The Baker Institute will host Caecilia Van Peski, United Nations Special Representative for the Netherlands and diplomat for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for a residency Feb. 12-17, including a talk at 7 PM Feb. 13 in Neff.
During her residency, Van Peski will engage in public presentations, classroom visits, peace education activities, and academic collaboration with PACS students, faculty, and staff.
As a senior expert in International Relations and Foreign Affairs, Van Peski’s specialties are Democratization, Peace & Security, Elections, and Human Rights. She has worked with the United Nations (Chief, Peace Programming Section at UNDP/UN Volunteers), the European Commission, the Council of Europe, OSCE/ODIHR, The Carter Centre, National Democratic Institute and NORDEM (Norwegian Resource Bank for Democracy and Human Rights). Her geographical area of operations lies mainly in the Balkans, Russian Federation, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and she has worked in over 30 conflict and post-conflict countries. In liaison with the Royal Netherlands Armed Forces, she engages in Civil Military Interaction (CMI/CIMIC).
In 2009, as a seconded diplomat for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Caecilia Van Peski’s work revolved around Human Rights and Humanitarian Assistance within the Republic of Georgia, namely, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Embedded within the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM), the focus of her work lay on stabilization, confidence-building, and post-conflict reconstruction after the 2008 Russo-Georgian conflict. In 2011, upon return from her mission, Van Peski became a senior policy advisor with the Human Rights, Governance and Democratisation Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
From 2014 to 2016, Van Peski deployed to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (OSCE SMM, where her work included cease-fire monitoring, oversight over the withdrawal of heavy weaponry, crater analysis, and border monitoring.
