Maleeha Lodhi is a Pakistani diplomat, political scientist, and a former Pakistan's Representative to the United Nations. She was the first woman to hold the position. Previously, she served as Pakistan's envoy to the Court of St James' and twice as its ambassador to the United States.
Dagmar Gabriele Wöhrl is a German politician of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). She was elected to the German Bundestag six times, serving from 1994 to her retirement in 2017. From 2005 until 2009 she was a Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. She has served as Chairwoman of the Committee for Economic Cooperation and Development of the German Bundestag. She was also a member of the 'Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with Arabic-Speaking States' in the Middle East.
Mary E. Kramer is an American former politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as an Iowa State Senator from 1990 to 2003. She was elected President of the Senate in 1997, becoming the first independently elected woman to fill the post. In 2003 Kramer was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean; she was confirmed by the United States Senate and served from 2004 to 2006.
Dr. Paulette A. Bethel is a Bahamian diplomat from the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. She started her professional career in 1980 in the international field as Assistant Social Affairs Officer in the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs (CSDHA) in Vienna, Austria. She then joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Bahamas) and served in diplomatic posts for long years for her country. She was a Special Adviser to the Office of the President of the Seventieth session of the United Nations General Assembly. She was previously the Permanent Representative of the Bahamas to the United Nations from 4 March 2003 to 31 March 2013. She was the first female Ambassador of The Bahamas to the United Nations. She had also worked as Director of the Department of Fellowships at the Organization of American States (OAS); the first such position for a national of Bahamas.
Durgabāi Deshmukh was an Indian freedom fighter, lawyer, social worker and politician. She was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India and of the Planning Commission of India.
Jozefina Topalli is an Albanian politician who formerly served as the Chairwoman of the Parliament of Albania from 2 September 2005 until 9 September 2013. She held the title of vice president of the Democratic Party of Albania. Topalli is married and has two children.
María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés is an Ecuadorian linguist, poet, politician, and diplomat. Currently, is Executive Director of GWL Voices, an NGO dedicated to achieve a gender-equal multilateral system. She served as an advisor on biodiversity and indigenous peoples (1999-2005) and was the regional director for South America (2005-2007) at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Espinosa Garcés was Ecuador's Minister of Foreign Affairs twice, from 2007 to 2008 and then from 2017 to 2018. She also served as ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in New York (2008-2009) and Geneva (2014-2017), and as Ecuador's Minister of National Defense (2012-2014). In June 2018, she was elected President of the United Nations General Assembly for the 73rd session by a two-thirds vote of the member states. Espinosa Garcés became the fourth woman in the seventy-three-year history of the United Nations to be elected President of the General Assembly. Besides her political career, she is also a poet and essayist.
Catherine Mary Russell is an American attorney and political adviser who is the executive director of UNICEF as of 2022. Russell previously served as Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, and Chief of Staff to then-Second Lady of the United States Jill Biden.
Geeta Rao Gupta is a leader on gender, women's issues, and HIV/AIDS who is serving as United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues since May 2023. She previously served as executive director of the 3D Program for Girls and Women and senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation since 2017. She is frequently consulted on issues related to AIDS prevention and women's vulnerability to HIV and is an advocate for women's economic and social empowerment to fight disease, poverty and hunger.
Annelie Lotriet is a South African politician who is currently serving as the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa since June 2024. She has served in the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet since she joined the National Assembly in 2009. She is also a Deputy Chairperson of the Democratic Alliance (DA) Federal Council.
Mary E. Kramer is an American former politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as an Iowa State Senator from 1990 to 2003. She was elected President of the Senate in 1997, becoming the first independently elected woman to fill the post. In 2003 Kramer was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean; she was confirmed by the United States Senate and served from 2004 to 2006.
Zina Harman was an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Alignment between 1969 and 1974 and as Chairman of UNICEF from 1964 to 1966.
Ambassador Nusura TIPERU is a Ugandan diplomat, and politician with vast experience as a National and East African legislator. She served as Uganda's first National Female Youth Member of Parliament following the promulgation of the 1995 Constitution.
Macharia Kamau is Kenya's Principal Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He previously served as Kenya's representative to the United Nations and as the former President of the UNICEF Executives Board.
Hlengiwe Buhle Mkhize was a South African politician who served as Minister of Higher Education and Training and Minister of Home Affairs under President Jacob Zuma. A member of the National Assembly and national executive since May 2009, she was Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities when she died in September 2021.
Tokozile Xasa is a South African politician who was the Minister of Sport and Recreation from February 2018 to May 2019. Before that, she was the Minister of Tourism from March 2017 to February 2018. A member of the National Assembly between 2009 and 2019, she took office as South African Ambassador to Belgium in February 2021.
Yvonne Khamati, is a Kenyan politician that was nominated to the East African Legislative Assembly as Member of Parliament by Ford Kenya Party aged 21 and a diplomat who was appointed by President Mwai Kibaki to serve as Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to Ethiopia and African Union at 24. She has served in the past, as the Chair of the Committee of Permanent Representatives and Rapporteur of the African Diplomatic Corp, in the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has worked in various missions. As of November 2018, she served as the deputy ambassador of Kenya at the Kenyan Embassy in Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia. She is currently the C.E.O of the Kenya National Heroes Council, a parastatal under the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage
Marta Maurás Pérez is a Chilean diplomat and sociologist. Since 2014, she has been the representative of Chile to international organizations based in Geneva.
Claudia Nonhlanhla Ndaba is a South African politician. A member of the African National Congress, she served as the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and People with Disabilities from 2019 until 2024 and a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa from 2014 until 2024. She served as Chairperson of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Filling of Vacancies in the Commission for Gender Equality twice during her first term in parliament. Prior to her election to parliament, Ndaba served as a Member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature from 2009 to 2014.
