Elizabeth Spehar

Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) in Cyprus and Head of UNFICYP 

SRSG Spehar succeeded Lisa. M Buttenheim, who completed her assignment on 10 June 2016.

SRSG Spehar has extensive political experience in several senior positions with the United Nations Department of Political Affairs since 2007, where she has previously served as the Director of the Policy and Mediation Division, Director for the Americas and Europe Division and Director of the Europe Division, engaging extensively on key political issues facing the region.

Prior to joining the United Nations, Ms. Spehar was a senior official with the Organization of American States for over 12 years, working on promoting democracy and developing the Organization’s instruments for dialogue and conflict resolution.

She holds a B.A. Honours Degree from Queen’s University, Canada; a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Canada, and a Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures from the University of Pau, France.

She was born in Port Arthur, Canada, and has a daughter. 

Force Commander of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus 

Major General Cheryl Pearce of Australia succeeded Major General Mohammad Humayun Kabir of Bangladesh as Force Commander of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).

Major General Pearce has had a distinguished career in the Australian Defence Force, most recently as Commandant of the Australian Defence Force Academy (since 2017), which provides undergraduate and postgraduate education as well as military training and education for future leaders of the Navy, Army and Air Force. In 2016, Major General Pearce was the Commander of the Australian Joint Task Force Group in Afghanistan providing training, advice and assistance to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces as part of the Resolute Support Mission of The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). 

From 2013 to 2016, she served as the Australian Army Headquarters Chief of Staff and, from 2010 to 2012, as Director of Special Operations Support.  She also held the positions of Commandant of the Defence Police Training Centre and Commanding Officer of the 1^st Military Police Battalion. Major General Pearce was also the Australian Army’s Provost-Marshal and a military observer with the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor in 2002.

Major General Pearce holds a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies from the University of New England in Armidale, a Master’s in Policing, Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism from the Macquarie University in Sydney and a Masters of Arts in Defence Studies from the Deakin University in Melbourne.

Major General Pearce was born in South Australia. She has a partner and two daughters.
 

Chief Superintendent Fang LI

Senior Police Adviser

United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP)

Mrs Fang LI is a senior police officer with 25 years law enforcement serving experience in Shanghai, China. Ranking as chief superintendent, she has extensive managing background in different departments of Shanghai police force, from public order management to command and control, from immigration to traffic with areas various in training, human resource, strategic planning.

She has accumulated rich experience in community-oriented policing and intelligence-led policing. In 2008 Mrs Fang  LI served in MINUSTAH for 12 months as personnel officer including 3 months as acting chief of personnel. She was chief of Liaison Office during 2010 World EXPO in Shanghai China. After that, she had her second Master degree in Australian in 2012 and graduated with Distinction. In 2018 and 2019, she participated United Nations Female Senior Police Leadership Roaster training in Malaysia and United Nations Police Command Course in German. Mrs Fang  LI holds a Master’s of Art in Transnational Crime Prevention (University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia, 2012), a Master’s in Law in social science (East China University of Politics Science And Law, Shanghai, China, 2005), and a Bachelor in Law (East China University of Politics Science And Law, Shanghai, China, 1994).

She had national-sponsored scholarship for Sweden as a visiting fellow of 12 months in 2003. Mrs LI is married and with one son.

Heads of Mission /Special Representatives

* In August 1994, in connection with the change of command from Major-General Minehane to Brigadier-General Vartiainen, Mr. Clark became Chief of Mission. The function of Chief of Mission reflects a unified arrangement for the United Nations operation in Cyprus and includes UNFICYP. In the absence of the Special Representative, the Deputy Special Representative assumed this function.

UNFICYP Force Commander history