Current and former women leaders of UN peace operations discuss some of the most challenging aspects facing UN peace operations today.
#LSEPeaceOps
About the speakers
Diane Corner was Deputy Special Representative and Deputy Head of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) from 2014-17, with responsibility for political affairs, human rights, DDR, SSR, Mine clearance, protection of civilians, women and children protection. Prior to this appointment, Ms Corner worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for 32 years. Her diplomatic postings included serving as British High Commissioner to Tanzania and United Kingdom Representative to the East African Community (2009-2013), and British Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and non-Resident Ambassador to the Republic of Congo (2013-present). Ms Corner was also Acting High Commissioner to Sierra Leone (2008-2009), Deputy High Commissioner to Zimbabwe (2001-2003), and Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy Office in Berlin (1994-1998). Ms Corner’s first overseas posting was in Malaysia (1985-1988), and she also spent time at the United Kingdom Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
Bintou Keita was appointed Deputy Joint Special Representative for the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and African Union Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Ms Keita has a wealth of experience with more than 25 years of service in the United Nations. Her most recent positions include Ebola Crisis Manager for Sierra Leone and Chief of Staff for the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response. Prior to that, Ms Keita served in several senior management and leadership functions with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Chad, Congo, Madagascar, Cape Verde, Rwanda, Burundi and New York. From 2007 to 2010, Ms Keita was Deputy Executive Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Integrated Office in Burundi. She has also worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Canadian International Development Agency in Guinea.
Karin Landgren is the first woman to have headed three United Nations peace operations. Until 2015 she was until a UN under-secretary-general and head of UNMIL in Liberia, a peacekeeping operation, also leading UNMIL's response to Ebola through the height of the epidemic. Prior to this, she led two political missions, BNUB in Burundi and UNMIN in Nepal. She worked on refugee protection and statelessness for many years, and in 2005 developed a widely-used approach to child protection, the Protective Environment Framework.
Ms Landgren is a founding member of the Nordic Women Mediators' Network. She consults and speaks on peacekeeping, women in leadership, and corruption/accountability. She has taught at Columbia University and the Central European University, and is now a non-resident fellow at the Center on International Cooperation (CIC), New York University.
Bela Kapur is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Centre for Women, Peace and Security and an independent expert on women, peace and security. Her research areas include the role of women in peace and political processes and the linkages between local and national processes, as well as transformational coalition building, agenda setting and influencing.
Event recording
Audio recording of the event