Gert Rosenthal Königsberger (born 11 September 1935) is a Guatemalan diplomat who served as Guatemala's

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

from 25 July 2006 to 14 January 2008 under the government of

Óscar Berger Óscar José Rafael Berger Perdomo (; born 11 August 1946) is a Guatemalan businessman and politician who served as the 46th president of Guatemala from 2004 to 2008. He previously served as mayor of Guatemala City from 1991 to 1999. Early y ...

Early life, education and career

He was born in

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to a German father and Guatemalan mother and came to Guatemala at the age of three. After secondary education in Guatemala, he studied in the

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and received a BA and an MA in economics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. He then pursued further studies in economics at San Carlos University in Guatemala City. He entered government service in 1960 as a part-time economist at the National Planning Secretariat. In 1964 he was appointed representative of Guatemala on the Executive Council of the

Central American Common Market The Central American Integration System (, or SICA) has been the economic and political organization of Central American states since 1 February 1993. On 13 December 1991, the ODECA countries (Spanish: ''Organización de Estados Centroamericano ...

, rising to Assistant to the Secretary-General of the Common Market's Secretariat in 1967. Between 1969 and 1970 he headed the National Planning Secretariat, a ministerial-level position. In 1971 he was named a fellow at the Adlai Stevenson Institute for International Affairs in

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. Between 1972 and 1973 he directed a project in Guatemala for the

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(UNCTAD), intended to promote the Central American Common Market. In 1973-74 he again headed the National Planning Secretariat. In 1998, he was a member of the Oversight Commission of the

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Tenure at United Nations

Between 1974 and 1985 he was the Director of the Mexico-based subregional office of the

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(ECLAC). In 1985, was promoted to Deputy Executive Secretary at ECLAC's headquarters in

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, and, in 1988, to Executive Secretary, with responsibility for the entire Latin America and Caribbean region. In 1999, he was appointed Permanent Representative of Guatemala to the United Nations, where he remained until 2004. In August 2006, following the resignation of Jorge Briz,

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appointed him

, a position where he remained until the end of Berger's term on January 14, 2008. In April 2008 he was re-appointed Permanent Representative of Guatemala to the United Nations. Rosenthal was President of the Executive Board of UNDP/UNFPA (

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) in 2001, President of the

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in 2003, Vice-President of the Executive Board of

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in 2008, Vice-President of the

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in 2011 and Chair of the Fifth Committee on two occasions (2001 and 2011). In 2011, Guatemala was selected for a two-year rotating term as a non-permanent member of the

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for the 2012-2013 term. Guatemala was unanimously supported for this role and many UN officials saw this as a recognition of Gert Rosenthal as among the most respected diplomats at the UN. In October 2012, he was the

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. Currently Rosenthal is the Chair of the Advisory Group of Experts on the Review of the United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture started in January 2015.

References

External links

*http://www.unhistory.org/iac_res/CV/RosenthalCV.pdf *https://web.archive.org/web/20071024063126/http://www.netamericas.net/Paginas/RosenthalWP.asp *https://web.archive.org/web/20070824201015/http://www.minex.gob.gt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1119&Itemid=53 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenthal, Gert 1935 births Living people Guatemalan Jews Guatemalan people of German descent Permanent representatives of Guatemala to the United Nations Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala alumni Ministers of foreign affairs of Guatemala