Agenda

His Excellency Chad Blackman, is the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva.

Ambassador Blackman has worked in the international development sector for over fifteen years, and has engaged as an international trade law specialist and development consultant respectively.Prior to his tenure in Geneva, he was Legal Consultant in a Caribbean Law Firm, where he led on issues international trade and data protection laws.

Currently, Ambassador Blackman is the Chair for the Trade and Environment Committee in the World Trade Organization (WTO)[1] and former Chair of the Trade and Development Committee.  He chairs the SIDS Group in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Americas Co-ordinator for the Government Group in the ILO, and is a UN International Gender Champion. He is an Associate member of the London based, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Ambassador Blackman, has both LLB Law and LLM International Trade Law from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. 
[1] https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres20_e/pr853_e.htm

Ambassador Tressler was appointed as Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations and other International Organizations  in Geneva in October 2019. During his carreer, he has served in Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, Ireland, Australia and as Deputy Permanent Representative at the Mission of Chile to the Organization of American States. Prior to his appointment in Geneva, Ambassador Tressler was appointed also as Chief of Protocol and Director for the International Security Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile.

Ambassador Tressler graduated from Law School of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile [Catholic University of Chile]; holds a MSc in International Relations from the University of Georgetown and a master’s degree in Law (LLM) from the University of Ottawa, plus several studies on international relations.

Ambassador Khalil Hashmi assumed his position as Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva on 10 November 2019.

Prior to his appointment in Geneva, Ambassador Hashmi served as Director General (United Nations) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ambassador Hashmi has previously held portfolios of Director General for European region, Director General Arms Control and Director for South Asian region and Disarmament Affairs.

Ambassador Hashmi’s diplomatic career includes bilateral postings at Pakistan Embassies in Copenhagen (1999-2002) and Beijing (2008-2010). He twice served at Pakistan Mission to the United Nations in New York (2004-2007) and (2012-2016), including as Deputy Permanent Representative.

Ambassador Hashmi joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan in 1994, and has worked on a range of policy issues related to arms control, counter-terrorism, human rights and climate change, among others.

Zbigniew Czech (born 30 March 1970 in Białystok) is a Polish civil servant who serves as an permanent representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva since January 2018.

Zbigniew Czech has graduated from law at the University of Warsaw, branch in Bialystok (1994) as well as postgraduate Latin American studies at the University of Warsaw (1995) and on international security policy at the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale in Paris (2014).

He started diplomatic career in 1995 at the Legal and Treaty Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has been working at the Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Poland to NATO and WEU in Brussels (1999–2003) and NATO headquarters in Brussels as legal adviser and prive officer of the Secretary General of NATO (2003–2006). In 2009 he became deputy director of the Legal and Treaty Department (MFA), and in 2012 acting director of the Dearment of the Amecias. Between 2012 and 2014 he was deputy chief of Embassy of Poland in Paris. In 2016 he was promoted to the director of the United Nations and Human Rights Department.

In January 2018 he was appointed as Permanent Representative of the Republic of Poland to the UN Office in Geneva.

Ambassador Gennady Gatilov is Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Office and Other International Organizations in Geneva, and Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the Conference on Disarmament. Prior to this appointment in January 2018, Ambassador Gatilov was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2011, and earlier, Director of the Department of International Organizations, MFA (2008-2011), Senior Adviser at the UN Secretary General’s Executive Office (2004-2008), and First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN (1999-2004). He is a graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and is fluent in English and Arabic.

H.E. Marie Chantal RWAKAZINA is the Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to Switzerland and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other International Organizations in Geneva.
Prior to her appointment to Geneva, Ms. Rwakazina had been serving as the Mayor of the City of Kigali from 2018 to 2019.

She served as a United Nations Coordination Analyst with the United Nations Development Programme/One UN in Kigali from 2013 to 2018.

She worked at the Rwanda Association of Local Government Authorities from 2008 to 2013, first as a Capacity Building Expert, and then as its Deputy Secretary General.

Ms. Rwakazina worked at the National University of Rwanda in Huye from 2000 to 2008, first as an Assistant Lecturer at the Faculty of Economics, and then as Head of the Department of Applied Statistics.

In 2003 and 2004, she was a Visiting Assistant Lecturer at the Faculty of Development Studies, Université Catholique de Kabgayi Muhanga, Rwanda.

Ms. Rwakazina has a master’s degree in development studies from the Fondation Universitaire Luxembourgeoise, Arlon, Belgium (2001-2003), and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the National University of Rwanda, Huye (1995-2000).

Ambassador Sabri BACHTOBJI was appointed Permanent Representative of Tunisia to the United Nations Office and other Intemational Organizations in Geneva, in March 2020

He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1989.

Assigned to Rome (Italy) and Madrid (Spain), he was appointed on March 22,2010 as Consul General of Tunisia in Lyon (France).

In April 2013, he was appointed Ambassador of Tunisia to Brazil, before becoming, on August 27,2016, State Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

On October 29, he was appointed acting Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Born October 3, 1963, in Menzel Temime, Ambassador BACHTOBJI has a master's degree in Arabic, French and Spanish as well as a master's degree in law from the Faculty of Political and Social Legal Sciences in Tunis.

He is fluent in six languages: Arabic, French, English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.

Aurora Diaz-Rato Revuelta serves as the Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations Office at Geneva. 

Prior to her appointment, Ms. Diaz-Rato Revuelta had been serving as Spain’s Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein since 2017. She was Spain’s Permanent Representative to the European Union in Brussels and Coordinator for Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2017, and worked at the office of Spain’s Secretary of State for the European Union as a Counsellor from 2012 to 2013. She was Spain’s Ambassador to Uruguay from 2008 to 2012.

A career diplomat, Ms. Diaz-Rato Revuelta worked at the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation as Director General for cooperation with Latin America from 2004 to 2008. From 2001 to 2004, she worked at the General Secretariat for European affairs, General Direction for the coordination of general and technical affairs of the European Union, as a Deputy Director-General. She was posted at the Embassy of Spain in Dublin, Ireland as Deputy Chief from 1996 to 2001, and at the Embassy of Spain in San Jose, Costa Rica as Deputy Chief from 1987 to 1991. She joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain in 1983.

Ms. Diaz-Rato Revuelta has a law degree, a diploma in European law from the College of Europe in Bruges, and a diploma in international affairs from the Diplomatic School in Madrid. She was born in Madrid in 1957.

Simon Manley has just arrived as UK Permanent Representative to the WTO and UN in Geneva. A 30-year veteran of the UK Diplomatic Service, he was most recently a Director General in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, leading the UK’s international response to the Covic-19 pandemic. He was UK Ambassador to Spain and Andorra for almost six years from 2013-2019 and has previously been seconded to both the European Commission and the Council of the European Union. His first posting was to the UK Mission to the UN in New York (1993-1999). He was educated at Oxford and Yale Universities.