International work experience

Tjaco van den Hout studied law at Leiden University and graduated with distinction in 1974. He joined the Dutch Foreign Service the following year, initially serving at posts in Africa and Southeast Asia. Subsequently assigned to his country’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York, he served on the 2nd and 5th Committees of the United Nations General Assembly and the governing boards of UNICEF and UNDP. He also sat on the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), an advisory committee of the UN General Assembly that deals with financial, administrative and managerial issues regarding the UN system.

Tjaco van den Hout returned to the Dutch Foreign Ministry for a 5-year home posting after which he was appointed Consul-General to New York, managing his country’s largest consular post with jurisdiction in the Northeast of the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He returned to the Foreign Ministry 3 years later to become its Deputy Secretary-General. He then left the Dutch diplomatic service to take the helm at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) - a treaty-based international organisation devoted to the settlement of international disputes and headquartered, alongside the International Court of Justice, in the Peace Palace at The Hague. After a first 5 year term he was re-elected for a second term. In June 2008, after having served the organisation for 9 years and overseeing its revitalisation, he announced his intention to step down and return to diplomatic service.

He was subsequently appointed Netherlands ambassador to Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia and Laos with residence in Bangkok, taking up his duties in September 2008. Upon completion of this assignment he was awarded the Knight Grand Cross (First Class) of the Order of the White Elephant from then Crown Prince (now King) Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand for services to the State.