Biographical Note

Desra Percaya of Indonesia Chair of First Committee

 

Desra Percaya, Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) on 4 September.  (See Press Release GA/DIS/3450)

Mr. Percaya has served as Permanent Representative since February 2012.  Prior to that, he was his country’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was also accredited to the World Trade Organization and other international organizations based there.

Mr. Percaya has held a variety of posts related to multilateral diplomacy and international security since joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1986, most recently that of Director of International Security and Disarmament in the Directorate of Multilateral Affairs in Jakarta between 2007 and 2009.

From 2007 to 2008, he was the Ministry’s Spokesperson on United Nations Security Council issues, after having served as Spokesperson and Chief of Staff in the Office of the Minister from 2005 to 2007.  His foreign service includes previous postings at Indonesia’s Permanent Mission in New York as Head of Political Affairs/Minister Counsellor, from 2003 to 2005; and Head of Political Affairs/Counsellor from 2002 to 2003.

Between 2000 and 2002, Mr. Percaya was Special Adviser to the Director-General for Political Affairs on Aceh, in the Foreign Ministry, serving during the same period as Head of the sub-Directorate for Human Rights in the Ministry’s International Organizations Directorate.  His earliest postings to the United Nations were as an Attaché, Third Secretary and Second Secretary at Indonesia’s Permanent Mission in Geneva between 1990 and 1994.

Mr. Percaya holds a doctorate in political science from Durham University and a master’s degree in international relations from Birmingham University, both in the United Kingdom, as well as a graduate diploma from the Institute of International Studies in Geneva and a bachelor’s degree in social and political sciences from Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia.

Born in Malang, Indonesia, on 20 April 1961, he is married and has two children.

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*     This supersedes Press Release BIO/4353 of 10 February 2012.

For information media • not an official record