NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
Press Release
BIO/3207
NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
19981123 Biographical Note Peter Dickson Donigi, the new Permanent Representative of Papua New Guinea to the United Nations, presented his credentials to Secretary-General Kofi Annan today.Until his present appointment, Mr. Donigi was team leader of a task force on the establishment of an independent commission against corruption in his country. Mr. Donigi's career between 1981 and 1998 was primarily in private legal practice in Papua New Guinea. He was a senior partner in the largest domestic law firm in the country before leaving it in 1989. He practised on his own, handling, among others, constitutional law cases, law of associations, corporate and property law, banking, finance and securities. His preferred speciality was constitutional law, and he appeared in many important Papua New Guinea precedent-setting constitutional cases in Papua New Guinea, ranging from the constitutionality of committing troops to Vanuatu in 1981 to election petitions and to allegations of breaches of leadership code by the country's political leaders. In August 1991, he was appointed Ambassador and Special Envoy to the United Nations in New York on a short assignment, and returned to his legal practice in January 1992. In April 1992, he was appointed Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany with concurrent accreditation to the Holy See, and served until January 1995. Mr. Donigi was honoured as a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1989 for services to law and the community. In 1991, he was made a Commonwealth Fellow on the nomination of the Commonwealth Lawyers' Association, which later elected him to its Council in 1993. As president of the Papua New Guinea Law Society (for six years), he initiated amendments to the Lawyers Act to force banks in the country (after they refused to cooperate voluntarily) to pay interest on the monies held in Lawyers' Trust Accounts. The interest is paid to the Law Society's Legal Aid Fund. Mr. Donigi was educated at the University of Papua New Guinea, graduating in 1972 with a Bachelor of Law (LL.B) degree. He is the author of a book entitled "Indigenous or Aboriginal Rights to Property: A Papua New Guinea Experience" dealing with the question of land rights and ownership of resources in the country.
Born on 19 December 1950, Ambassador Donigi is married with five children. * *** *