Biography of Ninette Kelley
UNHCR Regional Representative for Lebanon
Ninette Kelley has served as the Regional Representative for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner (UNHCR) in Lebanon since May 2010.
Kelley has held legal and management change positions within UNHCR since 2002. Prior to her present assignment in Lebanon, she was the acting Head of the Organizational Development Management Service at UNHCR’s headquarters in Geneva and held several other advisory positions in a variety of units. Before joining
UNHCR, Kelley served for 8 years with the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) of Canada as a member of the Convention Refugee Determination Division (CRDD) and of the Immigration Appeal Division from June 1994 to June 2002. Between 1988 and 1990, Kelley held various policy and consultative roles with international humanitarian agencies including the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) and the International Working Group on Refugee Women, Geneva. In addition, she served as the Executive Director of the Working Group on Refugee Resettlement (WGRR), Toronto from 1985 until 1988.
She has authored two books, The Making of the Mosaic: The History of Canadian Immigration Policy (with Michael Trebilcock) and Working with Refugee Women: A Practical Guide, and published extensively in the areas of human rights law, citizenship, refugee protection, and gender related persecution and the Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedom. She has also produced a number of guidelines and handbooks on behalf of UNHCR, the IRB and WGRR.
Kelley, a legal practitioner by profession, was called to the Ontario bar in May 1985. She holds an LL.B from the University of Western Ontario and a B.A. in History and Economics from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.
(Source:UNHCR) |