Amb. Francisco Villagrán de León

Ambassador Villagran is a member of PILPG’s Circle of Former Ambassadors to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Ambassador Villagran is a retired career diplomat from Guatemala. He has been Ambassador to the United States, the United Nations (in both New York and Geneva), the Organization of American States (where he served as President of the Juridical and Political Affairs Committee), Canada, Germany and Norway. He also served as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In addition to his diplomatic posts, he has held fellowships at the U.S. Institute of Peace and the National Endowment for Democracy. He holds a law degree from Universidad Rafael Landívar in Guatemala and an M.A. in International Relations from Georgetown University. After retiring from the Guatemalan foreign service, he joined the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University as a visiting scholar in 2016 and is currently an adjunct professor, teaching a course on international human rights systems. He is the author of Soberanía y No Intervención: origines y evolución (“Sovereignty and Non-Intervention: origins and evolution”) Guatemala, F&G Editores, 2021, currently being translated into English.