CHRIS MOUGNE

Chris Mougne, 73, was born in Liverpool and now lives in France. She worked for UNHCR from 1986 to 2008. Starting in Kinshasa, she then worked in Bangkok on solutions for the Vietnamese boat people and the repatriation of Cambodian refugees from the Thai-Cambodian border. She also served in Guinea as Deputy Representative, on emergency preparedness efforts before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and she ended her career as a staff mediator and UNHCR Ombudsman. Since retiring, Chris has undertaken deployments and consultancies focusing on child protection, gender equality and the empowerment of women including in Burundi, Djibouti, and South East Asia.

I spent 22 years doing fascinating, stimulating and satisfying work and being in some of the most remote places and meeting extraordinary people. This was such a privilege.

One incident that still marks Chris was in Macenta, a remote field office close to the Liberian border in Guinea, where a colleague was shot dead during a border raid in 2000 by rebels from Liberia. “The following days were horrendous as we sought to evacuate our staff from the vulnerable border areas as fighting intensified. We also had to get the body of our colleague back to Conakry, while driving through insecure areas,” she said. A safe evacuation ensued but stress levels ran high and many colleagues were left deeply disturbed and traumatized.

© Chris Mougne

Reflecting on her career with UNHCR, Chris Mougne said, 'Despite the many battles and difficulties faced, I wouldn't have missed it for the world.'

For Chris, one of many career highlights came in 1997 in Somaliland when an inspection mission coincided with the arrival of the first repatriation convoy of Somali refugees from Jijiga, Ethiopia. “Hundreds of relatives were gathered for their arrival and there was a mounting sense of excitement which transformed into wails and tears of joy as the trucks arrived and returnees jumped down and ran into the arms of their loved ones,” she said.“There was so much emotion. Voluntary repatriation and family reunion are definitely the best parts of working with refugees.”

Looking ahead, Chris says UNHCR needs to develop a strong institutional memory as opportunities to apply lessons from the past in different regions and operations can be lost. “I spent 22 years doing fascinating, stimulating and satisfying work and being in some of the most remote places and meeting extraordinary people. This was such a privilege,” she said. “Despite the many battles and difficulties faced, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”