Geir Otto Pedersen (born 28 September 1955) is a Norwegian diplomat, who is currently the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria.

Career

Born in Oslo, Pedersen is a cand.philol. by education and started working for the

Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( Norwegian (Bokmål): ''Det kongelige utenriksdepartement''; Norwegian (Nynorsk): ''Det kongelege utanriksdepartement'') is the foreign ministry of the Kingdom of Norway. It was established on June ...

in 1985. In 1993, Pedersen was a member of the Norwegian team to the Oslo negotiations, which led to the signing of the

Declaration of Principles The Oslo I Accord or Oslo I, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements or short Declaration of Principles (DOP), was an attempt in 1993 to set up a framework that would lead to the resolution of th ...

and mutual recognition between the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...

(PLO) and Israel. In the following years, from 1995 to 1998, Pedersen held several positions at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1998, he was posted abroad, serving as the Norwegian Representative to the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine,

. Pedersen later worked for the United Nations in several roles, which included as the Personal Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Southern Lebanon from 2005 to 2007, and following as the Special Coordinator for Lebanon from 2007 to 2008. He also served the United Nations as Director of the Asia and Pacific Division in the Department of Political Affairs. He returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as deputy under-secretary of state, then served as Norway's ambassador to the United Nations from 2012 to 2017 and to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

from 2017 to 2018. In January 2019, he started a tenure as the United Nations Special Envoy to Syria.

Personal life

Pedersen is married and has five children.

References

1955 births Living people Diplomats from Oslo Norwegian expatriates in Israel Norwegian expatriates in Lebanon Permanent Representatives of Norway to the United Nations Ambassadors of Norway to China United Nations officials Special Representatives of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Special Envoys of the Secretary-General of the United Nations {{Norway-diplomat-stub