Former UNDP Head and New Zealand PM Helen Clark on Trip to Gaza: ‘A Genocide Is Unfolding’

Clark, who is a member of The Elders, visited the Rafah border crossing earlier this month, along with former Irish president Mary Robinson.

A delegation from The Elders, a global organization advocating for peace, including Mary Robinson, former President of The Elders and former President of Ireland, and Helen Clark, Member of The Elders and former Prime Minister of New Zealand, with an official from the Egyptian Red Crescent, in front of the Rafah border crossing speaking to a truck driver whose aid shipment was rejected by Israel at the Kerem Shalom crossing at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza on Aug. 11, 2025. Ali Moustafa/Getty Images

The former head of the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), Helen Clark, has returned from visiting Gaza and described the “enormous suffering” she saw there.

Also a former prime minister of New Zealand, Clark made the trip as a member of The Elders, a group of global leaders founded in 2007 by Nelson Mandela. She was accompanied by former U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights and past president of Ireland, Mary Robinson.