Elayne Whyte is a Costa Rican diplomat and academic. In 2014, the Government of Costa Rica appointed her as Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations and other international organizations based in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2017 Ambassador Whyte Gómez presided over the proceedings of the United Nations Conference that negotiated and adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
She has ample experience in the functioning of treaty-based disarmament or security regimes at the global and regional levels, where she has served in leadership roles and processes: co-Chaired the 5th Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), together with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica, Mr. Manuel González Sanz, and served as Vice-president of the First Review Conference of the Cluster Munitions Treaty. She was Coordinator on Transparency Measures of the CCM, co-chaired the ad hoc Working Group on Treaty Implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty and was Vice-president of the Second Conference of the States Parties of Arms Trade Treaty in 2016. Was a Member of the Committee on the Implementation of Article 5 of the Conference of the States parties to the Anti-Personnel Landmine Convention (APLC) and a Vice-president of the Conference of the States parties of the APLC. Also served as President of the Central America Security Commission in 2002.
Elayne Whyte Gómez joined the diplomatic service of Costa Rica in 1998, after serving for four years as Legislative Advisor and Chief of Staff at the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica. Prior to her appointment to Geneva, Ambassador Whyte Gómez held leadership positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cult of Costa Rica, where was Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship from 2000 to 2002, Policy Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 2000 and Chief of Staff of the Minister from 2009 to 2010.
Elayne Whyte worked as Executive Director of the Mesoamerica Project for Integration and Development from 2010 to 2014. She also gained experience as consultant to international organizations as a specialist in regional integration, human rights and regional security for the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, ILO, among others, from 2003 to 2009.
Elayne Whyte has more than 20 years of academic experience, including as a Professor and Researcher of Foreign Policy at the School of International Affairs and Institute of Latin American Studies, National University of Costa Rica, from 1995 to 2008. She serves on the Academic Board of the Central American Report on Sustainable Human Development, at the International Advisory Board of the Center for Non Proliferation (CNS) and is part of the Board of Advisors to the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. She is the author of a series of publications on regional integration, security, foreign policy and human rights issues. She holds a Master’s degree in International Policy Studies (1993) from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, California, United States. She also has a degree in International Relations (1991) from the Autonomous University of Central America, San Jose. In 2018 Elayne Whyte received the Doctor in Humane Letters Honoris Causa academic distinction, by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California and several distinctions and awards.
Gudmundur Eiriksson is Professor and Executive Director, Centre for International Legal Studies, Jindal Global Law School. He holds an A.B. degree and a B.S. degree (Civil Engineering) from Rutgers College, an LL.B. (Honours) degree from King’s College London and an LL.M. degree from Columbia University. He is a Fellow of King’s College London and Professor Emeritus, University for Peace. Professor Eiriksson served from 1974 to 1976 as a Law of the Sea Officer in the Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the Law of the Sea. He served from 1977 to 2014 in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Iceland, as Assistant Legal Adviser, Legal Adviser and Ambassador of Iceland in Ottawa, Pretoria and New Delhi, accredited to Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, India, Malaysia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Singapore, South Africa and Venezuela. He was a member of the United Nations International Law Commission from 1987 to 1996 and a Judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea from 1996 to 2002, where he was President of the Chamber for Fisheries Disputes from 199 to 2002. He was a Judge ad hoc in the M/V “Norstar” Case before the Tribunal from 2016 to 2019.
He was a Lecturer at the University of Iceland from 1987 to 1996 and a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico School of Law from 1994 to 1995. He was Director of International Law and Human Rights Studies and Dean for Cooperative Programmes at UPeace from 2001 to 2003 and Professor and Head of the Department of International Law and Human Rights from 2005 to 2008. He has been a Visiting Professor at Upeace since 2008. He is on the Visiting Faculty of Symbiosis Law School (Noida, India).
He is a member of the Panel of Conciliators and Panel of Arbitrators, International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, the Panels of Conciliation and Arbitration under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the International Council of Environmental Law and the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. He is a member of the Icelandic Society of Professional Engineers. He is a life member of the Indian Society of International Law and a member of the Asian Society of International Law, the International Law Association and the American Society of International Law. He is a Member of the Editorial Board of the Inter-American & European Human Rights Journal/ Revista Interamericana & Europea de Derechos Humanos and the Advisory Board of the Nordic Journal of International Law. Professor Eiriksson is the author of The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and numerous articles on the law of the sea, legal education, international criminal law, international organizations, international relations, disarmament and human rights.