Biography
Martin Barber is a retired senior UN official. He served as director of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) at UN Headquarters from 2000 until 2005. Before that, he was chief of policy in the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
From 1996 to 1998, he was Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 1989 to 1996, he worked with the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan, serving as UN Humanitarian Coordinator in 1995-6.
He is now an analyst on humanitarian issues. Since October 2018, Martin has been a member of the International Executive Committee of United Against Inhumanity (UAI). Since June 2019, he has been Chair of the UAI Association in the UK.
Martin holds a doctorate in South-East Asian Sociology from the University of Hull. He was appointed an OBE in 2006 ‘for services to de-mining’. He is the author of Blinded by Humanity: inside the UN’s Humanitarian Operations.
His areas of expertise include humanitarian action, coordination of humanitarian aid, mine action, protection of civilians in armed conflict, and peacekeeping.
Past experience
| 2015-16 | Senior Adviser, UN OCHA |
| 2010-13 | Senior Adviser, Office for Coordination of Foreign Aid, Government of the United Arab Emirates |
| 2006-10 | Honorary Fellow, Department of Political Studies, University of Edinburgh |
| 2000-05 | Director, United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) |
| 1996-98 | Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| 1982-89 | Director, British Refugee Council |
| 1979 | Ph.D in South-East Asian Sociology, University of Hull |
| 1971 | B.Phil in South-East Asian Sociology, University of Hull |
| 1968 | MA in French Language and Literature, St Andrews University |
