Peter Thomson (diplomat)

Peter Thomson OF
Thomson in 2017
United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Ocean
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 October 2017 (2017-10-02)
71st President of the United Nations General Assembly
In office September 2016 – September 2017
Preceded by	Mogens Lykketoft
Succeeded by	Miroslav Lajčák
Permanent Representative of Fiji to the United Nations
In office February 2010 – August 2017
Personal details
Born	1948 (age 75–76) Suva, Rewa, Fiji
Spouse	Marijcke Thomson
Education	Natabua High School Sevenoaks School
Alma mater	University of Auckland Wolfson College, Cambridge
Occupation	Diplomat

Peter Thomson OF (born 1948) is a Fijian diplomat and the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Ocean,^[1] and President of the United Nations General Assembly from September 2016 until September 2017.^[2] He served as Fiji's Permanent Representative to the United Nations February 2010 to August 2017, with concurrent duties as Fiji's Ambassador to Cuba.

In his capacity as Fiji's Permanent Representative to the UN,^[3] in 2014, Thomson served as president of the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Office of Project Services. In the same capacity, in 2013, he took responsibility for Fiji's Chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China, the UN's largest negotiating group, made up of 133 developing countries. In 2011, he was elected as president of the 17th Session of the Assembly of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), and in 2015 was elected as president of 21st Session of the ISA Council.

During his time as Fiji's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Thomson was the prime-mover of the name-change of the UN's Regional Group from that of "the Asian Group" to its new name of "the Asia-Pacific Group", effective 2011. In 2014, the President of Fiji conferred on Thomson the award of Officer of the Order of Fiji.^[4]