CMEC Women's Programme: Podcast with H.E Sheikha Haya Rashed al Khalifa

CMEC’s Women's programme will look at the often-overlooked roles that women play in diplomacy, business, sport, arts and culture throughout the Middle East region.

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks with pioneering lawyer and diplomat, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa.

The views expressed in the recording are those of the speakers alone.

Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa 

Sheikha Haya is a pioneering lawyer and diplomat from Bahrain. As ambassador to France (1999-2004) she became Bahrain’s first ever female ambassador. She was one of the first two women in Bahrain to practice law when she was admitted as a lawyer in Bahrain in 1979. She is also Bahrain's permanent delegate to UNESCO. She served as the President of the 61st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) which closed in September 2007. She is the third woman to hold the position. She is the recipient of several notable awards, the most recent of which include the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Special Award, 2007, in recognition of her work in promoting the set of global anti-poverty targets, the Path to Peace Award 2007, from the Path to Peace Foundation, in recognition of acts of individual leadership in the international community, and the Social Creativity Award, representing appreciation for Arab women, at the Sixth Conference of the Arab Thought Foundation. Sheikha Haya is the principal and founding partner of Haya Rashed Al Khalifa Law Firm.