Chairman of the Group of the Landlocked Developing Countries

         His Excellency Cheick Sidi DIARRA

Permanent Representative and Plenipotentiary
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Mali to the United Nations

PROFILE (French)

Personal Data

Date and Place of Birth: 31 May 1957, Kayes, Mali
Marital Status: Married, with two children

Education

- 1963-1970 : Ecole fondamentale de Kidal;
- 1970-1972 : Ecole fondamentale de Ségou;
- 1973-1974 : Lycée de Banankoro (Ségou);
- 1974-1976 : Baccalauréat option philo-langues, Lycée de Badalabougou (Bamako);
- October 1976 - June 1980: Masters in Public International Law and International Relations, Department of Law and Economics, Dakar University, Senegal.

Professional experience

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mali
January – April 1981: Agent, Division for cultural and social cooperation, Department of international cooperation;
April 1981 – July 1985: Agent, then Section Chief, Legal Affairs Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation;
• General Secretariat of the Government of the Republic of Mali
July 1985 - 1987: Counselor, Legislative Section;
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mali
1987 -1988: Legal Counselor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation;
• Permanent Mission of the Republic of Mali to the United Nations, New York
March 1989 – September 1993: First Counselor;
• Embassy of the Republic of Mali to Algeria
16 November 1993–27 March 2003: Ambassador, Alger;
• Permanent Mission of the Republic of Mali to the United Nations, New York
7 April 2003 - present: Permanent Representative and Plenipotentiary;
- December 2003 : President, 1st meeting of the Member States to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families;
- September 2005: Vice President of the 60th session of the UN General Assembly;
- November 2005 :
o Co-chair of the informal consultations for resolution 61/16 on the Strengthening of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC);
o Co-chair of the informal consultations for resolution 60/265 on follow-up to the development outcome of the 2005 World Summit, including the Millennium Development Goals and the other internationally agreed development goals.
- February 2007 - present: Chair of the Group of Landlocked Developing Countries.

Other professional activities

- African Union Summits: 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1994 and 1999;
- UN General Assembly sessions: from 1987 to 1993;
- Member of Mali Delegation that established diplomatic relations with the Republic of Korea in 1990;
- Participated in government negotiations with the MFUA (Movements and Unified Fronts of the Azawad - ex Tuareg rebels) from November 1993 till the end of the process;
- 13-18 June 2004 : Member of the Mali delegation to UNCATD XI, Sao Paulo, Brazil;
- 24-31 January 2005 : African Union Summit, Abuja (Nigeria);
- 27-30 April 2005: Member of the Mali delegation to the 3rd Community of Democracies Conference, Santiago, Chile.
- 14-16 June 2005: Member of the Mali delegation to the Second South Summit, Doha, Qatar.

Training courses

Advanced training course organized by the International Development Law Institute (IDLI), Rome, October - December 1985.

Language skills

French: very good
English: very good
Bamanan: Excellent

Honors received

Knight of the National Order of Mali

New York, 15 March 2007