Mr. Miroslav Jenča of Slovakia - Special Representative for Colombia and Head of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia

Mr. Miroslav Jenča of Slovakia - Special Representative for Colombia and Head of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia 

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Miroslav Jenča of Slovakia as his new Special Representative for Colombia and Head of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia. 
 
Mr. Jenča succeeds Mr. Carlos Ruiz Massieu of Mexico, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his dedication and service.
 
Mr. Jenča brings to this position over 35 years of experience in diplomacy, mediation, leadership and oversight of UN peace operations, as well as close knowledge of the Colombian peace process and its regional and international context.  He has been serving as Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas in the United Nations Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations since 2019. 

Prior to 2019, as Assistant Secretary-General in the Department of Political Affairs, he covered the Americas, Europe and the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, as well as the Decolonization Unit and the Division for Palestinian Rights.  From 2008 to 2015, Mr. Jenča served as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.  Previous posts in his diplomatic career include Director of the Office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Slovakia, Head of Mission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Centre in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Ambassador and Representative of Slovakia to the Political and Security Committee of the European Union and Ambassador to Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela.
 
Mr. Jenča holds a Doctor of Law degree (Doctor Juris) from Comenius University in Bratislava.  He studied foreign trade at the University of Economics in Bratislava; diplomacy and international relations at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (Master of Arts), and diplomacy at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.  He is fluent in English, Russian and Spanish.

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