The first woman to serve as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, has died in Tokyo at the age of 92, hailed by the UN Secretary-General on Tuesday as a “role model for people across the world.”
António Guterres said he was “deeply saddened” to hear of her passing: “Sadako Ogata set the standard for helping refugees: principled, compassionate, effective. She was fearless in her advocacy for people, humanitarian action and political solutions.”
As the first woman to lead the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, he said she had been “a pioneer in highlighting not only the impact of violence on women but the imperative of women’s involvement in solutions. Her contributions continued long after her service as High Commissioner, in particular in articulating the concept of human security.”
Ms. Ogata, a Japanese national, led the agency between 1991 and 2000, which was “one of the most momentous decades in its history”, said the current UNHCR chief, Filippo Grandi. She oversaw major emergency operations in response to crises in the former Soviet Union, Iraq, the Balkans – especially Bosnia – Somalia, the Great Lakes, and East Timor, “as well as helping millions of refugees return home in large-scale repatriation operations in Central America”, the agency noted.
