Dharamsala: Mr Sonam Norbu Dagpo, Secretary of Department of Information and International Relations, CTA was elected as Chief Justice Commissioner of the Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission in a voting held on the third day of the eighth session of 16th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile.
Mr Sonam Dagpo got 30 votes against 8 for Mr Ngodup Dorjee, former Representative of Office of Tibet, Geneva. The voting also included 1 invalid and 3 blank votes.
The incumbent Secretary of DIIR, Mr Sonam Norbu Dagpo has undertaken various prominent roles in the Central Tibetan Administration during his long and accomplished career, including as former Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and as member of the Tibetan delegation that met Chinese representatives to resolve the issue of Tibet.
He joined the Central Tibetan Administration as a Tibetan civil servant on 20 September 1988 as a senior clerk at the Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in New Delhi. In 1990, he was transferred to the Cabinet Secretariat in Dharamshala and promoted to Deputy Secretary in 1992.
From 1993-1994, he was granted one year official leave to pursue further studies at Harvard University in the United States.
Upon his return from his further studies in 1994, he was appointed as the chief co-ordinator of the Chinese outreach program at DIIR. In 1998, he was appointed as the Secretary of the Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in New Delhi.
One year later, he was promoted to Additional Secretary and transferred to the DIIR on 9 February 1999. He was appointed as the Secretary for DIIR in 2004.
In 2009, he was transferred to Australia as the new Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Office of Tibet in Canberra. Mr Sonam Dagpo formally took charge as the Secretary for International Relations at the Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR), Central Tibetan Administration on 30 July 2014.