Matilda Bogner appointed as new head of UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine

She will now lead the Mission mandated to monitor, report and advocate for human rights protection for all in the country, according to a statement published on the website of the United Nations Office in Ukraine.

“Fostering access to justice and accountability for human rights violations will remain the Mission’s priority,” Bogner said.

“We will work with the Government and other partners to address key challenges for human rights in Ukraine, both systemic and triggered by the armed conflict and occupation in Crimea. We promote policies that are inclusive and non-discriminative, and that leave no one behind,” she noted.

Australian national, Matilda Bogner has worked in the UN system since 2006. She headed the Regional Offices of the OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) in Central Asia, the Pacific and South East Asia. She also headed the Human Rights, Transitional Justice and Rule of Law Division of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, and most recently was the Senior Human Rights Advisor for the UN in Belarus. Before joining the UN Human Rights Office, Bogner spent nine years working on human rights in Europe and Central Asia. She speaks Russian fluently. Matilda Bogner is married with four children. Her family is now with her in Kyiv.

“I am looking forward to meeting people from all parts of Ukraine, to listen and understand their concerns. One of my first missions will be to the conflict zone in the east,” said Bogner.

Bogner took up office after the former incumbent, Fiona Frazer, completed a five-year term in Ukraine. Frazer is moving to work for the UN Human Rights Office in Afghanistan.

As known, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine was deployed in 2014. It has offices in Kyiv, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, Luhansk, Odesa. The Mission conducts remote monitoring of the human rights situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine, temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. Every quarter the Mission publishes a report on the human rights situation in Ukraine.