Nada Al Nashif

Nada Al-Nashif is the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. From 2015 to 2019, she served as Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences at UNESCO in Paris, leading a portfolio that targets the mobilization of knowledge for inclusive, just, and sustainable societies.

Prior to joining UNESCO, she served as Assistant Director-General/Regional Director of the International Labour Organization’s Regional Office for Arab States, based in Beirut, Lebanon (2007–2014). She has also previously worked at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where she started her United Nations career in 1991, serving in Libya (1992–1995), Lebanon (2000–2004), Iraq (2003) and at Headquarters in New York (1995–2000, 2005–2006).

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (1987) from Balliol, Oxford University (UK) and a Master’s in Public Policy (1991) from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (USA).