UN chief appoints former Kyrgyzstan President as new Afghan envoy

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has appointed former Kyrgyzstan President Roza Otunbayeva as his new envoy to Afghanistan.

UN Secretary-General Guterres appointed Otunbayeva for the position of Special Representative for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

Otunbayeva succeeds Deborah Lyons of Canada, to whom the Secretary-General expressed his gratitude for her dedicated service. Otunbayeva brings to the position over 35 years of professional experience in leadership, diplomacy, civic engagement, and international cooperation.

She has previously served as President of the Kyrgyz Republic from 2010 to 2011 and on three occasions as the foreign minister, most recently as the acting minister in 2005. She was also a Member of Parliament (2007-2010) and served as Deputy Prime Minister in 1991.

Otunbayeva has also held several senior diplomatic positions with the Kyrgyzstan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including as Ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic to the United States of America and Canada (1992-1994) and as Ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic to the United Kingdom (1997-2002). From 1989 to 1991, she was President of the Soviet National Commission for UNESCO.

She has also served with the United Nations as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) (2002-2004).

Presently, she is a member of the United Nations Secretary-General's High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation and the Head of the Roza Otunbayeva Initiative Foundation in Kyrgyzstan. Otunbayeva holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from Moscow State University and a degree from the Philosophy Faculty of Moscow State University. She is fluent in Kyrgyz, Russian and English.