Angela Kane

Education and career

Kane was born in Hamelin, Lower Saxony, Germany and attended the University of Munich. She holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California.

Before she joined the UN Secretariat in 1977, Kane worked for the World Bank in Washington, D.C. and in the private sector in Europe.

UN career

From 1995 to 1999, Kane held a managerial position in the Department of Public Information, where she was responsible for United Nations publications and the Dag Hammarskjöld Library. In this capacity, she launched the UN website in all official UN languages and administered the putting in place of the online documentation system through the UN website.

She held a number of senior positions at the United Nations, including Principal Officer for Political Affairs in the Office of former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and as political adviser to the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for the Central American Peace Process to end the conflict in El Salvador. Additionally, she has worked in several UN missions including as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and had postings in Jakarta and Bangkok. She served as Assistant Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, where she concentrated on the implementation of reform initiatives, integrated global management, the use of information technology tools and the re-positioning of the department as a proactive and efficient service provider.

She served twice in the Department of Political Affairs, as Assistant Secretary-General and previously as Director, focusing on preventing and resolving conflicts. In the latter capacity, she was in charge of the divisions dealing with the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East, as well as decolonization, and the division for Palestinian rights. As Assistant Secretary-General, she supported several special political missions in Iraq, Nepal and the Middle East, and established the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, which was unprecedented among UN or other international efforts to promote accountability and strengthen the rule of law. Between May 2008 and 2012, she was Under-Secretary-General for Management, responsible for a $11 billion annual budget, plus $2 billion for the renovation of the New York campus, overseeing the management of over 50,000 staff worldwide.

Disarmament and later roles

She was named as new UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs on 8 March 2012, replacing Sergio de Queiroz Duarte. She was responsible for negotiating and conducting the chemical weapons investigation in Syria in 2013 which led to Syria joining the Chemical Weapons Convention and the dismantlement of its declared chemical weapons stocks.