UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Monday appointed Kyung-wha Kang of South Korea to replace Catherine Bragg of Canada as the deputy head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Announcing the new Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator of OCHA, the UN chief in a statement acknowledged Catherine Bragg for her commitment and dedication to humanitarian issues while being the deputy head of OCHA.

Since January 2007, Kyung-wha Kang has served as the Deputy UN High Commissioner for Human Rights where she was responsible for the overall management of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

"Ms. Kang also led the establishment of OHCHR's support structure for the Universal Periodic Review and chaired the United Nations Development Group's Human Rights Mainstreaming mechanism," Ban Ki-moon said in a statement released by the UN office.

She was the Director-General of the International Organization at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea before joining the United Nations.

Replacing Catherine, Kang will now work under the aegis of Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinatorm, Valerie Amos.

Catherine Bragg, the outgoing deputy head of OCHA was appointed to this position by the United Nations Chief, Ban Ki-moon December 2007.

Prior to joining the UN, Catherine Bragg had worked in various capacities in the government of Canada's federal public service including the office of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) where she worked as the Director-General of the Humanitarian Assistance, Peace and Security Programme for several years.

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