Luis Alfonso de Alba

Luis Alfonso de Alba is a Mexican diplomat since 1983. He was appointed Ambassador on December 2001, and since 2004, he has been the Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva.

Throughout his career, he has participated in numerous multilateral meetings, both at the global and regional levels, which has allowed him to gain substantive knowledge on the work and functioning of multilateral organizations, particularly those of the United Nations. In these fora, he has actively pursued the advancement of human rights and humanitarian issues, including through the strengthening and improvement of the relevant international mechanisms.

On 19 May 2006, he was unanimously elected first President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, a mandate he held from19 June 2006 to 18 June 2007. During that period, the Council was entrusted by the General Assembly to design the new institutions of the international human rights system, while at the same time fulfilling its mandate to protect and promote human rights, in order avoid a protection vacuum. Under Ambassador De Alba’s Presidency, the Council was able to successfully achieve its task.

Previously, he was Chairman of the Council of the International Organization for Migrations (IOM) at its 88th and 89th Sessions (November 2004 to November 2005). During his tenure, he undertook broad consultations leading to a comprehensive proposal for a new strategy to further improve the work and functioning of IOM and to develop a new paradigm on migration placing the rights of migrants at its core.

Ambassador De Alba was also Chairman of the Disarmament and International Security Committee (First Committee) of the General Assembly during its 59th Session (2004). Under his chairmanship, the Committee approved an initiative for the revitalization of its work, and in particular for the strengthening of dialogue and cooperation to advance the Committee’s agenda.

From February 2002 to March 2004 Ambassador De Alba was Deputy Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations in New York. In that context, he actively promoted the Mexican initiative to elaborate the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, including the establishment of the negotiating Committee. He also pursued and achieved several measures that granted full participation of civil society, and particularly of persons with disabilities, in the elaboration of the Treaty.

Since 2002 he promoted the yearly General Assembly resolution on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, a first step that, combined with the resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Council, led to the establishment of the Special Rapporteur of the Council on that matter. In his capacity as Deputy Permanent Representative to the Security Council during that period, those efforts were accompanied by the promotion of human rights within the Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC) of the Security Council.

Ambassador De Alba was General Director for the United Nations System of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 2001. Among other tasks, he coordinated the participation of the Mexican Delegations to different international meetings, in particular the Durban Conference against Racism and the Special Session of the General Assembly on Children.

He also participated in the Mexican Delegation to the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (2001), where he promoted a multidimensional approach in order to include humanitarian and human rights concerns. Also, Mr. De Alba took part in the negotiations of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Optional Protocols on trafficking in persons; smuggling of migrants; and the illicit manufacturing and trafficking in firearms.

From 1994 to 1998, he was Deputy Permanent Representative of Mexico to the Organization of American States (OAS), where he promoted important initiatives on human rights, the rule of law and humanitarian issues. Among them, the negotiation of the Inter-American Convention on the Elimination of Violence against Women. He also worked in the preparation of the Summits of the Americas (Miami, 1994 and Santiago, 1998)

As Director for Social Issues of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1991 to 1994), he participated in the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna), as well as in the 48th and 49th Sessions of the Commission on Human Rights, in which he worked mainly on the situation of Human Rights in El Salvador.

Lastly, From 1983 to 1986, he was assigned to the Mexican Mission to the UN in New York, where he was responsible of the Decolonization Committee and member of the Council for Namibia. He also followed different political matters, including the peace process in Central America (Contadora Group), the situation in the Middle East and the fight against Apartheid [ [http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/bio3598.doc.htm Luis Alfonso De Alba Of Mexico Chairman Of First Committee on Disarmament and International Security] ]

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