Niels Peters Williams

Niels Peters Williams

Niels Peters Williams is an Associate Programme Officer at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), based at the UNODC Regional Office for Eastern Africa in Nairobi. He works across the Global Maritime Crime Programme (GMCP) and supports UNODC’s broader work on maritime security, transnational organized crime, environmental crime and ocean governance.

Niels coordinates the implementation and programming of GMCP’s maritime law enforcement activities in the Western Indian Ocean, working with national maritime law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, judicial authorities and other government counterparts to strengthen operational, institutional and legal capacities to address maritime crime. He also coordinates UNODC’s engagement on the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement, with a particular focus on the links between ocean governance, compliance, enforcement and criminal justice, and contributes to wider international processes on maritime security and ocean governance.
Before joining UNODC, Niels worked at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Kenya, where he focused on marine biodiversity conservation and ocean-related issues.

Niels holds an undergraduate degree in International Relations from the University of Edinburgh and a Master’s degree in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He speaks English, Spanish, Dutch and French, and has limited proficiency in Arabic.