Professor Nicholas Haysom was Nelson Mandela's legal advisor between 1994 and 1999. He was appointed Director of Political Affairs at the UN in 2007 immediately following his stint as Head of the Office of Constitutional Support in the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) from April 2005 to August 2006.   Haysom was closely involved in the constitutional negotiations leading up to the interim and final Constitutions in South Africa. He has served as a consultant on projects on constitutional reform, electoral reform, conflict resolution, good governance, federalism and democracy-strengthening in Lebanon, Nigeria, Indonesia, Philippines, East Timor, Sudan, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Lesotho, Colombia, Congo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Nepal, Myanmar and Iraq.   Haysom has written on constitutional, human rights and related matters in various academic publications and is the co-author of Fundamental Rights in the Constitution: Commentary and Cases, and South African Constitutional Law: the Bill of Rights. His most recent writing has been on conflict resolution and constitutional reform.

Nicholas Haysom was a Counsellor at One Young World Summits: 2010 in London.