The mandate of incumbent United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi was further extended for two and a half years beginning on 1 July 2023 and ending on 31 December 2025.
Grandi is presently serving the first two-and-a-half-year period of his second term at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) High Commissioner.
The General Assembly confirmed Filippo Grandi of Italy as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for a further period after the recommendation of the Secretary-General and consultation with the Member States.
The Secretary-General proposed to the General Assembly that Mr. Grandi’s term be extended for a further two and a half years which was approved by General Assembly.
At the beginning of his second term, Grandi was agreeable, owing to personal reasons, to the shorter term but after he conveyed to the Secretary-General that he is available to serve a full five-year term his tenure has been extended.
65-year-old Filippo Grandi was born in Milan, Italy. He can speak Italian, English, French, and Spanish. He started his career with UNHCR in 1988 as Programme Officer and acting Head of Sub-Office, Port Sudan, Sudan. He has been awarded with Commander, Order of Italian Solidarity, and Civic Gold Medal of Merit, City of Milan.
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Grandi has dedicated over 30 years of his life to refugee and humanitarian work. He served as Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), from 2010 to 2014, having been the organization’s Deputy Commissioner-General since 2005.
He has also served in Afghanistan as Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General. He started his career with NGOs and later worked with UNHCR in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and at the agency’s Geneva headquarters.
Headquartered in Geneva UNHCR plays a pivotal role to provide aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people. With over 17,300 staff UNHCR is working in 135 countries.
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