Paul van den IJssel is the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the Conference on Disarmament.

On his appointment as President-designate of the Seventh Review Conference, Ambassador van den IJssel said, "I am committed to working closely with all States Parties in a transparent, inclusive and constructive manner in order to secure a positive outcome at the Review Conference that further strengthens the Convention. A positive outcome means two things: consensus, but also ambition. I hope we all agree that we should be guided by ambition when we are determining our aims for the RevCon. At the same time we should keep an eye on what is doable and realistic. Ambitious realism will be my guiding principle in the coming year."

Read the President-designate's remarks following his nomination here. You can also download his curriculum vitae.


Meeting with the United Nations Secretary-General

	On 25 January 2011, the President-designate met the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, to brief him on the Seventh Review Conference and to invite him to address the opening session of the Conference on 5 December.
	The President-designate discusses prospects for the Review Conference with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, in Geneva on 25 January 2011.

Interviews with the President-designate

• Ambition and Realism for the BWC Review Conference: An Interview With President-Designate Paul van den IJssel, Arms Control Today, November 2011

• No Big Summit Needed for Achieving Biological Security: Key Diplomat, Global Security Newswire, July 2011

• BWC Review Conference Chairman Aims to Bolster Treaty Regime, Global Security Newswire, April 2011

• Delegates Catch Early Glimpses of BWC Review, Arms Control Today, October 2010

Contact the President-designate

The President-designate welcomes contacts from States Parties, international organisations, civil society representatives, and the media. Contact details are here:

Permanent Mission of the Netherlands

Ambassador Paul van den IJssel
tel: +41 (0)22 748 1850
e-mail: paul-vanden.ijssel@minbuza.nl

Ms. Eva Verberne-Schreuder, Second Secretary
tel: +41 (0)22 748 1852
e-mail: eva.schreuder@minbuza.nl

Mr. Tom van den Berk , Attaché Disarmament
tel: +41 22 748 18 24
e-mail: tom-vanden.berk@minbuza.nl

Ms. Annelies Breman, Ambassador's Secretary
tel: +41 (0)22 748 1853
fax: +41 (0)22 748 1838
e-mail: gev-cd@minbuza.nl

You can also contact the President-designate through the Implementation Support Unit.

Communications from the President-Designate

• Talking points for regional groups, 29 November 2011
• Letters to States Parties dated 17 and 18 November 2011
• Message to the Workshop on Regional Bio-Security and the Role of the BTWC, Amman, Jordan, 24 January 2011.
• Letter to States Parties dated 25 January 2011.
• Message to the Workshop on Regional Bio-Security and the Role of the BTWC, Amman, Jordan, 24 January 2011.
• President-designate's speech at The International Federation of Biosafety Associations conference, Bangkok, Thailand, 15 February 2011.
• President-designate's speech at meeting with ASEAN, Las Vegas, USA, 23 February 2011.
• President-designate's speech at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, 5 March 2011.
• President-designate's speech at the International Workshop on Developing Practical Proposals for the Seventh Review Conference, Montreux, Switzerland, 8 April 2011.
• President-designate's speech at Biorisk Management Training, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3 May 2011.
• Letter to States Parties dated 6 June 2011.
• President-designate's speech at Berlin Review Conference Seminar, Berlin, Germany, 9 June, 2011.
• President-designate's speech at the NATO Conference on WMD Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, Bergen, Norway, 17 June 2011.
• President-designate's speech at Seminar on the Biological Weapons Convention, Biosecurity and the Industry, Brussels, Belgium, 20 June 2011.
• President-designate's speech at the East Asia and Pacific Biological Weapons Convention Conference Week, Makati, Phillipines, 27 June 2011.
• President-designate's speech on the Role of the BWC in a Biotech Driven World at The Biosecurity Conference in Washington DC, United States, 30 June 2011.
• President-designate's speech at the Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Biodefense International Congress, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 19 July 2011.
• President-designate's speech at TMC Asser Instituut, The Hague, Netherlands, 31 August 2011.
• President-designate's speech at the Wilton Park-Clingendael Conference, the Hague, the Netherlands, 12 - 13 September, 2011.

On Universalization

The President-Designate, as part of his efforts to promote the universalization of the Convention, facilitated a letter from Uri Rosenthal, Foreign Minister of the Netherlands to the foreign ministers of states currently outside the regime.


Photos of the President-Designate