Jan Egeland (b.1957, Stavanger, Norway, lives and works in Oslo, Norway) is the Director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). In August 2011 he will become the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Division. As Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the United Nations from 2003 to 2006, he addressed crises created by conflicts in Darfur or Lebanon and the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. During the last three decades Egeland has been active in the field of humanitarian, human rights and peace work through his work with the United Nations, the Norwegian Government, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and other non-governmental and academic institutions.