Ms. Marina LAURENT joined the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations (DPPA-DPO) in April 2022 as a Liaison Officer / Political Affairs Officer in Beijing.
Since 2018, Marina has served in the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) Strategic Coordination Section in New York and led Central Asia, Afghanistan & Mongolia regional section. She also served as UNOCT Liaison Officer in Ashgabat for Central Asia and focal point on counter-terrorism cooperation with the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (RATS SCO).
Prior to UNOCT, she worked in the legal and financial sector in Switzerland as well as an expert in the area of countering the financing of terrorism and anti-money laundering performing AML/CFT compliance and audits. Marina practiced law in the area of human rights with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva. She also served in the Embassy of France in Kyrgyzstan.
Marina holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Lyon and an LLB & MLaw from Paris 1 Sorbonne and the Human Rights Institute of Lyon, UCLy, France. She speaks Estonian, Russian, French and English.