The UN General Assembly unanimously approved and appointed Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein as the new High Commissioner for Human Rights. His four-year term will begin September 2014. Prince Zeid is currently the Permanent Representative of Jordan to the United Nations, a post he held previously for six years from 2000-2007. He has played a central role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court, leading negotiations regarding individual offenses of genocide and war crimes.
Born in Amman, Jordan, Prince Zeid holds a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University (Political Science), and a Ph.D. (History) from Christ’s College at Cambridge University. He is married to an American, Sarah Butler, now Princess Sarah Zeid. His father, Ra’ad bin Zeid, inherited the position (after his father died in 1970) as Head of the Royal Houses of Iraq and Syria.
