Port-au-Prince, 12 September 2018 – Ms. Helen Meagher La Lime, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Haiti (SRSG) and Head of the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH) arrived today in Port-au-Prince.
Appointed on 1 August 2018 by Secretary-General Guterres as his Special Representative for Haiti, Ms. La Lime took office on 3 September 2018. Since then, she had held consultations at the United Nations headquarters in New York and had participated in the presentation of the latest periodic report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Haiti to the Security Council on 6 September, alongside the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Ms. Bintou Keita.
In his report, the Secretary-General expressed his gratitude to his Deputy Special Representative, Dr. Mamadou Diallo of Guinea, who served as Officer-in-Charge of MINUJUSTH during the past months.
Ms. La Lime succeeds her compatriot Susan D. Page, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedicated service and effective leadership of MINUJUSTH.
Ms. La Lime has had a distinguished career with the United States Foreign Service, including high-level diplomatic postings. She most recently served as the Ambassador of the United States to Angola (2014-2017), and as Director of Outreach of the US Africa Command in Germany (2011-2013).
From 1996 until 2011, she served in various field positions with the Department of State, including as Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in South Africa (2008-2011), Consul General of the United States in Cape Town, South Africa (2006-2008), Ambassador of the United States to Mozambique (2003-2006), Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Morocco (2001-2003) and in Chad (1996-1999). From 1999 to 2003, she served as the Director and Deputy Director of the Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs.
Ms. La Lime is a graduate of the National Defense University in Washington D.C. and holds a bachelor’s degree in Languages and Linguistics from Georgetown University. In addition to English, she is fluent in French, Spanish and Portuguese.
