Movses Abelian Appointed UN Assistant Secretary-General

NEW YORK — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced the appointment of Movses Abelian as UN Assistant Secretary-General of the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management. Abelian will succeed Catherine Pollard of Guyana, whom the Secretary-General has appointed as the Under-Secretary-General of the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management.

Movses Abelian has over 25 years of experience in peace and security issues and conflict resolution as well as extensive expertise leading, supporting and managing complex portfolios and intergovernmental processes, including the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Executive Boards of UN Funds and Programs.

As Director of the Security Council Affairs Division since April 2011, Abelian served as the Secretary of the Security Council and provided substantive advice to the President and members of the Council and its subsidiary bodies on matters related to the Council’s work, practices and procedures. He also has several years’ experience in management, including programme planning and budget, having previously worked as Secretary of the Administrative and Budgetary Committee of the General Assembly (Fifth Committee) and the Committee on Programme and Coordination at the United Nations.

Prior to joining the United Nations, Movses Abelian was the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Armenia to the United Nations (1998-2003) and Deputy Permanent Representative from 1996 to 1998. During his diplomatic career, Mr. Abelian served in various capacities including as the Chairman of the Fifth Committee (1998); Vice-Chairman of the United Nations Disarmament Commission and Special Negotiator for the United Nations Peacekeeping Scale Financing Reform (2000); President of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); and Facilitator for United Nations Reform during the fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly (2002).