Professional background

2025 Permanent Representative of Iceland to the Council of Europe

2020-2025 Director of UNRWA Representative office in New York

2017-2019 Head of the Director’s Office/Senior Political Adviser, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Warsaw

2016-2017 Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Iceland to the OSCE, UNOV and other International Organizations in Vienna, Ambassador to Austria, Vienna

2015-2016 Ambassador for Human Rights, Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA), Reykjavik 2011-2015 Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations, New York

2007-2011 Director General for International and Security Affairs, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Reykjavik

2006-2007 Head, Advisory Commission Secretariat, UNRWA, East Jerusalem 2005-2006 Chief, Policy Analysis Unit, UNRWA, East Jerusalem

2004-2005 Deputy Head of Mission, Icelandic Mission to the European Union, Brussels

2000-2004 Deputy Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations, New York 1997-2000 Counsellor/Minister Counsellor, Political Department, MFA, Reykjavik

1994-1997 Officer, Political Department, NATO, Brussels

1991-1994 First Secretary, Icelandic Mission to the European Union, Brussels

1989-1991 First Secretary, Trade Department, MFA, Reykjavik

1988-1989 First Secretary, Political Department, MFA, Reykjavik

Professional and other activities

Vice President of the United Nations General Assembly 2014

Co-facilitator of the Intergovernmental Review Process of the Human Rights Treaty Bodies 2012 - 2014, concluded in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 68/268

Co-initiator of the Barbershop Conference at the United Nations designed to engage men for gender equality, 2015

Member of the Nordic Women´s Mediation Network since 2015

Founder of an NGO to prevent racism and religious intolerance in Iceland, 1998

Co-founder of the National Committee of UNIFEM (now UN WOMEN) in Iceland, 1989

Education

LLM International Legal Studies, New York University, 1988

Cand. Juris, Law Faculty, University of Iceland, 1986