UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Nicholas Koumjian of the US as head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, said his press office.
Koumjian will be the first head of the Myanmar mechanism,which was established by the Human Rights Council on September 27, 2018 andwelcomed by the General Assembly on December 22, 2018, the office said in astatement, Xinhua reported on Wednesday.
Koumjian brings to this position over 35 years of experienceas prosecutor, including almost 20 years of experience in the field ofinternational criminal justice.
Since November 2013, he has been serving as theInternational Co-Prosecutor for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts ofCambodia.
Koumjian previously served as Trial Attorney at theInternational Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, as Deputy General Prosecutorfor serious crimes in Timor-Leste, as International Prosecutor in the War CrimesSection of the Prosecutor’s Office for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and as PrincipalTrial Attorney and Senior Appeals Counsel in the Special Court for SierraLeone.
In addition, he also worked as a prosecutor in the US andhas professional experience in the fields of international human rights law andtransitional justice.
Koumjian holds a Juris Doctorate degree from the Universityof North Carolina and a Master of Business Administration from the Universityof California, Los Angeles.