Third Committee
Chair of the 68th Session
Ambassador Stephan Tafrov was appointed Ambassador of Bulgaria to the United Nations on January 31, 2012. He represented Bulgaria to the United Nations as Permanent Representative also between 2001 and 2006 including during Bulgaria’s membership of the Security Council in 2002 and 2003. Ambassador Tafrov served as President of the Security Council in September 2002 and December 2003. He was Bulgaria’s Ambassador to France as well as Permanent Delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Ambassador Tafrov held a number of diplomatic posts, serving two separate terms as First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria and as Ambassador to Italy and Malta from 1992 to 1995, and to the United Kingdom and to Ireland from 1995 to 1997.
During a decisive shift in Bulgaria’s foreign policy embracing European values and goals, Ambassador Tafrov was appointed as Foreign Affairs Adviser to the first democratically elected President of Bulgaria, Dr. Zhelyu Zhelev. He was the head of the External Relations Department of the Union of Democratic Forces and Co-founder of “Democratzia” daily newspaper. He joined the emerging civic, human rights and environmentalist groups in Bulgaria in the 80s.
Ambassador Tafrov holds a Master’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Sofia “Kliment Ohridski”. Prior to his diplomatic career, he had a distinguished profession as a journalist and literary critic, specialized in French and Italian literature, translating from French and Italian into Bulgarian works by François Mauriac, André Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre, Claude Simon, Umberto Eco, among others.
At the end of his mission to France in 2001, the President of the French Republic made him Commander de la Légion d’Honneur.
Ambassador Tafrov is fluent in French, English, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Polish.