Amb. Martin Palouš

Ambassador Martin Palouš was the Czech Ambassador to the United States (2001-2005) prior to taking office as the Czech Republic’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (2006-2011). He has also served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Czech Republic, and, before that, Czechoslovakia. One of the first signatories of Charter 77, he was a founding member of the Civic Forum and was elected in 1990 to the Czechoslovak Federal Assembly, where he served as a member of the foreign affairs committee. Ambassador Palouš is currently director of the Václav Havel Program for Human Rights and Diplomacy at Florida International University and is also a member of the Prague Society for International Cooperation, a respected NGO that aims for the development of a new generation of responsible and well-informed leaders and thinkers.