Cyril Ritchie is a Vice-President of the UIA since 1998, and has been a member of the Executive Council since 1984. He has served as the UIA Representative to the United Nations in New York, Geneva and Vienna since 1988, and also to other international agencies and NGOs.

Mr. Ritchie is the President of the Federation of International NGOs in Geneva (FIIG), of CoNGO, and of the Council of Europe INGO Grouping "Civil society and democracy in Europe", meeting regularly in Strasbourg. He is also on the Steering Committee of the UBUNTU World Campaign for in-depth Reform of International Institutions, based in Barcelona, and is the Chairman of the Environment Liaison Centre International, headquartered in Nairobi.

In addition, Mr. Ritchie has been: the long-term President of the Switzerland Chapter of the Society for International Development; the Executive Director of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) for 14 years; the President of the 2006 International Civil Society Forum for Democracy held in Qatar; the Chair of the World Civil Society Conference (WOCSOC) in Montréal. He has participated in most of the United Nations Summits and World Conferences (Food, Environment, Women, Habitat, Nutrition, Social Development, Information, Sustainable Development…)