A senior Bangladeshi diplomat has been appointed as head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan.
Rabab Fatima, the former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, has been appointed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as his new Special Representative for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
Ms. Fatima, who currently serves as Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS), succeeds Roza Otunbayeva of Kyrgyzstan, the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General said in a statement on Wednesday.
Ms. Fatima brings to her position at UNAMA “over 30 years of experience in national and international civil service, encompassing bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, policymaking, advocacy, programme planning and implementation”, the statement said.
She served as Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2019 to 2022.
During her tenure in New York, she served as President of the UNICEF Executive Board in 2020 and the UN-Women Executive Board in 2022, besides serving as Vice-President of the Executive Board of the UN Development Programme, UN Population Fund and UN Office for Project Services in 2021.
In 2022, she became the first woman to be elected Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission and also served as a Vice-President of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.
Ms. Fatima had also served as Bangladesh’s ambassador to Japan from 2016 to 2019 and as Director-General in the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2015 to 2016.
She also held diplomatic assignments in Bangladesh’s missions in New York, Geneva, Beijing and Kolkata.
She also served in the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) as Regional Adviser for South and South-West Asia and Regional Adviser for Climate Change and Migration (2012-2015), and as Regional Representative for South Asia (2007-2011).
She was also the Head of Human Rights at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London (2006-2007).
Ms. Fatima holds a master’s degree in international relations and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the United States and a bachelor’s degree in social science from the University of Canberra in Australia.
She speaks Bangla and English and has a working knowledge of Hindi and Urdu.
Published – July 16, 2026 10:19 pm IST
