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Mr Christian Saunders, Commissioner-General ad interim of UNRWA, has been named the 2026 annual Anna Lindh speaker. On 26 November, he will present the lecture “The Unfinished Project: The United Nations and the Promise of Collective Action.”.📅 Date: 26 November 2026
🕕 Time: 18:00 CET
📍 Venue: Lund University, Palaestra et Odeum, Paradisgatan 4, Lund.
🎫 Registration: The lecture is open to everyone, but registration is required. Register here: Registration The Anna Lindh Lecture 26 November 2026
Language: English
The lecture will reflect on the critical role of the multilateral system at a time when the ability of the international community to address global challenges through collective action is under increasing pressure. Drawing on Mr Saunders’s extensive experience across the United Nations system, it will also consider the particularly challenging operational environment facing UNRWA, one of the UN’s largest humanitarian agencies.
Mr Christian F. Saunders has served as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Coordinator on Improving the United Nations Response to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
since September 2022. At the request of Secretary-General António Guterres, he assumed the role of Commissioner-General ad interim of UNRWA on 1 April 2026.
He brings more than 35 years of experience with non governmental organisations and the United Nations across the humanitarian, peacekeeping and development sectors. Throughout his career, he has led major organisational reforms and worked to strengthen institutional effectiveness and the delivery of results.
Mr Saunders previously served as Acting Commissioner-General of UNRWA in 2019 and held senior positions in the United Nations Department of Operational Support and Department of Management. His career began with Save the Children Fund in Sudan and Mozambique and subsequently included assignments with UNRWA in Gaza and the West Bank, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Rwanda, United Nations peacekeeping operations in Sarajevo, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
A graduate of the University of London and the University of Wales, Mr Saunders brings extensive international experience and a longstanding commitment to humanitarian action, multilateral cooperation and strengthening the effectiveness of the United Nations.
The Anna Lindh Lecture was first organised in 2005. It pays homage to the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs who was assassinated in 2003. Since then, Lund University and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law have taken the initiative of highlighting human rights matters through an annual public lecture to be given by a distinguished scholar, politician, diplomat or international toplevel civil servant.
The lecture is a collaboration between Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Anna Lindh Memorial Foundation, Lund University and Lund University’s Association of Foreign Affairs.
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Event venue
Lund University, Palaestra et odeum, Paradisgatan 4, Lund., Paradisgatan 4, SE-223 50 Lund, Sverige, Lund, Sweden
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