UN Commissioner for Human Rights appoints envoy for insurgency-plagued Nepal
Lena Sundh, a Swedish diplomat who has specialised in conflict management and peacekeeping during a 30-year career for her country and the United Nations, has been appointed the UN representative for human rights in Nepal, which endures abuses on both sides of a decade-long Maoist insurgency.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Louise Arbour announced the appointment today and said her office was fortunate to benefit from Ms. Sundh’s considerable international and human rights experience during this most important period in Nepal’s transition to peace.
“The Seven Party Alliance Government and the CPN-Maoist have made it clear that they seek the support of my Office in the protection and promotion of human rights during the peace process, “Ms. Arbour said in a statement. “I am confident that with Ms Sundh’s leadership OHCHR will continue its role in strongly defending human rights in Nepal through this sensitive and critical period.”
Ms. Sundh is expected to take up her position in the coming weeks, for a period of six months.
Ms. Sundh joined the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1976 and has served in Thailand, Namibia, Morocco, and at the UN in Geneva and New York. She was Ambassador of Sweden to Angola from 1995 to 2000 and also served as Director at the Departments of African Affairs and of Global Cooperation at Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
She also served in Cambodia with the UNHCR and was a member of the UN Monitoring Mechanism on Angola Sanctions. Most recently Ms Sundh was appointed as the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in this position was the Deputy Head of the UN peacekeeping mission, MONUC.
More than 12,000 people have been killed and more 100,000 have been displaced since Maoist rebels took up arms in 1996, seeking to set up a communist republic in the Himalayan country, which has had a hereditary monarchy for most of its known history.