Christian Strohal

Christian Strohal (born May 1, 1951 in Vienna ) is an Austrian diplomat .

Life

Strohal studied law , economics and international relations in London , Geneva and Vienna, where he received his doctorate in 1975. iur. PhD. From 1976 he worked as a diplomat for the Austrian Foreign Ministry and was transferred to London, Geneva and Rabat, among others. At the conferences of the Helsinki Process , which constituted what was then still called the CSCE (now the OSCE ), he was a member of the Austrian delegation. From 1985 to 1988 he served as the head of the ministry's human rights bureau. From 1988 to 1992 he was Deputy Head of the Austrian Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. In 1992/93 he worked as a special envoy for the preparation and implementation of the world conference on human rights in Vienna. In 1994 he was appointed head of the human rights department of the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Strohal held this post until 2000, when he was appointed ambassador to Luxembourg . In March 2003 he took up his post as the new Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights  (ODIHR / ODIHR) of the OSCE in Warsaw. In 2008 he became Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations in Geneva, 2013 Permanent Representative to the OSCE in Vienna. Since 2016 he has been the Special Representative for the Austrian Chairmanship of the OSCE 2017.

As part of his professional duties, Strohal performed various tasks at the United Nations. From 1990 to 1992 he was chairman of the Western Human Rights Group of the UN Human Rights Commission  (HRC), and in 1997/98 he was vice chairman of the HRC. He subsequently served as Vice President of the UN Human Rights Council from 2011–2012 and as President of the Governing Bodies of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as well as President of the Compensation Commission of the UN Security Council (2009–2010). Between 2007 and 2012 he also represented Austria as deputy. Member of the board of directors of the European Agency for Fundamental Rights.

He has published a number of articles on issues of human rights and international security policy and gives lectures and other lectures. a. at the University of Vienna, the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna, the Geneva Academy on International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and the European Inter-University Center for Human Rights in Venice as well as at Princeton University.

In 2008 Strohal was awarded the Felix Ermacora Human Rights Prize and the Pro Merito Medal of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) for his commitment to human rights . He is a member of the International Institute for Human Rights.

Web links

• Christian Strohal on the OSCE website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Christian Strohal, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. OSCE photo, undated (2003, accessed February 21, 2016).
2. ^ Ambassador Christian Strohal. OSCE, undated (accessed February 21, 2016).
3. ↑ Dr. Christian Strohal. NWV Verlag: Author , accessed February 21, 2016.

predecessor	Office	successor
Josef Magerl	Austrian Ambassador to Luxembourg 2000–2003	Walter Hagg
Gérard Stoudmann	Director of the OSCE ODIHR 2003–2008	Janez Lenarčič
Wolfgang Petritsch	Permanent representative of Austria to the United Nations in Geneva 2008–2013	Thomas Hajnoczi
??	Permanent Representative of Austria to the OSCE 2013–	??