Afghanistan Peace Campaign
UN chief António Guterres has decided to appoint Bangladeshi diplomat Rabab Fatima as the next UN Special Representative for Afghanistan, two diplomatic sources in New York tell Amu TV. The appointment becomes final if no Security Council member objects within 48 hours.
Fatima would take over leadership of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, at a critical point for the mission, as the Security Council has extended its mandate for another year while ordering a strategic review of its work and future priorities.
She would succeed Roza Otunbayeva, the former president and foreign minister of Kyrgyzstan, whose tenure as the secretary-general’s special representative and head of UNAMA ended in September 2025. Since then, the mission has been led on an acting basis by Georgette Gagnon, the deputy special representative for political affairs.
Fatima is currently a United Nations under-secretary-general and the high representative for the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states. She has more than 30 years of experience in national and international public service, including diplomacy, policymaking, advocacy and program implementation.
Before taking up her current UN role, Fatima served as Bangladesh’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in New York from 2019 to 2022. During that period, she served as president of the executive boards of UNICEF in 2020 and UN Women in 2022, and as vice president of the UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS executive board in 2021. She became the first woman elected to chair the U.N. Peacebuilding Commission in 2022 and also served as a vice president of the 77th session of the General Assembly.
A career diplomat, Fatima previously served as Bangladesh’s ambassador to Japan and as a director-general in the country’s Foreign Ministry. Her diplomatic career also included postings in New York, Geneva, Beijing and Kolkata.
Her expected appointment comes as UNAMA enters a period of reassessment.
The Security Council unanimously voted on June 15 to extend UNAMA’s mandate until June 17, 2027. The resolution also called for a strategic review of the mission, with a report expected by March 2027. The review is intended to assess UNAMA’s role, priorities and ability to carry out its mandate under current conditions in Afghanistan.
The one-year extension followed a shorter, three-month renewal in March. During negotiations earlier this year, council members debated whether UNAMA’s mandate remained realistic and fully implementable under current conditions, and whether its priorities should be streamlined or adjusted to developments on the ground.
UNAMA’s work includes political engagement, human rights monitoring, advocacy for women and girls, and coordination with international and Afghan stakeholders. The mission has faced growing challenges under Taliban rule, particularly as restrictions on women and girls have expanded and female Afghan UN staff have faced restrictions on entering their workplaces.
The appointment of a new special representative would restore permanent leadership to the UN mission after months under an acting head and place Fatima at the center of international engagement with the Taliban at a time when the Security Council is reconsidering the mission’s future direction.