Bio of Ambassador Federico Villegas

Federico Villegas

Ambassador Federico Villegas is a lawyer and career diplomat, and entered the foreign service of Argentina with honours in 1993.

He was appointed Permanent Representative of Argentina to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva in March 2020, after being Ambassador of Argentina in Mozambique since 2016, where he opened the Embassy of Argentina.

In Argentina, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was first desk officer for disarmament, chemical weapons and international security issues (1993–1995) and then twice Director General of Human Rights (2005–2007 and 2012–2015).

He coordinated the project with the OHCHR to elaborate the first National Plan against Discrimination and the establishment of the Center for Public Policies on Human Rights of Mercosur and the International Center for Human Rights of UNESCO, both based in Argentina. He represented his country before the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the Global Action Against Mass Atrocities Crimes (GAAMAC).

Abroad, previous to his posting in Mozambique, he was Alternate Representative to the Southern Common Market and the Latin American Integration Association in Uruguay (2008–2011), in charge of small and medium-sized businesses, social and political issues of the regional integration process and approval of regional structural cooperation projects. He was also Alternate Representative to the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. (1995–2003), in charge of human rights, cooperation for development and civil society issues.

Mr. Villegas holds a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, cum laude, from Georgetown University (1998), and was selected as United Nations Disarmament Fellow in 1994 and Young Leader of the Americas in 2004. He undertook intensive training on human rights at New College, University of Oxford (1999) and the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France (2001).

Mr. Villegas was Assistant Professor of International Law at the national universities of Rosario and Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has published and lectured at the national and international levels on disarmament, human rights, international security and cooperation for development issues. During 2020 and 2021, he was President of the 6th Conference of the Arms Convention Treaty (ATT) and the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board.