H.E. Ms. Penelope Beckles
Permanent Representative of Trinidad & Tobago to the United Nations
A practising attorney since 1988, Ambassador Pennelope Beckles has held a number of ministerial portfolios in Trinidad and Tobago, including Minister for Public Utilities and the Environment, from 2003 to 2007, and Minister for Culture and Tourism from 2002 to 2003. From 2001 to 2002, she was concurrently Minister for Social Development, Minister for Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs and Minister for Health.
Having first entered Parliament in 1995 as an Opposition Senator, she served as Leader of Opposition Business in Trinidad and Tobago’s Senate from 2010 to 2013 and its first female Deputy Speaker of the Parliament from 2007 to 2010.
A past student of St Joseph’s Convent, San Fernando, Ambassador Beckles attended the University of the West Indies, at both the St. Augustine, Trinidad and Cave Hill, Barbados, campuses where she graduated with honours. She then graduated from the Hugh Wooding Law School.
As a resident of her local hometown of Arima, Ambassador Beckles is deeply involved in a number of community and national organizations, including the Arima Foundation for the Advancement of Women and Children and the Rape Crisis Centre of Trinidad and Tobago, where she served as President. Ambassador Beckles is also a member of the UNICEF Board in Trinidad, as well as the Commonwealth Institute for Women in Leadership.
On 22 August 2016, she presented her credentials to then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as the Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations.
Special interests include issue relating to women and children, health, and the environment.
Born on 12 September 1961, she is married and has four step-children.
Having first entered Parliament in 1995 as an Opposition Senator, she served as Leader of Opposition Business in Trinidad and Tobago’s Senate from 2010 to 2013 and its first female Deputy Speaker of the Parliament from 2007 to 2010.
A past student of St Joseph’s Convent, San Fernando, Ambassador Beckles attended the University of the West Indies, at both the St. Augustine, Trinidad and Cave Hill, Barbados, campuses where she graduated with honours. She then graduated from the Hugh Wooding Law School.
As a resident of her local hometown of Arima, Ambassador Beckles is deeply involved in a number of community and national organizations, including the Arima Foundation for the Advancement of Women and Children and the Rape Crisis Centre of Trinidad and Tobago, where she served as President. Ambassador Beckles is also a member of the UNICEF Board in Trinidad, as well as the Commonwealth Institute for Women in Leadership.
On 22 August 2016, she presented her credentials to then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as the Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations.
Special interests include issue relating to women and children, health, and the environment.
Born on 12 September 1961, she is married and has four step-children.