George Okoth-Obbo has served as UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Operations since 2015. He joined UNHCR in 1984 as an Associate Protection Officer in Botswana (1984-1987). He then served in a variety of positions around the world in countries such as Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Zambia before being reassigned to UNHCR headquarters. Okoth-Obbo then became the Director of the organization’s Division of International Protection Services. He held this position until being appointed as the Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa, also at UNHCR headquarters, a position he took up on July 1, 2009. He served in this position until his latest appointment as Assistant High Commissioner for Operations. Before joining UNHCR, Okoth-Obbo was a lecturer in law at the Law Development Centre and the Faculty of Law at Makerere University.

Okoth-Obbo holds his Bachelor’s Degree in Law from Uganda’s Makerere University, his Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre in the same country, and his Masters in Law from the University of Nairobi in Kenya. Okoth-Obbo is a national from Uganda.