Christopher Robert Paul Gunness (born 1959) is the former chief spokesperson for the

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians displaced by the 1948 ...

(UNRWA). He is currently the Director of the Myanmar Accountability Project.

Early life

Gunness was born in 1959 in what was then the Crown Colony of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

, part of the

British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Gre ...

. He was educated in England, initially at

Ardingly College Ardingly College () is an independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition located near Ardingly, West Sussex, England. The school is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and of the Woodard C ...

, before gaining a scholarship to

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1979.

BBC

He joined the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

as a graduate trainee in 1982. During his 23-year career in broadcasting, he covered all the following roles: producer, studio manager, reporter, correspondent and anchor.

UNSCO

In 2005, Gunness left the BBC to join the

United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, formerly known as the United Nations Special Coordinator (UNSCO), "represents the Secretary-General and leads the UN system in all political and diplomatic efforts related to ...

(UNSCO), which was created following the signing of the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993;

. He was a member of a UN mission mandated by the UN to halt the Lebanon war in July 2006.

UNRWA

In 2007, he was appointed Spokesman and Director of Strategic Communications at UNRWA. In 2014, during the war between Israel and

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...

in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza. ...

, he made several media appearances. On 27 July 2014 Gunness was interviewed by David Gregory on ''

Meet the Press ''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ...

''; Gregory was criticized for asking Gunness to comment on unverified video footage that Gunness was not able to see. On 30 July 2014, following a live TV interview from his office in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

with

al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazee ...

-Arabic Gunness broke down in tears discussing the shelling of the UNRWA schools in Gaza, which resulted in the death of 15 people. In 2014, Israel’s U.N. ambassador,

Ron Prosor Ron Prosor ( he, רון פרושאור; born 11 October 1958) is an Israeli diplomat, writer, and columnist. He is the Head of thAbba Eban Institute for International Diplomacyin IDC Herzliya Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy. On ...

, called for Gunness’s suspension, accusing Gunness of “an ongoing pattern of anti-Israel bias"; Gunness responded by saying: “We guard our neutrality jealously, and we have a plethora of measures that we take to guard our neutrality." This exchange took place against the backdrop of caches of rockets having been discovered at three separate UNRWA schools, and accusations by the Israeli government that UNRWA had turned over one cache of rockets to Hamas; Gunness called these allegations unsubstantiated. On December 4, 2014, in response to the Jerusalem Post's publication of a piece by Palestinian activist

Bassem Eid Bassem Eid (born 5 February 1958) is a Palestinian living in Jericho who has an extensive career as a Palestinian human rights activist. His initial focus was on human rights violations committed by Israeli armed forces, but for many years has ...

, Gunness tweeted "boycott the JPost! Don't read their lies!"; in response, the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other natio ...

issued a statement underscoring the importance that UNRWA "uphold its stated policy of neutrality." Through a spokesperson, Gunness clarified that "he was not calling for a boycott against any media outlet but instead was making his objections to a single article."

Consulting & Myanmar Advocacy

In 2019, Gunness left the U.N.; he founded the Myanmar Accountability Project, MAP, in 2021, and also runs the consultancy Tiresias Communications. In 2021, Gunness advocated on behalf of

Kyaw Zwar Minn Kyaw Zwar Minn ( my, ဦးကျော်စွာမင်း U Kyaw Zwar Minn) is a Burmese diplomat who is serving as Ambassador of Myanmar to the United Kingdom, and non-resident Ambassador to Sweden, Ireland and Denmark since 2013. In resp ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

's former ambassador to the UK, as means of undermining the legitimacy of the junta that seized power in a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, ...

earlier that year. In September, 2021, MAP assisted in producing a legal opinion regarding which ambassador would be officially credentialed to represent Myanmar at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunness, Chris 1959 births Living people People educated at Ardingly College Alumni of the University of Oxford Mass media about the Arab–Israeli conflict British officials of the United Nations