Former chief of UN agency dies

The first woman head of the United Nations refugee agency has died aged 92. Sadako Ogata, born Sadako Nakamura in Tokyo, was the granddaughter of a prime minister, and her father Toyoichi Nakamura was a diplomat.

She was brought up Roman Catholic and spent her early years in the United States, China and Hong King.

She graduated from the University of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo and went on to study at Georgetown University, Washington DC.

Ogata took up the post at the headquarters of the United

Nations as High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva in February 1991.

It is said she was frequently underestimated by her colleagues, partly because she was a woman – a time when few women occupied senior UN positions.

However, Ogata proved her fellow workers wrong when she flew to the mountains in northern Iraq to hear first-hand accounts from refugees trying to escape to Iran or Turkey during the aftermath of the Gulf War.

From Iraq she flew to Iran and Turkey to seek their cooperation, and succeeded. She made an impression on the Tehran Times, which described her – she stood at just under 5ft – as “the diminutive giant”.

Ogata is remembered for having broken the gender barrier at a major UN agency and her experience among the Kurdish refugees.

She called senior staff on a Saturday for a debrief, where she announced unilaterally that in future UNHCR would help not only refugees crossing borders but also those displaced internally by conflict.

Ogata was known for working on the ground, walking in a flak jacket and helmet through the streets of Sarajevo during the Balkan crisis.

In 2000, she left UNHCR and returned to Japan, where she became the head of the Japan International Co-operation Agency, the government body responsible for aid to developing countries.

She was a frequent critic of the Japanese government for failing to provide sanctuary for refugees from Syria and other conflicts.

Ogata is survived by her son, Atsushi, and daughter, Akiko.

Sadako Ogata was called ‘the diminutive giant’