Esther Zubiri

Expert, AQ/ISIL/Taliban Monitoring Team, 1267/1989/2253 Sanctions Committee, 1988 Sanctions Committee United Nations Security Council

Esther Zubiri joined the State Attorney-General’s Office of Spain in 1998, where she has developed her professional career over twenty-five years as a State Attorney specialized in counter terrorism and its financing and sanctions regimes. Since 2022, she serves as a counter-terrorism expert at the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team pursuant to United Nations Security Council resolutions 1526 (2004) and 2253 (2015) concerning ISIL (Da'esh), Al-Qaida, and the Taliban and associated individuals and entities. Previously, she worked as a Senior Expert for Afghanistan, Central, South and Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas at the United Nations Office of Counter Terrorism (UNOCT). Formerly, she served as the Chief of Rule of Law and Human Rights at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Afghanistan. In 2012, she was appointed as the Agent of the Kingdom of Spain to the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe, representing Spain at the Committee of Experts on Terrorism (CODEXTER). She also served as a Senior Legal Specialist at Inter-American Committee against Terrorism of the Organization of American States. As State Attorney Chief, she worked at the National Court, the High Court of Justice of the Basque Country, the Central Economic-Administrative Court, the State Tax Administration Agency, and the Ministries of Justice and Interior, where she led the prosecution on several high-profile terrorist cases. She served as a counselor at the Permanent Mission of Spain to the United Nations and the Embassy of Spain in the United States of America. She holds a JD and a Master’s Degree in Law from the Comillas Pontifical University of Madrid (ICADE). She has been awarded with the Merit Cross of the Spanish National Police and the Silver Cross of the Spanish Civil Guard.