and French Foreign Minister
Jean-Marc Ayrault in 2016 Uzra Zeya worked as a diplomat in the
U.S. Foreign Service for 27 years. During the
Obama administration, Zeya served as the acting assistant secretary and principal deputy assistant secretary in the
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. She also worked in the
Embassy of the United States, Paris, from 2014 to 2017. In 2013, Zeya was suspected to have been involved in the arrest of Indian diplomat
Devyani Khobragade. Zeya was accused of helping evacuate the
domestic help's kin out of India, just two days prior to Khobragade's arrest. In 2018, Zeya wrote in
Politico wrote that she left the State Department after not being promoted because she did not pass the Trump administration's "Breitbart test" due to her race and gender. From 2019 through 2021, Zeya served as the president and CEO of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, a network of organizations working to end violent conflict worldwide. Zeya also worked for the
Albright Stonebridge Group, a Washington, D.C.–based consulting firm co-founded by former secretary of state
Madeleine Albright.
Biden administration Special Envoy
Angelina Jolie in 2022 President
Joe Biden nominated Zeya to be
Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights in March 2021. The
Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on her nomination on April 15, 2021. The committee favorably reported the nomination to the
U.S. Senate on April 21, 2021. Zeya was confirmed on July 13, 2021, by a vote of 73–24, and assumed office on July 14. On December 20, 2021, Zeya was designated by Secretary of State
Antony Blinken to serve concurrently as the United States special coordinator for
Tibetan issues. Zeya met with Tibetan exile leader
Penpa Tsering in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2022, in the first of a series of meetings to promote freedoms in Tibet.
Later career In April 2025, Zeya was announced as the next President and CEO of
Human Rights First, a leading international human rights organization founded in 1978 to advance freedom and protect rights. == References ==