Officers

President of the United Nations Conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination

On 16 February 2017, the United Nations Conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination elected Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gómez as its President.

Currently, Ambassador Whyte Gómez is the Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations Office in Geneva. Between 2014 and 2015, she was co-Chair of the 5th Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), together with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica, Mr. Manuel González Sanz, and Vice-president of the First CCM Review Conference. Since 2015 to the present, she has been Coordinator on Transparency Measures of the CCM and co-chair of the ad hoc Working Group on Treaty Implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty. She is currently a member of the Committee on the Implementation of Article 5 of the Conference of the States parties to the Anti-Personnel Landmine Convention (APLC) and a Vice-president of the Conference of the States parties of the APLC. She was Vice-president of the Second Conference of the States Parties of Arms Trade Treaty.

Prior to her appointment to Geneva, Ambassador Whyte Gómez worked as Executive Director of the Mesoamerica Project for Integration and Development from 2010 to 2014, and from 2003 to 2009 she worked as a consultant to international organizations as a specialist in regional integration, human rights and regional security for the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, ILO, among others. She was Chief of Staff in the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship in San Jose, Costa Rica from 2009 to 2010. She was also Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship at the Ministry from 2000 to 2002. She was a Policy Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 2000. Ambassador Whyte Gómez joined the Ministry in 1998, after serving for four years as Legislative Advisor and Chief of Staff at the Legislative Assembly in San Jose.

Ambassador Whyte Gómez has extensive academic experience, including as a Professor and Researcher at the School of International Affairs and Institute of Latin American Studies, National University of Costa Rica, from 1995 to 2008. She is also the author of a series of publications. She has a Master’s degree in International Policy Studies (1993) from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, California, United States. She also has a degree in International Relations (1991) from the Autonomous University of Central America, San Jose.