PATRICIA ESPINOSA OF MEXICO ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF THIRD COMMITTEE

Biographical Note                              

        PATRICIA ESPINOSA OF MEXICO ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF THIRD COMMITTEE

Patricia Espinosa, who was elected today Chairman of the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), has been a minister responsible for human rights and social affairs at the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations since February 1993.

Mrs. Espinosa was a member of Mexico's delegation to the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995) and to the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995), and she participated actively in the preparations for those international gatherings.

Prior to her current appointment, Mrs. Espinosa was Director for International Organizations in Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  From 1989 to 1991, she was adviser to the Vice-Minister for Foreign Relations responsible for Europe, Asia, Africa and the Pacific, and the United Nations system.  In 1988, Mrs. Espinosa was adviser to the Director-in-Chief for Multilateral Affairs.

From 1982 to 1988, Mrs. Espinosa was assigned to the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations in Geneva, where she was part of her country's delegation to several meetings, including the International Conference on the Question of Palestine (1983), the second World Conference to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1983), and the seventh session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD VII).

Mrs. Espinosa holds a degree in International Relations from El Colegio de Mexico.  She also attended graduate-level courses at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva.

Born in Mexico City on 21 October 1958, Mrs. Espinosa is married and has two children.

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