United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Christine Schraner Burgener as new special envoy to Myanmar.
The UN Secretary-General made the announcement on Thursday, report global news agencies.
The announcement came just days before the Security Country travels to Bangladesh and Myanmar for a firsthand look at the Rohingya refugee crisis.
At least 700,000 Muslim-minority Rohingya have been driven out of Myanmar since Myanmar's army launched a military operation in Rakhine state in August. Most of them are now living in crowded camps in Bangladesh.
Burgener brings over 25 years of experience in diplomacy having served in various high-level government positions in the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
Until her appointment Burgener was the Ambassador of Switzerland to the Federal Republic of Germany since 2015, according to UN Information Office in Dhaka.
From 2009 to 2015, she served as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand and led efforts to mediate between the two sides in the violence that erupted in Thailand in 2010.
Burgener has also served as Deputy Director of the Directorate of International Law, with rank of Ambassador, and Head of the International Law, Human Rights, and International Humanitarian Law Division in the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2009.
Simultaneously she served as the Coordinator for Counterterrorism on Foreign Policy and as the Secretary General of the International Humanitarian Fact Finding Commission.
