User:Admirela Ancion

Admirela Ancion has been an advocate for peace and international security since her early years. She has served with the United Nations since 2000 in several different functions, including with UNMIK, UNHCR, UNODC, UNOCHA and UNICTY. For 18 years, she has worked on myriad of issues: from managing large refugee camps in Sub-Saharan Africa to combatting terrorism, corruption and organized crime in Afghanistan, Southeast Europe and East Africa; from giving Somali youth at risk of piracy and imprisoned pirates an alternative future to promoting the UN sanctions regime. Ms. Ancion has worked extensively with dozens of UN Member States and has delivered capacity building and technical assistance to senior level officials.

Showing her strong commitment to children’s rights, she served as a Board Director for Rehema, a school for orphans and vulnerable children located in Dandorra, a Nairobi slum and the place of one of the largest garbage dumps in Africa. In 2017, Ms. Ancion managed UNICTY legacy dialogues marking the contribution of the international tribunal with the presence of the UN Secretary-General and the King of The Netherlands, King Willem Alexander at the UNICTY Closing Ceremony.

Ms. Ancion comes originally from Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, which she left before the brutal war in the Former Yugoslavia started to pursue her education in the United States of America. Since her early youth she worked extensively on human rights, refugee rights, democratization and the promotion of reconciliation in the region. In the early 90s, she assisted concentration camp survivors from Bosnia to settle in the United States and volonteered in the homeless shelter in Washington, DC. Recognized public speaker at various topics, she has been interviewed by international and US national media. She completed a Master of Arts of Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School in Medford, MA with cross-registration at the Harvard University. Ms. Ancion graduated from Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa, in International Politics. Recognized for her commitment to international peace, she was a 2011 Commencement Speaker at Loras College. Her areas of academic specialization are: conflict prevention, forced migration, and democratization. Having lived in seven diffierent countries, spanning three continents, Ms. Ancion is a native of The Netherlands and Bosnia. She is fluent in several foreign language.