Ambassador Václav Bálek has been the Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva since August 2021. On 9 December 2022, Mr. Bálek was elected president of the Human Rights Council for 2023.
Mr. Bálek held several positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. He was Director of the Department of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (2017-2021), Head of the Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Unit (2015-2017), Political Director - Director-General of the Security and Multilateral Issues Section (2013-2015), and Director-General of the Section of Non-European States (July-October 2013). He also served as Director of the Department of Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union (2006-2009), Deputy Director of the Security Policy Department (2004-2006) and desk officer at the Security Policy Department (1999-2000).
Abroad, Mr. Bálek was Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the Political and Security Committee of the European Union in Brussels, Belgium, from 2009 to 2013. From 2000 to 2004, he served as second secretary in the political section of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in London, the United Kingdom.
From 1998 to 1999, Mr. Bálek undertook training at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before joining the foreign service, he worked as a researcher at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. He holds a master's degree from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Czech Technical University, Prague