Ambassador Ciro Arévalo Yepes
Ambassador Ciro
Arévalo Yepes was the Chairman of the United Nations
Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) from
2008-2010. He is Academician of the International Academy of
Astronautics (IAA) and is currently the president of the Latin
America and Caribbean Regional Group in the International
Astronautical Federation (GRULA-IAF) in addition to serving as an
adviser to the Director General of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA/SAGTAC). He has served as a diplomat for the past
twenty years, in the United Nations Colombian embassies in Geneva
and Vienna, Consul General in Australia, ambassador to COPUOS and
plenipotentiary minister among other postings. He is a member of
the Colombian delegations to various international organizations
including ITU, IAEA, ILO, CBTO etc. He was also chairman of the
Atomic Energy Regional Organization (ORA/ARCAL). He chaired the LOC
of the Fourth Space Conference of the Americas held in Cartagena,
Colombia in 2002, IV CEA during which the Colombian Space
Commission originated.
In addition to his diplomatic career, Ambassador Arévalo Yepes has
dedicated part of his time to the academia as dean of the
Post-Graduate International Program at University Tadeo Lozano
(UJTL) and as an invited scholar to various universities in the
U.S., Canada and Europe. He is member of the International Institut
of Space Law (IISL) and member of the International Committee of
the International Space University (ISU) of the Southern Hemisphere
Program. Ambassador Arévalo Yepes is a current member of the
UN-COPUOS Bureau and adviser to the Colombian Space Commission
(CCE) and a founding member of the International Group of Experts
on the Space Conferences of the Americas (IGE-CEAs). He has served
on the Advisory Committee of the Space Generation Advisory Council
(SGAC) since 2009 and joined the Advisory Committee of the Secure
World Foundation (SWF) in 2012. He is also a member of the American
Institute of Aviation and Astronautics (AIAA) and of the European
Space Policy Research and Academic Network (ESPRAN) of the European
Space Policy Institute (ESPI). Ambassador Arévalo Yepes has
authored a number of papers and articles on space policy, space and
society and space and education and as chairman of COPUOS he
launched the United Nations Space Policy Initiative. He speaks
Spanish, French, English and German.
