Joel Antonio Hernández García
Joel Antonio Hernández García is the President of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) since October 2022.
Mr. Hernandez joined the Board in November 2014 and served his first five-year term up to October 2019. He is in his second term, which ends in November 2024.
Mr. Hernandez is the Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in Mexico. He is also a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. He was President of the Inter-American Commission from 2019 to 2020. Prior to that, he served in the Mexican Foreign Service, rising to the rank of Ambassador in 2008. Previously he served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the Permanent Representative of Mexico to the Organization of American States from 2011 to 2013; Legal Adviser from 2005 to 2011; and Director General for UN Affairs in 2005 and 2017. He was also member of the Inter American Juridical Committee from 2015 to 2018 and is currently the President of the Mexican Branch of the International Law Association.
Mr. Hernandez was a member of the Mexican delegation in the negotiation of the Fisheries Agreement between the Government of Mexico and the Government of France in 2007; the United Nations Convention against Corruption from 2002 to 2003; the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three protocols from 1999 to 2000; and the Agreement relating to the implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea from 1992 to 1994.
Among other responsibilities, he chaired the consistency groups of the Ad Hoc Committees on the Elaboration of a Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in 2000 and the Elaboration of a Convention against Corruption in 2003. He was a Member of the group of experts who elaborated the legislative guides for implementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols in 2004. Mr. Hernandez was a Member of the group of experts in charge of elaborating the legislative guide for the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in 2007, as well as a Member of the Group of Governmental Experts on a legally binding instrument on arms trade established by UNGA resolution 61/89 between February and August 2008.
Mr. Hernandez holds a Law degree from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico and a Master of Laws degree (international legal studies) from New York University School of Law.
