Biographical Note

New Permanent Representative of Switzerland Presents Credentials

 

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

Peter Maurer, the new Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations, presented his credentials today to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Maurer had served since 2000 as Ambassador and Head of the Political Affairs Division IV (Human Security) in the Political Affairs Directorate of the Government of Switzerland, a post to which he had been appointed by the Federal Council.

Mr. Maurer joined the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in 1987, training first in Bern and then in Pretoria.  From 1989-1991, he was a Diplomatic Adviser in the Political Secretariat.  He then served as Private Secretary to the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs (1991–1996).  For the next four years, until 2000, he was Deputy Permanent Observer to the Observer Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations in New York.

He studied at the University of Bern, where he earned his doctorate in humanities in 1986.

Born in Thun, Switzerland in 1956, and raised in Zollikofen (Canton of Bern), Mr. Maurer is married, with two children.

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