Victor Gbeho

Who is Victor Gbeho?

James Victor Gbeho is a prominent Ghanaian lawyer and diplomat who has been President of the Economic Community of West African States Commission since 2010, to which position he was unanimously elected at the 37th Summit of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the 15 Member States. He was Ghana's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1997 to 2001, under President Jerry Rawlings, and he was the Member of Parliament for the Anlo constituency from January 2001 to January 2005. He was subsequently a foreign policy advisor to the government of President John Atta Mills.

Before his retirement as a career diplomat and politician, Gbeho worked in the Ghana Foreign and Commonwealth Service and served in various capacities at Ghana's diplomatic missions abroad. His postings included the Ghana missions in China, India, Nigeria, Germany, United Kingdom and Switzerland.

Gbeho was Deputy High Commissioner to the Court of St. James's from 1972 until 1976, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ghana to the European offices of the United Nations in Geneva, with concurrent accreditation to UNIDO in Vienna, Austria, and was Ghana's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from 1980 to 1990, concurrently accredited to Cuba, Jamaica, and to Trinidad and Tobago. In July 1994, the UN Secretary-General appointed him as special representative to Somalia. In September 1995 Jerry Rawlings, as chairman of ECOWAS, appointed Gbeho as ECOWAS special representative for Liberia.