A life of international civil service

Tarik Kurdi is a former United Nations international civil servant with more than thirty-five years of service across multiple regions of the world — including humanitarian emergencies, refugee crises, development operations and international coordination mechanisms.

For more than three decades he served the United Nations in general, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in particular, in over fifteen countries across several regions of the world. He observed the Organization not only from headquarters and conference rooms, but more particularly from the deep field — often in environments marked by conflict, humanitarian crises, and fragile political and security situations.

His service carried him to Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Sierra Leone, Iraq (on two occasions), Jordan, Uganda, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria, as well as to the Organization’s headquarters in Geneva on several assignments across different Departments and Regional Bureaux — the Asia and the Pacific Bureau, the Africa Bureau, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Bureau, and the Division of Human Resources Management.

Career Highlights

A career measured in service

35+ years

of service within the United Nations system

15+

countries of assignment across several world regions

UNHCR

the UN Refugee Agency — protection and durable solutions

Geneva

headquarters service across Departments and Regional Bureaux

10th Forum

Chair of the Forum on Minority Issues, Human Rights Council

Deep field

humanitarian operations in conflict and crisis settings

Experience

From the field to multilateral diplomacy

Refugee protection

Service with UNHCR — the UN Refugee Agency — protecting refugees and internally displaced persons and supporting durable solutions.

Humanitarian operations

Long-term missions in some of the world’s most complex emergencies, delivering assistance in conflict and post-conflict settings.

Regional bureaux

Headquarters assignments across the Asia and the Pacific, Africa and MENA bureaux, and the Division of Human Resources Management.

Human rights diplomacy

Chair of the 10th Session of the Forum on Minority Issues, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

International coordination

First-hand engagement with the political, humanitarian and institutional realities that shape the work of the United Nations.

Recovery & reconstruction

Rehabilitation, reintegration and reconstruction work helping communities recover from war and instability.

The Human Rights Council

Chairing the Forum on Minority Issues

As Chairperson of the 10th Session of the Forum on Minority Issues, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, Tarik Kurdi managed dialogue among Member States, minority representatives, civil society organisations, United Nations entities and international organisations — on the promotion and protection of the rights of national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities.

The role offered exceptional exposure to one of the most politically sensitive deliberations within the multilateral system.

“My tenure at the Regional Bureaux carried me on numerous long-term missions across most continents, offering rare first-hand exposure to the challenges, aspirations and fragilities that define the international community.”
Tarik Kurdi, Preface

Geneva

Reflection born of experience

Now based in Geneva, Switzerland, Tarik Kurdi writes with the perspective of a career that spanned the deep field and the headquarters of the international system. Over time, these experiences led him to reflect more deeply on the broader role of the United Nations — its remarkable successes in humanitarian assistance and development cooperation, and the structural constraints that continue to limit its capacity to act.

A Lifetime with the United Nations is the fruit of that reflection: both an analytical overview and a personal account of the Organization’s origins, achievements, failures and the challenges that will shape its future.

Follow the career journey