Poland’s Szymon Hołownia is competing for the post of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) alongside Turkey’s permanent representative to the UN Ahmet Yildiz, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, Belgian politician Nicole de Moor, former UN envoy to Myanmar Suzanne Burgener and German Social Democrat Niels Annen.
Yildiz, 61, has worked on refugee and displacement issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, Libya and Syria. He led the Turkish foreign ministry’s Iraq department (2008–09), served as consul general in Mosul (2009–11) and ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina (2011–14), and advised his government on Syrian refugees. He became Turkey’s UN ambassador in 2024.
Hidalgo, 66, the first woman to serve as Paris mayor, previously worked at France’s labor ministry and at the International Labour Organization. Since 2024 she has pursued the UNHCR job, meeting UN Secretary-General António Guterres in New York, according to French press.
De Moor, 41, a Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V) politician, was Belgium’s state secretary for asylum and migration from 2022 to 2025. During Belgium’s 2024 EU presidency, she helped deliver the European Pact on Migration and Asylum.
Switzerland’s Burgener served as the UN’s envoy to Myanmar from 2018 to 2021 and earlier was ambassador to Thailand and to Germany. Over a 30-year diplomatic career, she also held senior posts overseeing international law, human rights and humanitarian law at Switzerland’s foreign ministry.
Annen is a former Bundestag member and specialist in foreign and development policy seen as close to former German chancellor Olaf Scholz. He has been state secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development since May 2025, after serving as parliamentary state secretary there from December 2021 to May 2025 and previously as minister of state at the foreign ministry (2018–21).
Created by the UN General Assembly in 1950, UNHCR leads international efforts to protect refugees and resolve their plight worldwide. The High Commissioner works to ensure access to asylum and safe haven, with options for voluntary return, local integration or resettlement, and is also mandated to assist stateless people.
The UN secretary-general oversees the selection, nominating one candidate for General Assembly approval. Hołownia said in late September he had applied in the public recruitment process announced by Guterres, posting a letter on Facebook confirming his bid.
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Source: PAP