Senior Personnel Appointment:

Farid Zarif as Senior Adviser

13 March 2026

United Staff for Gaza is pleased to announce Mr. Farid Zarif as its newest Senior Adviser.

Mr. Zarif brings invaluable expertise to the initiative as we strive to advocate for accountability for UN colleagues killed in Gaza, a genuine ceasefire, unobstructed entry of humanitarian aid, and respect for human rights and international law across the Illegally Occupied Palestinian Territory. "Security and peace," Mr. Zarif said, "can only be attained and sustained if the inalienable rights of everyone, including the people of Palestine, are ensured."

Farid Zarif is a distinguished Afghan former diplomat and international civil servant. He was an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and served as Deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan.

Mr. Zarif joined the Afghan foreign service in 1974. In his nearly two decades of diplomatic service, he worked in multiple postings both in his home country and abroad, including as Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations in New York, from 1981 to 1987. During this time, he served as Vice-Chair and Acting Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. Mr. Zarif further served as Deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan from 1987 to 1989, and as Presidential Adviser on International Affairs from 1989 to 1991.

In 1993, Mr. Zarif joined the United Nations. He has served at Headquarters as well as in political, humanitarian and peacekeeping operations in Eritrea, Iraq, Liberia, South Africa, and Sudan. In 2011, he was appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. Subsequently, in 2015, he was appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission in Liberia. The Mission successfully closed in 2018 and Mr. Zarif retired from UN service.

Mr. Zarif has degrees in law and political science and in international relations and diplomacy from Kabul University and the University of Oxford. Born in 1951, he is married and has two sons.