NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF LIBERIA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
Press Release
BIO/3218
NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF LIBERIA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
19990226 Biographical Note Neh Rita Sangai Dukuly-Tolbert, the new Permanent Representative of Liberia to the United Nations, today presented her credentials to Secretary- General Kofi Annan.From 1981 to 1996, Mrs. Dukuly-Tolbert was Senior Liaison Officer of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to the United Nations in New York. In that capacity, she represented UNESCO on the First (Political and Security), Third (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) and Fourth (Special Political and Decolonization) Committees of the General Assembly. Before assuming that post, Mrs. Dukuly-Tolbert was, in 1980, a consultant in the Africa Division of UNESCO covering all Anglophone countries, except Liberia, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.
In the late 1970s, Mrs. Dukuly-Tolbert held a number of diplomatic positions. In 1977, she represented her country as Ambassador to France and, concurrently, to UNESCO. In 1978, she was accredited as Ambassador to the Swiss Federation and to Spain, and, in 1974, was commissioned as First Secretary of Liberia's Permanent Delegation to UNESCO, becoming the Chargé d'affaires a year later. She was a member of the Liberian delegation to the UNESCO General Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1976, and was elected to the organization's executive board at that Conference.
Mrs. Dukuly-Tolbert has, since 1962, been very active in social work with the Red Cross, orphanages and Liberian and Catholic charities and institutions. She was a founding member of the New York-based St. Teresa's Educational Fund which had raised thousands of dollars for buildings, furniture and school supplies for St. Teresa's Convent, a well-known Catholic school in Liberia. The Fund's collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) helped raise $1.3 million. From 1992 to 1995, the United States Committee for UNICEF allocated a total of $3 million for projects in Liberia. Mrs. Dukuly-Tolbert served as the Educational Fund's President for seven years.
Fluent in English, French and Spanish, Mrs. Dukuly-Tolbert was educated in France, Spain and Switzerland. She received a diploma from the Sorbonne, Paris, in 1961. Her dissertation was on France's educational policy in French West Africa. In 1960, she obtained a diploma in Hispanic studies/culture from the University of Madrid. In the same year, she received a diploma with honours from the Rectorship of International Studies in Madrid having written a dissertation on United States policy in Liberia.
Mrs. Dukuly-Tolbert is a widow of Stephen A. Tolbert, a former Secretary of Agriculture and Minister of Finance of Liberia. She has two sons.
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