Elinor Jane Britt Hammarskjöld (born 4 November 1967)[1] is a Swedish lawyer and diplomat who has served as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel since 2025.
[2] A member of the Hammarskjöld family, she was born in Rome, Italy,[1] in 1967 to the diplomat Peder Hammarskjöld (1923−1994) and Elizabeth Richardson (born 1928).
Her grandfather, the diplomat Åke Hammarskjöld, was an older brother of the United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, and her great-grandfather Hjalmar Hammarskjöld was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1914 to 1917.
[1][2] Hammarskjöld joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1994, serving in various capacities in Sweden and abroad, including as ambassador to Israel from 2010 to 2013.
[1][2] In 2025 she was appointed United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, succeeding Miguel de Serpa Soares of Portugal.