Karen Burbach

Karen Burbach (she/her) is the head of the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Taskforce of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Karen started her diplomatic career at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2000 at the Human Rights Department. In 2004, she took up her first overseas posting at the Netherlands Embassy in Beijing, PRC, as second secretary focusing on human rights. From 2008 until 2012, Karen was back in The Hague at the Ministry working on European Integration – more specifically on the Justice and Home Affairs Council and EU-wide rule of law. In August 2012, Karen took up her posting as First Secretary at the political department of the Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D.C., US, working on human rights and on European Affairs.

From 2017 until 2021, Karen was in Brussels, Belgium at the Netherlands Permanent Representation to the EU where she focused on EU Enlargement, more specifically the Western Balkans countries and Turkey. Karen is married and has three daughters.

Follow Karen on X (formeTly witter) @BurbachKaren.