NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF LATVIA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNOG

Jânis Maþeiks, the new Permanent Representative of Latvia to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Prior to his appointment to Geneva, from June 2006 to July 2007, Mr. Mažeiks had been serving as the Foreign Policy Adviser to the Latvian President. Earlier in 2006, he had been appointed Director of the International Organizations and Human Rights Policy Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From July 2005 to March 2006, Mr. Mažeiks served as Head of the Russia Division in the Foreign Ministry, and from 2002 to 2005 he was the Deputy Permanent Representative of Latvia to the Council of Europe.

Mr. Mažeiks began his diplomatic career while still at university, as a senior UN Desk Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1995 to September 1997. Upon graduation, in 1998, he was appointed Deputy Head of the International Organizations and Human Rights Policy Division at the Foreign Ministry, and in September 1999 he was made Head of the Human Rights Policy Division, a post he held until his appointment to the Latvian Mission to the Council of Europe.

Mr. Mažeiks received a master's degree in Human Rights and Democratization from the University of Padua, Italy, in 1998. He received his bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Latvia in Riga in 1996.

Mr. Mažeiks was born on 30 January 1973.

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