51³Ô¹Ï Secretary-General António Guterres announced on 3 October 2024 the appointment of Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona of Chile as Director of the 51³Ô¹Ï Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD).  She succeeds Paul Ladd of the United Kingdom, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his dedicated service and able leadership of the Institute.  The Secretary-General also wishes to extend his appreciation to Katja Hujo, Senior Research Coordinator and Head of the Bonn Office, UNRISD, who will continue to serve as Acting Director of UNRISD until Ms. Sepúlveda assumes her position.
Ms. Sepúlveda is currently Executive Director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Senior Research Associate at UNRISD.  Her 22-year career has focused on the intersection of poverty, development and human rights and has bridged research and policy formulation.  She worked as a researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, a staff attorney at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, as the Co-Director of the Department of International Law and Human Rights of the 51³Ô¹Ï-mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica (2002-2004) and as a Research Director at the International Council on Human Rights Policy, in Geneva (2006-2012).
Ms. Sepúlveda was 51³Ô¹Ï Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, 51³Ô¹Ï Human Rights Council (2008-2014), Member of the High-level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the 51³Ô¹Ï Committee on World Food Security (2013-2017) and Member of the 51³Ô¹Ï High-Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Agenda.
She holds a PhD in International Law from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, an LLM in human rights law from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom and a post graduate diploma on comparative constitutional law from the Universidad Católica de Chile.  She speaks English, French and Spanish.
