Biographical Note

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF UGANDA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

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

Francis Butagira, the new Permanent Representative of Uganda to the United Nations, presented his credentials today to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

From 2000 until the present, Mr. Butagira was a mediator in Sudanese peace talks sponsored by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).  Prior to that, in 1999, he led a team of Ugandan negotiators to talks that resulted in the establishment of the East African Community.  He also served in Nairobi as Uganda’s High Commissioner and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT).  In 1998, he was Uganda’s Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

A legal practitioner at the Firm of Kirenga and Butagira Advocates in Kampala from 1996 to 1997, Mr. Butagira also served as a member of his country’s National Resistance Council (Parliament of Uganda) from 1989 to 1996, where he was Chairman of the Committee of Legal and Security Affairs.  From 1981 to 1983, he was President of the Joint Assembly of the European Economic Community and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (EEC/ACP).

Mr. Butagira also served in the following positions:  Member of Parliament (1980-1985); Member of the National Consultative Council (1979-1980); High Court Judge (1974-1979); Chief Magistrate of Mbarara (1974) and of the Buganda Road Law Courts (1973); Head of the Law Department at the Law Development Centre

(1969-1970); Lecturer in Law at the Nsamizi Law School (1968); and State Attorney for the Ugandan Ministry of Justice (1967).

Mr. Butagira received his master’s degree in law from Harvard University in 1971, and his bachelor’s degree in law from Dar Es Salaam University in 1967.  He also holds a certificate in African studies from London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

Born in Bugamba, Uganda, on 22 November 1942, Mr. Butagira is married with seven children.

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