Flavia Pansieri
| Flavia Pansieri | |
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| United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights | |
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In office 15 March 2013 – 31 December 2015 |
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| Preceded by | Kang Kyung-wha |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1951 (age 65–66) Italy |
| Alma mater |
University of Milan University of Venice University of Beijing |
Flavia Pansieri was the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights at the level of Assistant Secretary-General. She was appointed to this position by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 15 March 2013, and resigned on 22 July 2015, departing on 31 December 2015 after the selection of her successor was announced.
Pansieri first joined the United Nations through the United Nations Development Programme in 1983 in China. She later moved on to different positions within the UN system in other countries, including Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Laos where she served as Director of the UN Drug Control Programme, the predecessor of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. She worked in Vienna between 1995 and 1998 and served as Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in New York from 1998 to 2001, when she rejoined UNDP.
Between 2001 and 2004, Pansieri headed the Country Operations Division of UNDP overseeing all programming activities in the Arab region, at the point in time when the region started being at the centre of attention following the publication of the UNDP Arab Human Development Report and the 11 September terrorist attacks in the USA.
From 2004 to 2008, Pansieri served as United Nations Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Yemen. Commenting on the country's development challenges, she said much greater efforts needed to be made to reduce corruption and improve governance mechanisms in order to promote investment in the country. She also described how she was inspired by volunteerism, which she said was essential to achieving development goals. In 2005, she was the first to volunteer as an International Observer for a polio immunization campaign in Yemen.
Pansieri went on to serve as Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) from 2008 to 2013. At UNV she oversaw the first State of the World’s Volunteerism Report in 2011. Presenting the report, Pansieri said that volunteers can and do make significant contributions to peace and development, and that there is a clear relationship between volunteerism and societal well-being. She also said that a volunteer’s engagement “is not a condescending act of charity,” but rather recognition of a reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship.
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