New Permanent Representative of Mozambique Pays Courtesy Call on Secretary-General

(Based on information provided by the Protocol and Liaison Service)

The new Permanent Representative of Mozambique to the United Nations, Pedro Comissário Afonso, paid a courtesy call on UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.  He earlier presented his credentials to the Secretariat on 8 December.  (See Press Release BIO/5354.)

Before his latest appointment, Mr. Afonso was his country’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation since February 2020, prior to which he served as Director of the Central Bureau for the Prevention and Combat against Drugs between February 2019 and January 2020.

Between 2012 and 2018, Mr. Afonso was Mozambique’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.  He served concurrently as Permanent Representative to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna and Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation.  From 2006 to 2012, he was Ambassador to the Nordic countries, based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Mr. Afonso was a member of the International Law Commission between 2002 and 2016, serving as President in the latter year.

He earned a post-graduate degree in international law and international relations from Columbia University, United States, in 1994, and a master’s degree in international law and constitutional law from the same institution in 1991.

Mr. Afonso was born in Caia, Sofala Province, Mozambique, on 18 September 1957.