Officers of the Human Rights Council's Sixteenth Cycle (2022)

Katharina Stasch has been serving as the Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations Office at Geneva since April 2021. Prior to her appointment to Geneva, Ms. Stasch had been serving as Chief of Staff and Head of Office for Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas since 2018. She was Chief of Staff and Head of Policy Planning at the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection in Berlin from 2013 to 2018. From 2011 to 2013, she worked in the Cabinet of the First Parliamentary Secretary, Social Democratic Party of Germany Parliamentary Group, Federal German Parliament. She worked in the Cabinet of the Minister of Finance Peer Steinbrück at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Berlin from 2006 to 2011.
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Tamim M. Baiou has been serving as the Permanent Representative of Libya to the United Nations Office at Geneva since December 2019. Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. Baiou had been forging international relations to advance institutional capacity building and development efforts in Libya since 2004. His public diplomacy work led him to represent Libya at various international meetings and forums. Prior to that, he was a counsellor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He joined the Foreign Affairs Service after working as a senior political advisor. In 2013, Mr. Baiou was appointed by a Prime Ministerial decree to serve as a board member of the Libya National Dialogue Preparatory Commission, where he chaired various committees.
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Ulugbek Lapasov has been serving as the Permanent Representative of Uzbekistan to the United Nations Office at Geneva since September 2018. Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. Lapasov served as Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Uzbekistan to the United Nations Office at Geneva since January 2016, and as a first secretary since 2014. From 2012 to 2014, he was Chief of Division at the Department for Cooperation with Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan, and prior to that, from 2008 to 2012, he was appointed to the Embassy of Uzbekistan to France as a third secretary. Mr. Lapasov joined the Uzbek Foreign Service in 2004.
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Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. Hovhannisyan had been serving as an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia since 2014. He was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Armenia in Washington from 2012 to 2014. He was the Head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Section, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, from 2010 to 2012. He has also served as First Secretary at the Council of Europe Division of the Foreign Ministry from 2009 to 2010; Second Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, in Vienna, from 2006 to 2009; Third Secretary at the Army Control and International Security Department at the Foreign Ministry from 2004 to 2006; attaché at the Embassy of Armenia to Syria in Damascus, from 2000 to 2004; and attaché at the information and public affairs department at the Foreign Ministry from 1999 to 2000.
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Muhammadou M.O. Kah, the Permanent Representative of the Gambia to the United Nations Office at Geneva, has held teaching and leadership positions in the United States, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. He has served as the founding Chairman of Zenith Bank, the Gambia; Chairman of the Board of Directors of Africa Consulting and Trading Group in Dakar, Senegal; and founder and Chairman of Khamsys Technologies Ltd. He served as Vice-President of Academic Affairs and Provost and Professor of information technology and computing at the American University of Nigeria (2017-2020), and third Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Gambia from 2009 to 2015. He also served as Founding Dean and Professor of information technology and communications of the School of Information Technology and Engineering, and Vice-Rector for Technology and Innovation, ADA University, Azerbaijan. He was the Founding Dean of the School of Information Technology and Communications at the American University of Nigeria. Mr. Kah also served as a Department Chairman and Information Systems at the American University of Sharjah, School of Business and Management, United Arab Emirates.
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