitarian work.  He served as Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), from 2010 to 2014, having been the organization’s Deputy Commissioner-General since 2005.  Prior to that, Mr. Grandi served as Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Afghanistan, following a long career first with non-governmental organizations and later with UNHCR in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and at the agency’s Geneva headquarters.

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* This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1992 of 25 November 2020.