Julie Bishop appointed UN special envoy on Myanmar

WASHINGTON

The UN on Friday announced the appointment of former Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop as Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ personal envoy on Myanmar.

"Ms. Bishop succeeds Noeleen Heyzer of Singapore to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedicated service. Ms. Bishop brings extensive political, legal, management and senior leadership experience to the role," a UN statement said.

Bishop served as Australian foreign minister in 2013-2018.

On Thursday, UN official Khaled Khiari announced that Guterres intended to appoint a special envoy to engage with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states and all stakeholders to advance toward a Myanmar-led political solution to the country’s crisis.

In 2017, Myanmar’s military launched violent operations against the Rohingya population in northern Rakhine State which rights groups have since called a genocide. Nearly 1.2 million Rohingya were forced into neighboring Bangladesh, where they have been living for years in overcrowded refugee camps.

Since a coup in in 2021 that ousted Myanmar’s democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s military carried out a brutal nationwide crackdown on millions of people opposed to its rule.