H.E. Mr. Jan Eliasson

Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations

On 2 March 2012, Jan Eliasson was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. He took office as Deputy Secretary-General on 1 July 2012.

Ambassador Eliasson was from 2007-2008 the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Darfur. Prior to this, he served as President of the 60th session of the UN General Assembly. He was Sweden’s Ambassador to the US from September 2000 until July 2005. In March 2006, Ambassador Eliasson was appointed Foreign Minister of Sweden and served in this capacity until the elections in the fall of 2006.

Ambassador Eliasson served from 1994 to 2000 as State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, a key position in formulating and implementing Swedish foreign policy. He was Sweden’s Ambassador to the UN in New York 1988-92, and also served as the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative for Iran/Iraq.

Ambassador Eliasson was the first UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and was involved in operations in Africa and the Balkans. He took initiatives on landmines, conflict prevention and humanitarian action. From 1980-1986, Ambassador Eliasson was part of the UN mediation missions in the war between Iran and Iraq, headed by former Prime Minister Olaf Palme. In 1993-94 Ambassador Eliasson served as mediator in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He has been a visiting professor at Uppsala University and Gothenburg University in Sweden, lecturing on mediation, conflict resolution and UN reform. Ambassador Eliasson has had diplomatic postings in New York (twice) Paris, Bonn, Washington (twice) and Harare, where he opened the first Swedish Embassy in 1980.

Prior to his appointment as Deputy Secretary-General, Ambassador Eliasson also served as Chair of Water Aid/Sweden and as a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Advocacy Group of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Ambassador Eliasson graduated from the Swedish Naval Academy in 1962 and earned a Master’s degree in Economics and Business Administration in 1965.

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