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 Organisation.

Currently Assistant Administrator for  Crisis Response Unit, United Nations Development Programme (since 2014),  Ms. Nakamitsu has many years of service 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 (2016-2017) and in the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations as Director, Asia and the Middle East Division (2012-2014) and  Director, Division of Policy, Evaluation and Training (2008-2012).  

She was, between 2005 and 2008, Professor of International Relations at Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, also serving as member of the Foreign Exchange Council to the Japanese Foreign Minister, and as visiting senior advisor on peacebuilding at Japan International Cooperation Agency. She further served as Chef de Cabinet and Director of Planning and Coordination at the Stockholm-based intergovernmental organization, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (1998-2004).

She held earlier in her career, number of positions in the United Nations system, both at Headquarters and in the field, including in the United Nations Reform Team of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in 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 in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and a Bachelor of Law from Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. She is married and has two daughters.

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