Prince Zeid

Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein "is Jordan’s Ambassador to the United States. Born in Amman, Prince Zeid was educated at Johns Hopkins University and completed a Ph.D in history at Christ’s College, Cambridge. He has served in the Jordanian Armed Forces, and is the author of several publications on Jordanian and Arab history. From 2000-2007 he was Jordan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, following a four-year stint as Jordan’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN. In 2006 he was an official candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as UN Secretary-General. He was instrumental in the creation of the International Criminal Court, chairing the UN’s informal working group on elements for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for the Preparatory Commission for the ICC. In September 2002 Prince Zeid was elected as the first President of the ICC’s governing body, a post he held for three years. He served as a political officer in the UN peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslavia (UNPROFOR) from 1994 to 1996. Following allegations of sexual abuse in UN peacekeeping operations in 2004, Prince Zeid was appointed Advisor to the Secretary-General on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. Prince Zeid’s report – endorsed by all states attending the September 2005 World Summit of the UN General Assembly – provided a detailed strategy to address sexual exploitation in UN peacekeeping missions. Prince Zeid also served as chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Scope of Legal Protection under the Convention on the Safety of UN and Associated Personnel, and was also coordinator for the Non-Aligned Movement on peacekeeping. Prince Zeid is currently the chair of the Consultative Committee for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and a member of the Advisory Committee to the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation."