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                   | Haya Rashed al-Khalifa, a woman diplomat from Bahrain, has been elected president of the UN General Assembly - June 8, 2006 - Haya Rashed al-Khalifa, UN delegate from Bahrain, was elected to succeed Jan Eliasson, the Swedish foreign minister, as president of the 191-member UN General Assembly. In the 1970s, Sheikha Haya was one of the first two women in Bahrain to become a lawyer and is currently legal advisor to the Royal Court of Bahrain. She is the principal and founding partner of Haya Rashed al-Khalifa Law Firm. Much of her legal career focused on advancing women's rights in Islamic family courts. She was the first woman to become a diplomat in Bahrain and, from 2000 to 2004, she was Bahrain's ambassador to France. She is Bahrain's delegate to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). She is the third woman to become president of the UN General Assembly. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, from India, was the first woman president of the UN General Assembly, elected in 1953. In 1969, Angie E. Brooks, from Liberia, was the second women elected president of the assembly. A total of sixty men have served as president to the UN General Assembly. Haya Rashed al-Khalifa, 53, will assume the office when the assembly reconvenes on September 12. For more information on past presidents of the UN General Assembly: http://www.un.org/ga/60/presskit/presidents.htm
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| Equal Representation –The Essence of Democracy Updated 2009-02-14 |