Kurdish politician and former Iraqi president Barham Salih has been appointed High Commissioner for Refugees of the United Nations (UNHCR), as confirmed by his advisor Mohammed Hawrami on Friday. Salih will take office at the beginning of the year, succeeding Italian Filippo Grandi, who has led the organization since 2016.
The decision marks a clear break with the long-standing tradition whereby the UNHCR has almost always been led by Western nationals since its foundation after the Second World War. Salih prevailed over a field of around a dozen candidates, including individuals from major donor countries such as Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. Former IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin was also among the frontrunners.
The final decision was made by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who himself headed the refugee agency from 2005 to 2015. A shortlist of three to four finalists was drawn up from the pool of applicants, from which Salih ultimately emerged victorious. “Following hearings by a high-level UN panel, we are pleased to announce that Dr. Barham Salih has been selected for the position,” said advisor Hawrami. The appointment has not yet been officially announced.
The High Commissioner for Refugees is one of the highest-ranking positions in the UN system. The agency coordinates the global protection and care of currently over 120 million people who have been forced to flee their homes, including refugees, internally displaced persons, and asylum seekers. Salih’s term of office is five years, with the possibility of a one-time extension.
The 65-year-old’s candidacy was made public at the end of October by Hoshyar Zebari, a leading member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). On X, he expressed Kurdistan and Iraq’s full support for Salih. Salih has “all the qualifications to lead this important humanitarian organization,” Zebari wrote.
Who is Barham Salih?
Barham Salih was born on September 12, 1960, in Sulaymaniyah in southern Kurdistan. At a young age, he was arrested twice by the Iraqi Baath regime for his political activism. He later lived in exile in the United Kingdom, where he studied civil engineering and architecture at Cardiff University. He earned a doctorate in statistics and computer applications in engineering.
In 1976, he joined the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). In the 1990s, he was the representative of the first government of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) abroad and later headed the foreign policy relations of the Kurdish regional government in the US.
Salih was Prime Minister of the KRI from 2001 to 2004. After the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein, he became Deputy Prime Minister of the Iraqi transitional government in 2004, then Minister of Planning. Under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, he served again as Deputy Prime Minister from 2006 to 2009. In 2007, he founded the American University of Iraq in Sulaymaniyah. In October 2018, Salih was elected the eighth president of Iraq, a position he held until 2022.