Dr. Jamal Benomar is Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General, at the level of Assistant Secretary-General, and served since April 2011 as the UN envoy to Yemen. Prior to this, he was the Director of rule of law in the Office of the Secretary-General and interim Director of the Peace Building Support Office. He served also as the Chef de Cabinet of the President of the General Assembly and was for several years Special Adviser at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). His work in UNDP focused on peace building, governance and rule of law issues in conflict countries. He worked also for four years as the Chief of Technical Cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 1990, he was appointed as a Director at the Carter Center of Emory University where he worked with former President Carter on human rights, mediation and conflict resolution issues. 

His academic background is in international law, economics and political science. He studied in Morocco and at the Sorbonne in Paris before completing his Doctorate at the University of London. 

Dr. Benomar has advised on rule of law, governance, peacebuilding and conflict resolution issues in over 30 countries, having served in Afghanistan and Iraq among other countries. In mid-2004 he was the UN Secretary-General’s envoy to facilitate the National Dialogue Conference in Iraq. In November 2011, he was the UN mediator in the negotiations that led to the signing in Riyadh of the agreement on the Yemeni transition. He has authored numerous publications dealing with governance, rule of law, constitution making and peace building issues.