The UN chief has tapped Tressa Rae Finerty as UN deputy high commissioner for refugees, passing over a controversial White House nominee.

Tressa Rae Finerty, currently the US chargé d’affaires for the UN and other organisations in Geneva, will serve as second in command at the UN refugee agency, UNHCR  – a role traditionally held by American nationals.

Finerty’s appointment by UN secretary general António Guterres, announced on Monday, follows a report by Devex that the Trump administration had nominated Simon Hankinson last March – a Heritage Foundation analyst highly critical of the asylum system who had suggested the US withdraw from the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.

Guillaume Charron, Geneva director of the Independent Diplomat, which works with refugee-led organisations in engaging with the UNHCR, described the appointment as “a relief”, stressing it was crucial that Guterres finalise it before his term ends in December.

“It was important to get an American,” Charron added, noting that a lingering marginal question is whether they will be able to “unlock US funding”, which has historically accounted for 40 per cent of the UNHCR’s budget.

The news follows reports of Guterres – and other UN leaders – resisting White House nominations for top UN positions traditionally reserved for American nationals due to Washington’s top donor status. In April, Devex reported that the UN chief had decided to leave the appointment of the World Food Programme’s new executive director to his successor.

Leadership overhaul

Finerty, who arrived in Geneva in May 2024 to serve as deputy chief of the US mission and has previously served in diplomatic roles in New York, Malaysia, Iraq, Armenia and Thailand, was appointed in January 2025 to lead US diplomacy in Geneva while the ambassador post remained vacant. White House nominee Todd Steggerda is still awaiting Senate approval.

Finerty succeeds Kelly T. Clements, a former top US refugee and migration official nominated under the Obama administration in 2015. Meanwhile, Guterres also announced Leis García, the director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, as assistant high commissioner for operations, and Edem Wosornu, director of the UN relief agency’s crisis response division, as assistant high commissioner for protection.

Barham Salih, who assumed office as UN refugee chief last January, welcomed the appointments, saying: “Their leadership, experience and commitment will be invaluable as UNHCR responds to displacement challenges around the world.”

The leadership shake-up comes as the refugee agency grapples with persisting funding constraints. Reuters reported last month that Salih had warned staff in a letter that more job cuts were coming this year after thousands were laid off last year due to steep funding cuts from Washington and other major European donors.