Japan's Sadako Ogata, the first woman appointed to head the UN's refugee agency, has died at the age of 92, Japan's foreign aid agency said Tuesday. As UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ogata was widely respected for her efforts to help refugees and internally displaced people around the world and emphasised making visits to conflict zones during her tenure from 1991-2000.
She worked to help Kurdish refugees from Iraq after the Gulf War and was also known for tackling the refugee crises in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
She was credited with reestablishing UNHCR's credibility and was even touted as a potential successor to former UN chief Boutrous Boutrous-Ghali.
A petite woman with a calm demeanour, she won special praise for her tough action in former Yugoslavia where she managed to draw the world's attention to humanitarian issues despite bitter political disputes among Western countries.
She also served as the head of her country's development aid organisation Japan International Cooperation Agency from 2003 through 2012.
She was known as a passionate advocate for the rights of refugees, urging understanding and compassion for their plight. Ogata died on October 22, but her death was only announced publicly on Tuesday.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019
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