Dennis will focus on the global challenges to humanitarian principles and the link to the rule of law and peace building.
Dennis McNamara has more than three decades of international humanitarian experience
during which he held several senior positions across the United Nations before becoming HD’s Senior Humanitarian Adviser in 2007. Prior to joining HD, he served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Special Envoy to Iraq and the former Yugoslavia, and as UNHCR Director of International Protection. Dennis has also worked in UN Peacekeeping Operations and as Director in the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. He was Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General in Kosovo as well as at Deputy UN Administrator at the Assistant Secretary-General level in Timor Leste. Prior to this, Dennis headed the Human Rights Component of the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia. Dennis has an Honours degree in law from Auckland University and practiced as a lawyer in the UK and Kenya before joining the UN.