Biographical Note

PAUL BADJI OF SENEGAL CHAIRMAN OF FIRST COMMITTEE

 

Paul Badji, Permanent Representative of Senegal, was elected Chairman of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) on 24 May.  (See Press Release GA/10597.)

Before coming to New York in 2004, Mr. Badji was Senegal’s Ambassador to Germany and Austria from January 2002 to December 2003.  Based in Bonn, he also served also as Permanent Representative to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the United Nations Office at Vienna.

Between 1991 and December 2001, he was diplomatic adviser to the Prime Minister, prior to which he had served as diplomatic adviser to the President beginning in 1988.  In a previous posting to New York from 1985 to 1988, Mr. Badji was First Counsellor in his country’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

Having joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in July 1977, his first assignment was Deputy Head of the Department of International Conferences, rising to take charge of United Nations and International Conferences matters from 1979 to 1985.  A career diplomat, Mr. Badji has represented his country at some 20 regular sessions of the United Nations General Assembly, at the Organization of African Unity (OAU, now the African Union), at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and at numerous international summits, conferences and meetings.

The holder of a master’s degree in law (1975) and an advanced diploma in international law (1977) from the University of Dakar, Mr. Badji also has a diploma from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration et de Magistrateure (ENAM) (1977) and was an auditor at The Hague Academy of International Law in 1987.

Mr. Badji is fluent in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese Creole, Jola, Socé and Wolof.

Born on 28 April 1952 in Zinguinchor, Senegal, he is married with four children.

* *** *

__________

*     This supersedes Press Release BIO/3557 of 17 February 2004.

For information media • not an official record