UN's top cop: she's Swedish!

A Swedish female police officer has been appointed the top cop for the United Nations. Decisively underscoring the moment of International Women's Day, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today appointed a Swedish woman, Ann-Marie Orler, as the top police office in the organization. 

  • Ann-Marie Orler is now in charge of 12,867 police officers from 90 nations serving in 15 UN peacekeeping missions around the world.
  • Decisively underscoring the moment of International Women's Day, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today appointed a Swedish woman, Ann-Marie Orler, as the top police office in the organization - the new UN Police Adviser in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

  • United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Ann-Marie Orler as the new United Nations Police Adviser in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. She has been Deputy Police Adviser since 2008.

  • Now in charge of 12,867 police officers from 90 nations serving in 15 UN peacekeeping missions around the world, Orler is a graduate of the Swedish Police Training Academy, holds a law degree from the University of Uppsala and also studied journalism. A deputy with the same unit since 2008, she has training as a lawyer and police officer, and served with the Swedish National Police for almost 20 years before joining the UN. More recently, she was County Commissioner for Västmanland.

  • Apart from her extensive senior level police experience, Orler served from 2001-03 at the Council of Europe as Program Manager for the “Police and Human Rights Beyond 2000” program. Previously, Orler was the Secretary General of Amnesty International in Sweden in 1998.

  • After it was launched last year, Orler has led the global United Nations effort to recruit more female police officers for peacekeeping operations. She was also elected to the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Degrading Treatment between 2004-08.
    More general info on UN www.un.org