H.E. Mr. Olivier Maes took up the position of Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Luxembourg to the United Nations in New York on 15 July 2021.

During his tenure, Luxembourg was elected for the first time as a member of the UN Human Rights Council, for the term 2022-2024, at the election held in the General Assembly on 14 October 2021. In the
field of human rights, Luxembourg took an initiative that led to the adoption on 29 June 2023 of resolution 77/301, by which the General Assembly decided to establish the Independent Institution on
Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic, to clarify the fate and whereabouts of all missing persons in the Syrian Arab Republic and to provide adequate support to victims, survivors and the families of those missing.

Together with his colleagues from Bulgaria and Jamaica, Ambassador Maes co-chairs the Group of Friends of Children and Sustainable Development Goals, which meets at UNICEF. He also co-chairs the
Group of Friends of the Responsibility to Protect with his colleagues from Guatemala and Morocco.

During his tenure as Permanent Representative, Ambassador Maes has been appointed four times as co-facilitator by the President of the United Nations General Assembly. With the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, he co-facilitated the Progress Declaration of the first International Migration Review Forum held in May 2022 to assess the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. With the Permanent Representative of South Africa, he co-facilitated the preparation
of the High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development held in September 2023. In 2024-2025, he served with the Permanent Representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as co-facilitator for the preparation of the fourth high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases and the promotion of mental health and well-being, which was held on 25 September 2025. This year, with the Permanent Representative of Kenya, he is co-facilitating the Progress Declaration of the second International Migration Review Forum to be held in May 2026. 

From September 2017 to August 2021, Mr. Maes served as Ambassador, Director for Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Luxembourg.

He was Deputy Permanent Representative of Luxembourg to the United Nations in New York from 27 August 2010 to 31 August 2017, a period that included Luxembourg’s first ever term as an elected
member of the Security Council, in 2013-2014.

Mr. Maes served as Deputy Director for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from November 2007 to August 2010. It is during that period that the official development assistance (ODA) provided by Luxembourg reached 1% of its gross national income.

From 2003 to 2007, Mr. Maes was posted in Brussels, where he served as the Deputy Representative of Luxembourg to the Political and Security Committee of the European Union from 15 August 2006 to 31 October 2007, after serving as Politico-Military Counsellor from 1 September 2003 to 14 August 2006. He chaired the Politico-Military Group during Luxembourg’s Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first semester of 2005.

From 6 April 1999 to 31 August 2003, Mr. Maes worked on the cooperation with non-governmental organizations in the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Luxembourg.

Mr. Maes received a post-graduate diploma from the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) in France in 1998, where he undertook a comparative study of democratic transitions in post-communist Europe. This followed two diplomas in political and social sciences he obtained from Sciences Po Paris and from the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany in 1996 and 1997.

Born on 23 January 1974 in Nancy, France, Mr. Maes is married to a United Nations staff interpreter and they have two children.