SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS NICHOLAS HAYSOM OF SOUTH AFRICA SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR AFGHANISTAN

NEW YORK, September 26, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Nicholas Haysom of South Africa as his Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

Mr. Haysom will succeed Jan Kubiš of Slovakia to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his dedication and leadership of UNAMA.

Mr. Haysom is a lawyer with a long international career focused on democratic governance, constitutional and electoral reforms, reconciliation and peace processes, including most recently as the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General of UNAMA since 2012.

He previously held several positions with the United Nations as well as with the Government of the Republic of South Africa, including Director for Political, Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Affairs in the Executive Office of the United-Nations Secretary-General (2007-2012), Head of the Office of Constitutional Support for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (2005-2007), and Chief Legal and Constitutional Adviser in the Office of the President of South Africa, Mr. Nelson Mandela (1994-1999). Most notably Mr. Haysom was involved in the Burundi Peace Talks as chair of the committee negotiating constitutional issues (1999-2002) and served as the principal adviser to the Mediator in the Sudanese Peace Process (2002-2005).

Mr. Haysom graduated in Law from the Universities of Natal and Cape Town, South Africa. In 2012, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cape Town.

Born in 1952, he is married and has five children.