NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ECUADOR PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

Biographical Note                                           BIO/3416

                                                            16 April 2002

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ECUADOR PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

Luis Benigno Gallegos Chiriboga, the new Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations, presented his credentials to Secretary-General Kofi Annan today.

Mr. Gallegos, who began his foreign service career in 1969 as a general assistant in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Organization of American States Department, is taking up his new position after having served since January 2002 as Ambassador Designate, Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations.

Prior to that posting, from 1997 to 2000, Mr. Gallegos was his country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva.  From 1994 to 1997, he served as Ecuador’s Ambassador to El Salvador.  Mr. Gallegos’ other foreign postings include as Minister, from 1985 to 1989, in the Ecuadorian Embassy in Bulgaria, and as Counsellor, from 1979 to 1980, in the Embassy of Ecuador in the United States.  From 1975 to 1978, he served as Ecuador’s Consul-General in Chicago, United States.  He was the Alternative Representative of Ecuador to the Organization of American States from 1978 to 1979.

From 1984 to 1994, Mr. Gallegos held the position of Director-General in his country’s Foreign Ministry with responsibility for a succession of areas, including:  International Projects; Eastern Europe; Information and Press; and Technical Cooperation and External Credit.

In addition to representing his country at many international conferences, Mr. Gallegos served as Vice-Chairman of the Human Rights Commission, Geneva, 1998; Vice-Chairman of the General Assembly of the Parties to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 1997 to 1999; Chairman of the Second Main Committee of the Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of a New Act of the Hague Agreement, WIPO, Geneva, 1999; Vice-Chairman of the Group of 77 Meeting, Morocco, 1999; and Chairman of the Berne Union, 1999-2001.

Mr. Gallegos received a Master of Arts from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in 1983.  He also holds a diploma from the Institute of Advanced National Studies, Ninth Course on Security and Development. He received both his law degree and his Doctorate in Jurisprudence from the Universidad Central, Ecuador, in 1975.

Born in December 1946 in Quito, Mr. Gallegos is married with two children.

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