Nina Suomalainen became advisor to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities

Press release 279/2007
10 December 2007

M. Pol. Sc. Nina Suomalainen started her term as advisor to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) High Commissioner on National Minorities, Knut Vollebaek, at the beginning of December. The advisor’s term in office will last the duration of the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship, until the end of 2008.

Before her transfer to The Hague, Suomalainen worked at the FinnChurchAid. Suomalainen’s work history includes extensive experience in international tasks in the EC, the UN and the OSCE. She has worked, for instance at the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Country Office in Latvia, OSCE field operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw. Suomalainen has also acted as Special Advisor to Elisabeth Rehn in the Balkans and Palestine as well as an observer for the UNDP human rights programme in Rwanda. At the moment, Suomalainen also acts as the chair of the Development Policy Committee.

Additional information: Aleksi Härkönen, Head of the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship Task Force, tel. +358 9 1605 5496, +358 400 330 406 (mobile), and Nina Suomalainen, tel. +358 40 533 5869 (mobile)