Van Daalen was born in Amsterdam in 1960. She attended the University of Amsterdam where she obtained a Master’s degree in Modern Asian History. She already had graduate degrees in International Law and Art History and Archaeology.[1]
In 1988 she joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and after a training year she spent two years in South Korea. She returned to The Hague in 1991 and rose to join the Dutch Permanent Mission to the United Nations as a First Secretary in 1996. She spent three years in Miami and more time at The Hague before being appointed the Dutch Ambassador to Germany in 2013.[2]
She became the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of The Netherlands to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva in 2013. She was in this role in 2017[3] when she spoke on behalf of several European delegations to send delegates chosen by Zeid Raad Al Hussein to investigate human rights violations committed in Yemen's war.[4]
