Secretary General

The Secretary General is the operational leader of the Amnesty International movement, acting as the movement's chief political adviser and strategist, its chief spokesperson and the chief executive officer of the International Secretariat. As such the Secretary General is responsible for developing and coordinating Amnesty International's strategies to promote and protect human rights, representing the movement to governments, inter-governmental and other organizations, the worlds media and the general public. The Secretary General is appointed by and reports to the International Executive Committee.

Amnesty International's Secretary General-designate is Salil Shetty, who will take up his functions in June 2010. He replaces Irene Khan who left at the end of 2009 after eight years in the position. Until Salil Shetty starts in June, Claudio Cordone, Senior Director for Research and Regional Programmes, is acting as interim Secretary General.

As Senior Director for Research and Regional Programmes, Claudio Cordone has been responsible for research standards and country work across five regional departments. Prior to that, he worked for Amnesty International as Senior Director for International Law and Organizations (2002 - 2004) as well as Director of its main policy unit (1994 to 2002) and as a Researcher on the Middle East and North Africa (1985 to 1994).

In 1997-1998, he took a leave of absence from Amnesty International to set up the Human Rights Office of the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in charge of conducting human rights investigations as part of the UN program of police reform in the country. He has a degree in law from Rome University, Italy, and an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University, USA. He is an Italian national.

Claudio Cordone