Chris Beeby
{{short description|New Zealand diplomat}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Christopher Beeby
| image = File:Chris Beeby (new zealand diplomat).png
| office = Ambassador of New Zealand to Iran
| office2 = New Zealand Deputy-Secretary of Foreign Affairs
| termstart2 = 1985
| termend2 = 1991
| office3 = Ambassador of New Zealand to France
| termstart3 = 1991
| termend3 = 1996
| office4 = Member of the Appellate Body
| termstart4 = 1995
| termend4 = 19 March 2000
| birth_name =
| birth_date = October 1935
| birth_place = Wellington, New Zealand
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2000|03|19|1935|10|df=y}}
| death_place = Geneva, Switzerland
| termstart = 15 May 1978
| termend = 15 June 1980
| relatives = Beatrice Beeby (mother)
C. E. Beeby (father)
}}
Christopher David Beeby (October 1935 – 19 March 2000) was a New Zealand diplomat who held several ambassadorships and was involved in international litigation and negotiations, notably over Antarctic resources. Beeby was New Zealand's ambassador to Iran (1978 to 1980) and to France (1991 to 1996) and was a member of the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body from 1995 to his death in 2000. While ambassador to Iran, Beeby assisted American diplomats in the Iran hostage crisis.
Biography
Christopher David Beeby{{Cite news|last=Kitchin|first=Peter|date=30 March 2000|title=Geneva, Otaki Forks home to diplomacy's everyman|page=7|work=The Evening Post}} was born on 10 or 15 October 1935, in Wellington, New Zealand, to C. E. Beeby and Beatrice Beeby.{{Cite book|last=Alcorn|first=Noeline|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MfrO3EvD6tsC|title=To the Fullest Extent of His Powers: C.E. Beeby's Life in Education|date=1999|publisher=Victoria University Press|isbn=978-0-86473-353-5|pages=63, 304|language=en}} He attended the Victoria University of Wellington and the London School of Economics. He entered the New Zealand Department of Foreign Affairs in 1963 as a legal adviser, first working on the New Zealand Australia Free Trade Agreement. He was promoted to a divisional head in the department's legal division in 1969 and headed the economic division from 1976 to 1978.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xMNOdF7vuXkC|title=WTO Appellate Body Repertory of Reports and Awards: 1995–2010|date=2011-04-28|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-50149-1|pages=1174|language=en}}
Beeby worked to draft anti-nuclear legislation for New Zealand and served as counsel for New Zealand in the International Court of Justice during the Nuclear Tests Case in 1973 and 1974.{{Cite web|title=DG Moore notes with sadness the passing of appellate judge Beeby|url=https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres00_e/pr171_e.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2020-12-01|website=WTO News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000817061953/http://www.wto.org:80/english/news_e/pres00_e/pr171_e.htm |archive-date=2000-08-17 }}{{Cite web|title=New Zealand Diplomat Beeby Dies|url=https://apnews.com/article/9c70ccd03edcd93381b574d47c3f6942|access-date=2020-12-01|website=AP NEWS}} As Ambassador of New Zealand to Iran from 15 May 1978 to 15 June 1980,{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2007-02-11|title=New Zealand Heads of Overseas Missions|url=http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Embassies/3-NZ-Ambassadors/countries-i.php|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070211055248/http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Embassies/3-NZ-Ambassadors/countries-i.php|archive-date=2007-02-11|access-date=2021-01-19|website=NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade}} Beeby was involved in the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, when he, as ambassador, and another employee at the New Zealand embassy, Richard Sewell, helped several American diplomats escape to safety. The New Zealand Herald named Beeby and Sewell the "New Zealanders of the Year for 1979" for their actions.{{Cite web|title=1979, Chris Beeby and Richard Sewell: The Argo story|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/1979-chris-beeby-and-richard-sewell-the-argo-story/GOJAOKHZNYDPWVVKYITOE7G4Z4/|access-date=2020-12-01|website=NZ Herald|language=en-NZ}}{{Cite web|date=2013-03-13|title=NZ diplomats 'heroic' - Argo escapee|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/8424975/NZ-diplomats-heroic-Argo-escapee|access-date=2020-12-01|website=Stuff|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Fisher|first=Max|title=Why New Zealand is officially, earnestly upset about 'Argo'|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/02/27/why-new-zealand-is-officially-earnestly-upset-about-argo/|access-date=2020-12-01|issn=0190-8286}} In 1983 Beeby chaired several negotiations on the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities.{{Cite book|last=Day|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNiYEpc5VP0C&dq=%22Chris+Beeby%22+diplomat&pg=PP475|title=Antarctica: A Biography|date=2013-06-03|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-932362-3|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Shapley|first=Deborah|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C5QuAgAAQBAJ&dq=%22beeby%22&pg=PA148|title=The Seventh Continent: Antarctica in a Resource Age|date=2013-11-26|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-99386-3|pages=174|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Nagtzaam|first=Gerry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TVlfil7gn0gC&dq=%22chris+beeby%22&pg=PA112|title=The Making of International Environmental Treaties: Neoliberal and Constructivist Analyses of Normative Evolution|date=2009|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|isbn=978-1-84980-348-9|pages=112|language=en}}{{Cite journal|last1=Bilder|first1=Richard B.|last2=Mansfield|first2=William R.|last3=Joyner|first3=Christopher C.|last4=Barnes|first4=James N.|last5=Chopra|first5=Sudhir K.|date=1985|title=Who Has the Right of Exploitation, and the Right to Prevent Exploitation, of the Minerals in Antarctica?|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25658245|journal=Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (American Society of International Law)|volume=79|pages=68|jstor=25658245|issn=0272-5037}} He spent six years working towards a convention that eventually manifested as the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty.
He was involved in the Rainbow Warrior Case in 1989 to 1990. Beeby was Deputy-Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1985 to 1991 and Ambassador of New Zealand to France (1992 to 1995). While living in Paris, in 1993 Beeby's offices were raided by French farmers. He was also at one point New Zealand's Permanent Representative to the OECD. In 1995 he attempted to mediate an end to the Pacific Salmon War between Canada and the United States, but was unsuccessful. That same year he was appointed as an original member of the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body, which he chaired in 1998. He was still serving upon his death.
He died on 19 March 2000 at the age of 64, in Geneva. Phil Goff, then Foreign Minister of New Zealand, said that “Chris Beeby was widely regarded as an exceptional diplomat and one of the best international lawyers of modern times.”{{Cite web|title=Passing of Distinguished Diplomat Chris Beeby|url=http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/passing-distinguished-diplomat-chris-beeby|access-date=2020-12-01|website=The Beehive|language=en}} Beeby Peak in Antarctica is named after him.{{Cite web|title=Beeby Peak|url=https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/scar/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=122349|access-date=2020-12-01|website=SCAR Composite Gazetteer}}{{Cite news|date=23 March 2000|title=A 'most brilliant' diplomat|work=The Press}}