Durga Prasad Bhattarai of Nepal Chair of Fourth Committee

Durga Prasad Bhattarai, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization Committee) on 18 June 2014.  (See Press Release GA/11525.)

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Bhattarai was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kathmandu since September 2011.  Between 2005 and 2009, he served as Ambassador to Sri Lanka, with concurrent accreditation to the Maldives.

Beginning in 1986, Mr. Bhattarai worked as Section Officer for monitoring and evaluation of development policies at his Government’s Cabinet Secretariat.  In 1990, he joined the National Planning Commission Secretariat as Section Officer for Economic Policy Analysis, Research, Colombo Plan and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.  Beginning in 1993, he headed those sections, as well as the section for foreign aid coordination as Under-Secretary of the National Planning Commission Secretariat.

From December 2002 to June 2005, Mr. Bhattarai was Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and head of its United Nations, International Organizations and International Law Division, serving concurrently as Ministry Spokesman from June 2004.  During the same period, he took charge of the division responsible for South Asia and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

While serving as Joint Secretary and head of the Ministry’s North and South-east Asia and the Pacific Division between January 1998 and December 2002, Mr. Bhattarai served also as Minister/Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.

From 1996 to 1997, Mr. Bhattarai was the Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce responsible for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Trade Organization and Trade with Neighbouring Countries, as well as Focal Point for the SAARC Agreement on Preferential Trading Arrangement.  In February 1995, he was appointed Under-Secretary for Policy Planning and Evaluation in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Mr. Bhattarai holds a non-collegiate bachelor’s degree in law and a master’s degree in business administration from Tribhuvan University in Nepal.

He is married and has two children.

*     This supersedes Press Release BIO/4515 of 19 August 2013.