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Ambassador Desiree Schweitzer

Amb. Schweitzer

Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations in Geneva as of September 2022. 

From 2018 to 2022, she held the position of Director-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance in the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs.  During the same period, she was Chair of the Board of the Austrian Development Agency.

When Austria chaired the OSCE in 2017, she served as High-Level Liaison in the Office of the OSCE Secretary-General, following her tenure as Deputy Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities/Head of Environmental Activities with responsibility for energy security matters at OSCE headquarters. 

A career diplomat, she previously served in various senior management positions, as Deputy Head of Division for OSCE and Council of Europe Affairs as well as Deputy Head of the Austrian Permanent Mission to the OSCE. She has also worked on European Union enlargement issues, and her overseas postings include Washington, D.C., New York and Islamabad. 

Amb. Schweitzer holds a doctor’s degree in law from the University of Vienna and is an alumna of the Austrian Diplomatic Academy (Vienna School of International Studies). 

As a founding member and subsequently President of Club 0.7% for Development Cooperation and as Member of the Board and later President of UN WOMEN Austria, she has a long record of supporting development cooperation, gender equality and women’s empowerment far beyond her official capacities.