Caroline Ziadeh (also spelled Ziadé, or Ziade; ) is a Lebanese diplomat who has served as the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) since January 2022. Ziadeh previously served as Deputy Permanent Representative of Lebanon to the United Nations in New York from 2006 to 2017 and as Director of the Department of International Organizations, Conferences, and Cultural Services in Beirut from 2017 to 2021. Her earlier diplomatic assignments included overseas postings in Brussels, Vienna, and London. She was Appointed to UNMIK by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in November 2021.
Early life and education Ziadeh pursued her higher education in political science, economics, and international diplomacy in Lebanon, Belgium, and Austria. She holds both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in Economy and Political Science from the Lebanese University in Beirut. She completed postgraduate diplomas at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels and the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in Austria.
Career Ziadeh joined the diplomatic service of the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants in the early 1990s, occupying positions in Beirut and multiple overseas postings. From 1994 to 1999, Ziadeh was posted to Brussels, serving simultaneously at the Embassy of Lebanon in Belgium and the Delegation of Lebanon to the European Union. Following her term in Brussels, she was assigned from 1999 to 2002 to the Permanent Mission of Lebanon in Vienna, with concurrent accreditation to the Embassies of Lebanon in Austria, Croatia, and Slovakia. Between 2004 and 2006, she served as a diplomatic counselor at the Embassy of Lebanon in London.
In 2006, Ziadeh was named Deputy Permanent Representative of Lebanon to the United Nations Headquarters in New York, a post she held for eleven years. During her tenure in New York, Lebanon was elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2010–2011 term. Ziadeh regularly headed national delegations on multilateral tracks, including the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, international migration frameworks, human rights protection mechanisms, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
In 2017, Ziadeh was recalled to Beirut to assume the leadership of the Department of International Organizations, Conferences, and Cultural Services within the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants. As Director, she directed Lebanon's multilateral policies, multilateral treaty compliance, and engagement with international specialized agencies until late 2021.
Special Representative in Kosovo (2022–present) On 19 November 2021, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced Ziadeh's appointment as Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), succeeding Zahir Tanin of Afghanistan. She formally assumed her duties at UNMIK headquarters in Pristina on 17 January 2022. As Head of UNMIK, Ziadeh prioritized multi-ethnic dialogue, human rights monitoring, and community-level peacebuilding. Under her direction, UNMIK emphasized a "purpose-driven" mandate centered on human security and the inclusion of non-majority communities in Kosovo. Following the September 2023 security incident in Banjska, Ziadeh condemned the violence, called for restraint, and demanded thorough, transparent investigations to establish accountability. In her Security Council briefings in April 2024 and April 2025, she highlighted the fragile security environment in northern Kosovo, expressing concern over administrative decisions, such as the closure of institutions supplying essential social and economic services, that impacted non-majority communities, particularly Kosovo Serbs.
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