REMEMBERING UN REFUGEE CHIEF.
Hailed for work in East Timor, Yugoslavia
Sadako Ogata, who has died aged 92, was the popular head of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) from 1991 to 2000, when she won widespread praise for her dynamic leadership of the underfunded organization during the most testing period of its existence.
The first woman to be appointed to the post, she emerged as the leading defender of the UN system in trouble spots as far-flung as the Congo, East Timor and the former Yugoslavia. She proved a strong decision-maker, and at one time was considered a contender to succeed Boutros Boutros-Ghali as UN secretary-general.
When she first arrived, the agency was badly demoralized. One recent former commissioner, Jean-Pierre Hocke, had departed under a cloud of scandal, and his successor, Thorvald Stoltenberg, had resigned within months of his appointment. The appointment of a professor of international relations seemed unlikely to dispel the gloom.
Three days after her arrival, Ogata was confronted with her first emergency: the sudden exodus of one 1.5 million Kurds fleeing from Saddam Hussein’s forces over snow-clad mountains into Turkey and Iran. Turkey was pushing them back, while Iran had few facilities and was reluctant to allow in the international relief agencies.
Ogata acted swiftly. The only option, she decided, was to convince the refugees to return to Iraq, where the UN would take care of their basic needs. It was the genesis of the “safe haven” concept.
The crisis in Iraq was followed by the crisis in Yugoslavia, Ethiopia, Somalia, Burundi and Rwanda.
Ogata set up new procedures to enable the agency to respond to crises within hours, and she insisted on a flexible interpretation of the UN Convention on Refugees so that the agency could help more people.
She was born Sadako Nakamura in Tokyo on Sept. 16, 1927. Her father, Toyoichi Nakamura, was a diplomat and her mother, Tsuneko Yoshizawa, was the granddaughter of a prime minister.
After taking a degree in English Literature at an affiliated university, she took a master’s degree at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington and a PhD in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
Returning to Japan, she married Shijiro Ogata, who would become a prominent banker, had two children and began a career at Sophia University in Tokyo. In 1968 she was appointed to the UN General Assembly session, soon she was given ambassadorial status, followed by a series of jobs for the UN Secretary-General.
Sadako Ogata’s husband died in 2014. Their son and daughter survive her.