Lena Sundh

Geographic expertise: Angola, Great Lakes, Cambodia, Namibia, Nepal, Thailand

Topical expertise: Ceasefire negotiations, Peacekeeping, Security Council resolution 1325

Languages: English, French, Portuguese and Swedish

Ambassador Lena Sundh has long experience of working on issues relating to peace and stability, conflict resolution and gender equality both at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the United Nations. 

She was Ambassador to Angola until September 2016. Her last position at the Ministry was as Special Envoy to the Great Lakes.  In January 2018 she was appointed by the UN Secretary-General as chair of the International Commission of Inquiry for Mali. The report of the Commission was presented to the Secretary General in July 2020. Sundh has served as the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUC, 2002-2004. Moreover she was Head of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal 2006-2007 and member of the UN Monitoring Mechanism for the Angola sanctions 2000-2001.

In 2004-2005 Sundh chaired SIDDR, the Stockholm Initiative on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration and participated in the work to follow up the findings of SIDDR in the field. She represented Sweden as delegate to the UN Commission on the Status of Women 1987-1989 and 1992-1995 and has also served as political counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the UN in New York.