The Secretary-General’s nomination of Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, currently the Permanent Representative of Jordan to the United Nations in New York, for a four-year term as High Commissioner for Human Rights, was approved unanimously by the UN General Assembly on June 16, 2014. With this approval, Jordanian Prince Zeid al-Hussein, a cousin of Jordanian King Abdullah II, became the first Muslim and Arab to hold the post.

Zeid al-Hussein is a top diplomat and at present he is Jordan’s permanent representative to the United Nations. Previously, he has served as Jordan’s ambassador to the United States and Mexico. He also played a key role in establishment of International Criminal Court (ICC). He was a political affairs officer at UNPROFOR, the UN peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslavia during the war conflict.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on June warmly welcomed the UN General Assembly’s appointment of Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein to succeed her when Pillay’s mandate comes to an end on 31 August 2014.