H.E. Ambassador Shara Duncan-Villalobos 

Ambassador Deputy Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations Office

Costa Rica

Lawyer by profession. Currently serving as Ambassador Deputy Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations Office and other international organizations based in Geneva. She has been a career diplomat for over 18 years.  

Ambassador Duncan-Villalobos has a Master’s degree in Human Rights and Education for Peace from the Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica. Graduated from the Raphael Lemkin Seminar for the Prevention of Genocide, the Summer Course on Public International Law of the Hague Academy of International Law and the XXIV Interdisciplinary Course on Human Rights of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, San José, among others. 

She has previously served as Minister Counsellor, Legal Advisor and Sixth Committee Expert in the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations in New York, where she undertook as Chair, the Informal Working Group on the Scope and Application of the Principle of Universal Jurisdiction. She also had under her portfolio issues pertaining Genocide Prevention, Responsibility to Protect, International Criminal Law, Terrorism, Rule of Law, Law of the Sea and Ocean affairs, among others. In addition, as Counsellor in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, she covered issues of International Law, Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, International Criminal Justice and International Justice, she also served as Counsellor and Consul of Costa Rica in Rivas, Nicaragua. 

Within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Costa Rica, she served as coordinator of the Cooperation programs with South America in the International Cooperation Directorate, also as an advisor to the Office of the Minister on International Litigation issues; Advisor to the Vice Minister on Human Rights related issues, and had under her responsibility the compliance reports of Costa Rica to the Treaty Bodies and the 2014 Universal Periodic Review. She also was appointed as Executive Secretary of the Inter-institutional Commission for the monitoring and implementation of International Human Rights Obligations and Officer of the area of ​​Regional Organizations PPT SICA- 2013 and focal point of Costa Rica to the Latin American Network for the prevention of genocide. She was also a coordinator of the Human Rights and Human Security Area and Legal Advisor.