Quick Facts
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William Lacy Swing (born September 11, 1934 in Lexington, North Carolina) is the Director General of the International Organization for Migration. He is a diplomat and former United States Ambassador, and United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Under Secretary General.
Education
Swing graduated from Catawba College in North Carolina (Bachelor of Arts). He received his Bachelor of Divinity from Yale University. He did post-graduate studies at the University of Tübingen in Germany. He was a Fellow at Harvard University from 1976 to 1977.
He holds an honorary degree from Hofstra University (Doctor of Humane Letters), and is an Honorary Fellow of Harris Manchester College, Oxford.
He speaks fluent French and German.
Ambassadorial posts
- United States Ambassador to the People's Republic of the Congo (1979–81) (People's Republic of the Congo)
- United States Ambassador to Liberia (1981–85)
- United States Ambassador to South Africa (1989–92)
- United States Ambassador to Nigeria (1992–93)
- United States Ambassador to Haiti (1993–98)
- United States Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1998–2001)
United Nations
Western Sahara
Swing served as UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Western Sahara from 2001–2003. He was Chief of Mission for the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Swing then successfully led all facets of the largest UN peacekeeping operation in history in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (May 2003 - January 2008). He was appointed as Special Representative of the Secretary General to the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), with the rank of Under Secretary General. MONUC, now known as MONUSCO (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo), is the UN’s largest peace operation. The Mission is engaged in the peace process and providing security support to the country as it seeks to end armed conflict in the war torn eastern part of the Congo.
International Organization for Migration
In June 2008 Swing was elected Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). In early 2017, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed him to the 9-member High-Level Task Force to Improve the United Nations Approach for Preventing and Addressing Sexual Abuse.
Awards
He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy. In 2012, he received the American Foreign Service Association’s Award for Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy.