Cristina Gallach

Cristina Gallach (born 1960) is a Spanish journalist and former United Nations official. She is the 14th and current Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and for Ibero-America and the Caribbean of the Spanish government since 2020. She is a member of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC).[1]

Cristina Gallach
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and for Ibero-America and the Caribbean
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 February 2020
Monarch	Felipe VI
Prime Minister	Pedro Sánchez
Preceded by	Fernando Martín Valenzuela Marzo (Foreign Affairs) Juan Pablo de Laiglesia (Ibero-American Affairs)
High Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda
In office 7 July 2018 – 29 January 2020
Monarch	Felipe VI
Prime Minister	Pedro Sánchez
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Undersecretary General of the United Nations for Communications and Public Information
In office 1 February 2015 – 9 August 2017
Secretary-General	Ban Ki-moon
Preceded by	Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal
Succeeded by	Alison Smale
Personal details
Born	1 April 1960 Sant Quirze de Besora, Spain
Political party	Socialists' Party of Catalonia
Alma mater	Autonomous University of Barcelona Columbia University

From July 2018 to January 2020 she served as High Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda of the Spanish government. She also served as the United Nations Undersecretary General for Communications and Public Information from December 2014 to August 2017. Prior to this, Gallach was with the Council of the European Union as Head of the Public Relations Unit in the Directorate-General for Information and Communication.[2]

Early life

Cristina Gallach was born in 1960 in Spain. She obtained an licentiate degree in "Sciences of Information" (Journalism) from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1982. She earned a master's degree in International Affairs from New York's Columbia University in 1986, after being granted a Fulbright Scholarship.[3]

Career

Gallach worked as a journalist for the publication El Periódico, and the news agencies Avui and TVE Barcelona.

Gallach has extensive experience in the field of communications. She has held several high-level positions and has worked as an aide to Javier Solana during the latter's tenures as spokesperson for the Spanish Government, Secretary-General of the European Union and thereafter as Secretary-General of both the European Union and Western European Union.[4]

Gallach, Wonder Woman actresses Gal Gadot and Lynda Carter, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, and DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson appeared at the United Nations on October 21, 2016, the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Wonder Woman, to mark the character's designation by the United Nations as its "Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls".[5][6] The gesture was intended to raise awareness of UN Sustainable Development Goal No. 5, which seeks to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030.[5][6][7] The decision was met with protests from UN staff members who stated in their petition to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the character is "not culturally encompassing or sensitive", and served to objectify women. As a result, the character was stripped of the designation, and the project ended December 16.[7]

There was controversy over Gallach's United Nations post subsequent to her ban of Inner City Press from UN Reporting circles after they reported on alleged nepotism in UN circles. She left her UN post in the wake of those controversies.[8]

In July 2018, she was appointed High Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda of Spain, a new office created this year to coordinate the actions of the Government to accomplish with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.[9] She left the office in January 2020, when she was appointed as the 14th Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

References

1. Pardeiro, Marcos. "El PSC aspira al 'gordo' en el Gobierno: la ministra de Exteriores". Economía Digital. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
2. "Secretary-General Appoints Cristina Gallach of Spain Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information". United Nations.
3. "Cristina Gallach será la Alta Comisionada para la Agenda 2030". www.europapress.es. Europa Press. 6 July 2018.
4. "Cristina Gallach". www.communication-director.com/issues/when-saints-go-marching/cristina-gallach#.WlukaKinFA8. November 20, 2017. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
5. Serrao, Nivea (October 13, 2016). "Wonder Woman named UN Honorary Ambassador for empowerment of women and girls". Entertainment Weekly.
6. "Wonder Woman Named the United Nations' Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls". Business Wire. October 21, 2016.
7. Roberts, Elizabeth (December 13, 2016). "UN drops Wonder Woman as honorary ambassador". CNN.
8. Inner City Press, Inc. (March 20, 2017). "Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations". www.innercitypress.com. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
9. Agudo, Alejandra (2018-07-06). "Cristina Gallach, alta comisionada para la Agenda 2030". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2018-09-21.

External links