Liberia’s Mission to UN Gets New Deputy Permanent Representative

Ms. Cecilia McGill, Minister Plenipotentiary and Deputy Permanent Representative, has officially assumed the duties of Chargé d’Affaires a.i. at the Permanent Mission of Liberia to the United Nations.

At a general staff meeting convened for the purpose on Tuesday, August 17, 2021, Mrs. Maggie Gibson Glay, Minister Counselor and Head of Chancery at the Permanent Mission of Liberia to the United Nations, briefed Ms. McGill on the work of the Mission; while diplomatic staff assigned to cover the six main committees of the United Nations provided updates on the work of the different committees. 

The six main committees of the United Nations include the First Committee -- Disarmament and International Security; Second Committee -- Economic and Financial; Third Committee -- Social, Humanitarian and Cultural; Fourth Committee -- Special Political and Decolonization; Fifth Committee -- Administrative and Budgetary and Sixth Committee -- Legal. 

In response, Ms. McGill thanked the staff for their hard work over the years. She expressed her readiness to work together with all staff members to promote the agenda of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government of Liberia at the United Nations.   

Ms. McGill joins the Permanent Mission of Liberia with a wealth of experience from a long-standing diplomatic and international career. For more than twenty years, Ms. McGill served in various capacities within the United Nations Systems -- at headquarters and field offices; notably, the UN Secretariat, UN Peacekeeping operations, and the World Food Program. 

Deputy Permanent Representative Cecilia Mcgill hit the ground running, representing Liberia at the United Nations General Assembly’s consideration of the draft resolution: “Scope, modalities, format, and organization of the high-level meeting on universal health coverage.”

Ms. McGill also represented Liberia on Wednesday, August 19, at the African Union meeting, which focused on preparations for the commemoration of the Twentieth (20th) anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA), inter alia.  

Ambassador Mathu Joyini, Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations and co-facilitator of the intergovernmental consultations on the Political Declaration and the modalities of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly to commemorate the Twentieth Anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action briefed the African Group of Ambassadors on the progress so far.

Adopted by consensus at the 2001 World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, the  Durban Declaration and Programme of Action is a comprehensive, action-oriented document that proposes concrete measures to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance.

Meanwhile, Ms. Cecilia Mcgill will join several high-level speakers at the presentation of the Book “4 out of 74 Women Trailblazers at the United Nations: about the four women who have been the Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly” on September 1, 2021.

She will share experience on priorities of women Presidents of the General Assembly (PGA), with a focus on Angie Elizabeth Brooks, the only Liberian and second female President of the United Nations General Assembly.

For Ms. McGill, she’s driven by the philosophy: “Work sincerely for a cause, not for applause. Live life to express not to impress -- and be a part of all that is decent and be a true ambassador for the kind of world that you want to live in.”