Ambassador
JUDr. Petr Válek, LL.M., Ph.D.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the Council of Europe
PROFESSIONAL HISTORY:
2021 Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the Council of Europe
2012-2021 Director of the International Law Department of the Czech MFA
2009-2012 Legal Advisor of the Czech Permanent Mission to the UN in New York
2007-2009 Legal Officer at the International Law Department of the Czech MFA
2007 Legal Advisor in the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) in Pristina
2005-2007 Legal Officer at the International Law Department of the Czech MFA
2004 Legal Advisor in the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) of Iraq in Bagdad
2004 Intern at the International Law Department of the Czech MFA
2002-2003 compulsory military service in the Czech Army (rank achieved: 2nd Lt.)
ELECTED FUNCTIONS IN INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS:
2017-2020 Vice-Chair and Chair of the Council of Europe Committee of Legal Advisers on Public International Law (CAHDI)
2011-2013 rapporteur of the Ad Hoc Committee established by the UN General Assembly to elaborate the comprehensive convention on international terrorism
2011 Vice-Chair of the Sixth (Legal) Committee of the UN General Assembly
EDUCATION:
2007-2009 The Charles University Law School in Prague: Ph.D. in international law
2008 The Hague Academy of International Law
2004-2005 The University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor: LL.M. (Fulbright)
2003 Diplomatic Academy of the Czech MFA
2002 Military Academy of the Czech Army in Vyškov (within military service)
2000-2001 The J.W. Goethe University Law School in Frankfurt (exchange student)
1997-2002 The Charles University Law School in Prague: Mgr., summa cum laude
PUBLICATIONS RELATED TO THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE:
- The European Convention on Human Rights and the CAHDI (in: 70th Anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights, RWW, Prague, 2021).
- The MFA in the Process of Conclusion and Internal Approval of Human Rights Treaties in the Czech Republic (in: The International Human Rights Obligations of the Post-Communist Countries: the Cases of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Leges, Prague, 2016).
- The Czech Contribution to the Work of the United Nations War Crimes Commission: the Auschwitz and Birkenau Case (CYIL, Prague, 2016).
- The Different Roles of the Czech Legal Adviser: From a Watchdog to a Headhunter (in: The Role of Legal Advisers in International Law, Brill, Leiden, 2016).
- The Czech-Austrian Declaration on Jurisdictional Immunities of State-Owned Cultural Property (CYIL, Prague, 2015).
- The Key Decisions of the International Criminal Tribunals in the Light of International Law (C. H. Beck, Prague, 2009).
- Legality versus Legitimacy and the Use of Force (in: Progress in International Law, Brill, Leiden, 2008).