Officers

Ambassador Maritza Chan is a Costa Rican career diplomat, academic, and activist. She was appointed Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations on 15 August 2022. Ambassador Maritza Chan is the first Costa Rican woman to occupy the role since Costa Rica signed the UN Charter in 1945. Before her appointment, Ambassador Maritza Chan served as Deputy Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations from March 2020 to August 14, 2022.

Ambassador Maritza Chan has twenty-five years of professional experience at the highest political level. She has represented Costa Rica before the United States and multilateral organizations in both Washington, D.C. and New York. She is an international peace and security expert and an advocate for the Women, Peace, and Security agenda.

In December 2023, Ambassador Chan was introduced as President-designate of the Fourth Review Conference of the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade of Small and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (UNPoA) to be held in 2024. Ambassador Maritza Chan was Vice-Chair of the Open-Ended Working Group on Conventional Ammunition, which established a new global framework for the lifetime management of ammunition (2022-2023). She was Costa Rica's lead negotiator on the Arms Trade Treaty (2010-2015).

She has been recognized twice by the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) as one of the leading agents for change advocating for arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation in 2014 and 2021. She has published multiple articles on her negotiating experience in disarmament, non-proliferation, and arms control. She has vast connections with international and regional organizations, as well as civil society and academia.

Ambassador Maritza Chan is part of the International Advisory Council (IAC) of the International Peace Institute (IPI). She is currently Vice President of the 2023 Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund, and the United Nations Office for Project Services on behalf of the Latin American and Caribbean Group of States (GRULAC). In October and December 2023, respectively, she visited Dakar, Senegal, and Montevideo, Uruguay, in her role as Vice-President of the Executive Board. She also served as President of the UNICEF Executive Board in 2022 and conducted the first field visit of the Bureau to Thailand after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2018, Ambassador Chan returned to Washington D.C. as the Head of the Political Section of the Costa Rican Embassy (2018-2020) after acting as Coordinator of the Organization of the United States in San José, Costa Rica (2015-2017). Prior to this appointment, she served at the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations in New York (2010-2015). She also served at the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the Organization of American States in Washington D.C (2005-2009) and the Embassy of Costa Rica to the United States in Washington D.C (2002-2005). Ambassador Maritza Chan started her career as a Senior Speechwriter for the President of Costa Rica (1998-2002).