FRANCIS BUTAGIRA OF UGANDA THIRD COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN

Biographical Note

FRANCIS BUTAGIRA OF UGANDA THIRD COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN

Francis Butagira, the Permanent Representative of Uganda to the United Nations, was elected Chairman of the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) on 13 June.

Mr. Butagira became his country’s Permanent Representative in July 2003 after serving from 2000 as the mediator in Sudanese peace talks sponsored by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).  In 1999, he led a team of Ugandan negotiators in talks leading to the establishment of the East African Community.  He served in Nairobi as Uganda’s High Commissioner and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and to 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) in Addis Ababa.

Prior to his diplomatic assignments, Mr. Butagira was Chairman of the Legal and Security Affairs Committee in Uganda’s National Resistance Council (Parliament) from 1989 to 1996.  He was a Member of Parliament between 1980 and 1985, and from 1981 to 1983, he served as President of the Joint Assembly of the European Economic Community and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (EEC/ACP).

He was a member of the National Consultative Council from 1979 to 1980 and a High Court judge between 1974 and 1979.  In 1974, he was Chief Magistrate of Mbarara, and in 1973, of the Buganda Road Law Courts.  He headed the Law Department at the Law Development Centre in 1969 and 1970, lectured in Law at the Nsamizi Law School in 1968 and served as State Attorney for the Ugandan Ministry of Justice in 1967.

Mr. Butagira was educated at Dar es Salaam University College, Harvard University and London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

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

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*     This supersedes Press Release BIO/3508 dated 18 July 2003.

For information media • not an official record