MEET BRUNO DONAT
Brave, inspiring and ethical leadership to enhance and save lives!
Currently a senior official of the United Nations with diplomatic status, and a dual national of the Republic of Mauritius and the United States of America, Mr. Donat is engaging with various stakeholders to listen and gather views from Member States, NGOs, women and youth organizations, civil society, the private sector, religious organizations, and more. He is promoting three priorities: AUTHENTICITY, FREEDOM, and ETHICAL LEADERSHIP.
Mr. Donat has also been advocating for urgent reforms at the United Nations, focusing on equity, diversity, inclusion, and accountability. The latter includes to better internal UN treatment of staffs and hopefully abolish the discriminatory and disparity of treatment vis-a-vis 'international' and 'national' staffs, as it includes the promotion of the voices of the 'global south' in a more prominent way at the UN.
Mr. Bruno Donat oftentimes reminds his fellow international civil servants and partners of their responsibilities, human duties, inviolability of their personal views and convictions as well as their right to freedom of expression. He encourages colleagues to also communicate in a way that is consistent with their status as international civil servants, the principles of the United Nations Charter, and more.
In these unprecedented times, Mr. Donat has been calling for extraordinary, immediate and timely initiatives for peace, human rights, humanitarian action, justice, and accountability.
Mr. Donat has very bravely but at huge costs at times, denounced racism and racial discrimination and continued, inter alia, as an appointed member of the UN Geneva Working Group on Addressing Racism in the Workplace; a UN Anti-Racism Advocate; the founder of a bottom-up informal group in the UN on ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ (EDI) – some prefer DEI – dismantled later by senior management; and a past member of similar groups, formal and informal.
A staunch and outspoken advocate for the protection of civilians worldwide, Mr. Donat has been focusing more recently on the unacceptable conditions of civilians - BABIES, women, GIRLS, BOYS and men - of the STATE OF PALESTINE, not only in the Gaza strip, but also in the West Bank, DR CONGO, LEBANON, MYANMAR, SUDAN, SOUTH SUDAN, UKRAINE and the region of WEST AFRICA AND THE SAHEL, and more.
Recent experience & educational background
Bruno Donat, has been – for a second time - the Chief of the Geneva office of the Mine Action Service (UNMAS), within the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions (OROLSI) at the Department of Peace Operations (DPO). He has also been the Global Coordinator of the Mine Action Area of Responsibility with the Global Protection Cluster led by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). While keeping his current Geneva post, Mr. Donat is currently on a temporary loan in the Justice and Corrections Service (JCS) at DPO.
Just before, Mr. Donat was the Chief of the Section of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) working on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) – of Congolese and foreign armed groups - and Community Violence Reduction.
Recent postings include leading the Political Affairs team at the United Nations Mission for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), the head of Stabilization in the DR Congo at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and deployed at MONUSCO; working on DDR for OROLSI (then at the Department of Peacekeeping Operations) of the United Nations, both at Headquarters and at country level, and prior, with some eight years at the World Bank, the last years of which at the Fragile States, Conflict, and Social Development unit of the World Bank’s Africa Region. With more than 25 years in international affairs, Mr. Donat also brings experience from organizations such as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Human Rights Watch.
He received training in CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND APPLIED INTERNATIONAL STUDIES from the Caux Scholars Program in Switzerland and also studied INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques of Strasbourg, France. He was exposed as well to a MILITARY education through his participation as a cadet officer in the US Army R.O.T.C. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A., summa cum laude in THEOLOGY and a M.A. in POLITICAL SCIENCE from Boston College, USA.
Bruno Donat - a humble candidacy for UN Secretary-General in support of PALESTINE & women candidates
