Ivan Nielsen

Until he left the Danish diplomatic service in 2021, Ivan M. Nielsen served as Denmark’s Representative for the Syria Crisis for over eight years. He brings leadership in human rights, conflict management and peace and constitution-making processes. As a human rights adviser to South Africa’s Constitutional Assembly, he was instrumental in conceptualising a value-based constitutional process.

With the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the UN, he continued to provide value-based strategic planning and organisational development to human rights institutions across Africa, Asia and Latin America. His diplomatic focus before Syria was on state fragility and the nexus between foreign and security policy, including in senior positions in Afghanistan and Libya.