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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Patricia Coen (609) 258-5764
Date: November 25, 1996
U.N. Special Envoy to Speak
on Bosnia-Herzegovina
Princeton, N.J.-- Soren Jessen-Petersen, special envoy for the former Yugoslavia for the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees, will give a lecture entitled "Bosnia-Herzegovina: Returning to Peace?" on Wednesday, December 4, at 4:30 p.m. at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The lecture will be held in Robertson Hall, Bowl 6.
In December 1995, as the former Yugoslavia made its transition from war to peace, Jessen-Peterson was assigned by the U.N. High Commissioner to direct and manage the High Commissioner for Refugees Regional Operation in the area. Based in Sarajevo, Jessen-Petersen directs a program that assists some four million refugees, displaced persons, those returning to the area and other vulnerable persons. He also oversees an international staff of more than 500 people.
Jessen-Petersen began his service with the UNHCR in 1972 when he was associate program officer at the Regional Liaison Office in Ethiopia. He served subsequently in Egypt and Zambia and also served at the UNHCR headquarters in Geneva and at the U.N. headquarters in New York. In 1989, he served the Undersecretary General for Political Affairs as a special adviser on emergency and economic assistance programs in Africa. In addition to his role as special envoy, Jessen-Petersen now serves as the U.N. high commissioner's direct liaison to the Office of the Secretary-General, Political, Peacekeeping, and Humanitarian Departments.
His lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.