Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger
Ambassador Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger has been serving as Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations Office at Geneva since December 2017, and as President of the UN Human Rights Council since January 2020.
Prior to her appointment to Geneva, Ms. Tichy-Fisslberger served from 2007 to 2017 as Director General for Legal and Consular Affairs at the Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs. Ambassador Tichy-Fisslberger joined the Austrian diplomatic service in 1988 and has a long record of working in various areas of European affairs. Before joining the Austrian diplomatic service, she worked for the European Commission in Brussels. Foreign postings included Dublin, London and a long spell in Brussels.
Ambassador Tichy-Fisslberger was the first Austrian National Coordinator on Combatting Human Trafficking as well as President of the Austrian Task Force on Combatting Human Trafficking (2009-2017). Since 2002, she has been a lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy, Vienna, and from 2006-2017 also at the University of Vienna.
Amb. Tichy-Fisslberger was profiled for ATLAS by Verity Robson, the Legal Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations in Geneva. You can read more about Verity’s career at the end of the profile. Follow her on Twitter @VerityJRobson
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What pulled you to a career in diplomacy and international law, and what were your first steps?
I was not one of these people who knew at the age of ten that they wanted to become a doctor, or a sports champion. I studied Law and Languages at university, for a double degree, because it seemed to me that this combination was a good coverage of all the things that I was interested in, and that it would allow me to make a career choice later. Since I was always very interested in going abroad, studying law was not necessarily the cleverest choice because a legal degree is most useful in the country where you study it, but with International Law and European Law as possibilities, I thought it was promising.
After university I did an internship in Brussels, and was offered a job at the European Commission, so I did that for a few years. But I really wanted to go into diplomacy, so eventually when the Austrian Foreign Service had an entrance test, I took that. The Foreign Service was interested because I was one of the few Austrians who had already worked for the European Commission, at a time when Austria was starting its negotiations to enter the EU. From then on I had to do with European affairs, in different ways for 20 years: I joined the negotiation team which achieved Austria’s accession to the EU and then I was part of the first Austrian Presidency in Brussels. After that I came back to Vienna and participated in a series of negotiations aimed at changing the EU primary law Treaties. And then I became Director-General for Legal and Consular Affairs, which also included a wide multilateral mandate.
I did not have a classical human rights career, though my work always included legal aspects and diplomatic negotiations. I tended to claim that Consular Affairs were human rights in practical terms! I came into a human rights job rather late. All in all, I think it was quite a useful way of approaching work in human rights. I can see that many young people coming directly from the universities, saying they are interested above all in working in human rights, but very often you have to gain some professional experience in other matters before you are eligible for a really interesting human rights job.
What have been the high points of your career thus far?
I really liked the work in European affairs. As you can imagine, negotiating your country’s accession to the EU is a great job for a young person if a majority of people think that this is the main diplomatic project of your generation. After that I stayed in Brussels for Austria’s first EU Presidency: that really was my first taste of multilateralism at work, though in a smaller international organisation and with countries which were more like-minded than the Member states of the UN are.
Back in Vienna, I was Director for the negotiations on the Nice Treaty and later on the Lisbon Treaty. Then I was appointed as one of seven Director-Generals - the only woman at that level for quite some time. Being in charge of Legal and Consular Affairs also meant that I was responsible for migration when the 2015 crisis materialized.
And then I came here [as the Permanent Representative of Austria to the UN in Geneva]. As opposed to many other ambassadors, I was a newcomer to Geneva. I had to find my way, my priorities. From the beginning I was most interested in organisations and activities which can lead to tangible results: the Red Cross, IOM, UNHCR, organisations where you can really see what they do for people. And, of course, the Human Rights Council reflects the entire big picture of what’s going on in the world in geopolitical terms: where the problems or tensions are between countries and regions.
After around a year, I was asked by my team to stand for the Presidency of the Human Rights Council. I probably would not have volunteered if no one had asked me – maybe it is a typically female thing to think that others would do better or have more relevant experience. But in the end – after two subsequent Austrian Ministers said they would support my candidacy (we had a change of government at that stage) – I said: ok, let’s try.
What are some of the challenges that you have faced, and how have you tackled them?
When I started my career, there were not many senior women in the Foreign Service. But I was lucky with my bosses when I was young: they all had daughters, who were quite ambitious. I think that helps to change a man’s mindset.
We have had three female Foreign Ministers so far – and they did have a record of nominating more women. The first of them nominated me, for example. After that we had a spell with two male foreign ministers who always gave us the impression that they were more at ease if surrounded by men. The overall balance got quite a bit better in the last five years.
Do you have any advice for those, particularly women, who are embarking on a career in this field?
How you navigate the system is different in different countries. It is not only about knowing your rights, but also what is expected from a professional.
Make growing your confidence a priority. I’ve often observed that some women can be more timid and less confident than men. In some cases you offer them a job only to find out that they doubt whether they will be able to do it. I have never seen a man doubt whether he would be able to do something attractive that was offered to him.
Ask for what you want (even though you may not get it). We have often had interns who asked for recommendation letters at the end of their turn of office. Once in a while, male interns would not be satisfied with such recommendations and request “something more positive”. As far as I remember, young women never asked for that.
Diplomacy can be a useful tool in navigating challenging moments in male-dominated environments. Something that diplomacy teaches you, perhaps more so than in other jobs, is that if you approach difficult men in a professional way, you somehow take the wind out of their sails and that makes it easier to get what you want. No opponent wants to lose face. You don’t need to go head to head with these machos by trying to convince them that you are entitled to something. Encourage them to be courteous rather than combative. It’s harder for someone to say no if you ask in a civil way.
Your career is something you cannot really plan, or even predict. If there is an opportunity you have to grasp it, and in the meantime try to build a good reputation for yourself.
Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger was profiled for ATLAS by Verity Robson. Verity is the Legal Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations in Geneva. She previously served as an international law adviser in the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Government Equalities Office, on an independent inquiry into alleged war crimes by British soldiers in Iraq, and with the Scottish Law Commission; and has worked for women's rights NGOs in the UK, India and Kenya. She holds master's degrees from the University of St Andrews and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and a law degree from the University of Edinburgh. After completing her legal training with the Scottish Government, she was admitted as a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales and in Scotland. Follow her on Twitter @VerityJRobson