Philippe Lazzarini
| |
|---|---|
| Commissioner-General of UNRWA | |
| Assumed office 18 March 2020 | |
| Secretary-General | António Guterres |
| Preceded by | Pierre Krähenbühl |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1964 (age 59–60) |
| Spouse | Antonia Mulvey |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | University of Neuchâtel (BA) University of Lausanne (MBA) |
| Occupation | Humanitarian |
| |
Philippe Lazzarini (born 1964) is a Swiss-Italian humanitarian who has been serving as Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) since 2020.[1]
Lazzarini holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Lausanne and a Bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Neuchâtel.
Lazzarini started his international career in 1989 when he joined the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and served as delegate in multiple duty stations, including Southern Sudan, Lebanon, Jordan and Gaza. Lazzarini then led the ICRC operations in Bosnia, Angola, and Rwanda. He served as Deputy Head of the ICRC Communications Department. In September 1999, Lazzarini joined the Union Bancaire Privée bank in Geneva as head of the Marketing Department where he worked on corporate social responsibility and the bank's ethical investment agenda.
In 2003, Lazzarini joined the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as Area Coordinator in Mossul, Iraq. He then served as Head of Office for OCHA in Angola, Somalia, and the occupied Palestinian territory. In 2010, he became the Deputy Director of the Coordination and Response Division for OCHA in its headquarters in New York. In 2013, he was appointed,[2] under the leadership of Nicholas Kay, as the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Somalia. On 24 April 2015, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced[3] the Lazzarini's appointment as his Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon, where he also served as Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, succeeding Ross Mountain; in this capacity, he worked under the leadership of successive Special Coordinators Sigrid Kaag (2015-2017), Pernille Dahler Kardel (2017-2019) and Ján Kubiš (2019-2020).
In 2020, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced Lazzarini's appointment as new Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).[4]
In 2023, Lazzarini criticized the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.[5][6] He described the Gaza Strip as a "graveyard of a population trapped between war, siege and deprivation", saying that "we will not be able to say we did not know. History will ask why the world did not have the courage to act decisively and stop this hell on Earth."[7] On 9 February 2024, Lazzarini said that Israel blocked food for 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza.[8]
Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, Philippe Lazzarini sent two letters to the United Nations General Assembly President on 7 December 2023 and 22 February 2024. He briefed the United Security Council on the unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and attacks against UNRWA on 30 October 2023 and 17 April 2024. On 4 March 2024, he addressed the UN General Assembly.
Lazzarini is married and has four children.
Media related to Philippe Lazzarini at Wikimedia Commons
