HE Lakhdar Brahimi is a former Algerian Foreign Minister (1991-1993) and Ambassador and was the chair of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations which produced the influential Brahimi Report. He served as the United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria from 2012 to 2014. HE Lakhdar Brahimi was the Special Adviser to the Secretary- General advising the Secretary-General on a wide range of issues, including situations in the areas of conflict prevention and conflict resolution.
He was the Special Envoy to Afghanistan from 1997-1999 and Chaired the Bonn Conference, in November -December 2001 which produced the Bonn Peace process for the country. He went on to lead the United Nations Assistance Mission (UNAMA) until the end of 2004.
In between his Afghanistan assignments, HE Brahimi served as Under-Secretary-General for Special Assignments in support of the Secretary-General's Preventive and Peacemaking efforts. In this capacity, he chaired an independent panel established by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to review United Nations peace operations. The report, released by the panel in 2000 and known as the "Brahimi Report", assessed the shortcomings of the existing system of peacekeeping and made specific recommendations for change, focusing on politics, strategy and operational and organizational areas of need. Prior to his first Afghanistan appointment, HE Brahimi served as Special Representative for Haiti (from 1994 to 1996), and Special Representative for South Africa (from December 1993 to June 1994). He has also undertaken special missions on behalf of the Secretary-General to a number of countries, including Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Yemen, Liberia, Nigeria and Sudan.
HE Brahimi was Minister for Foreign Affairs of Algeria from 1991 to 1993. He served as Rapporteur to the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit). From 1984 to 1991, he was Under-Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, and from 1989 to 1991, served as Special Envoy of the Arab League Tripartite Committee to Lebanon, mediating the end of the civil war in that country. HE Brahimi was Diplomatic Adviser to the President of Algeria from 1982 to 1984, Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1971 to 1979, and Ambassador to Egypt and the Sudan, as well as Permanent Representative to the Arab League in Cairo, from 1963 to 1970. In 1954, he left University before graduating to join his country's struggle for independence. In 1956, he left University before graduating to serve as the National Liberation Front (FLN) representative in South-East Asia, resident in Jakarta. HE Brahimi is married with three children and six grandchildren.