Tsitsi Dangarembga is a Zimbabwean novelist, playwright and filmmaker. Her debut novel, Nervous Conditions (1988), which was the first to be published in English by a Black woman from Zimbabwe, was named by the BBC in 2018 as one of the top 100 books that have shaped the world. She has won other literary honours, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the PEN Pinter Prize. In 2020, her novel This Mournable Body was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2022, Dangarembga was convicted in a Zimbabwe court of inciting public violence, by displaying, on a public road, a placard asking for reform.
Simbarashe Simbanenduku Mumbengegwi is a Zimbabwean politician and diplomat currently serving as Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and Monitoring Government Programmes. Previously he was acting Foreign Minister for a few days following the resignation of former President Robert Mugabe He had previously served as Zimbabwe's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2017. From October to November 2017, he was Minister of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion.
Salim Ahmed Salim is a Tanzanian politician and diplomat who has worked in the international diplomatic arena since the early 1960s. He served as prime minister for one year, from 1984 to 1985.
Rosario Manalo, is a Filipino career diplomat, political scientist, and educator in the Philippines. She is the Special Representative of the Philippines to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights and has served as undersecretary of Foreign Affairs in charge of International Economic Relations from 1997 to 2001. Moreover, she has served as Philippine ambassador to Sweden, to France, to Belgium and to the European Economic Community.
Lieutenant Colonel Boniface Guwa Chidyausiku is a Zimbabwean diplomat who served as Zimbabwe's Ambassador to Russia from 2011 to 2015. Chidyausiku participated in the Zimbabwe Liberation War as a member of ZANLA from 1975 to 1980, which led to the attainment of National Independence and multiracial democracy. He was attested and commissioned with the rank of Lt Colonel in the Zimbabwe National Army. He went back to college in 1982 and obtained a BA History [Honours] Degree, and a Master of Science Degree in International Relations from the University of Zimbabwe.
Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi is a Nigerian diplomat. He is best known as the former President of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Uhomoibhi's term as President was from 19 June 2008 to 18 June 2009. Martin Uhomoibhi served as Permanent Secretary of the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In October 2015 he was appointed as Joint Special Representative for Darfur and Head of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID).
Ruchira Kamboj is a retired Indian Foreign Service officer of the 1987 batch, who last served as India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from August 2022 to May 2024 until her retirement. She has previously served as High Commissioner of India to South Africa, first female Indian Ambassador to Bhutan and Ambassador/Permanent Representative of India to UNESCO, Paris.
Abdulrahim Abby Farah was a Welsh-born Somali diplomat and politician. He was Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations 1979-1990. He served as the Permanent Representative of Somalia to the United Nations, and as the Ambassador of Somalia to Ethiopia. He was the Chairperson of the PaSAGO non-governmental organization. He hailed from the Rer Wa’ays subdivision of the Isamusa subclan of the Isaaq.
Anne Anderson is a former Irish diplomat. She was the 17th ambassador of Ireland to the United States. She has also been Ambassador of Ireland to the United Nations, the European Union, France, and Monaco, the first woman to hold each of these positions.
Gillian Elizabeth Bird has served as Australia's Ambassador to France since November 2020. Bird concurrently serves as Australia's non-resident Ambassador to Algeria, Mauritania, and Monaco. She is a former Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations, serving between 2015 and 2019.
Masud Bin Momen is the former Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh. He is a career Bangladeshi diplomat. He served as an ambassador and permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations. He also served as the ambassador to Japan and Italy.
Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee is a Ghanaian diplomat who has been serving as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations for Africa at the United Nations Secretariat since 2021. In this capacity, she is part of the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.
Aruni Yasodha Wijewardane is a Sri Lankan diplomat who served as the Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka from 2022 to 2024. Previously she served in several senior positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka, as well as overseas. From 2005 to 2008 she served as Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Austria and Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna. In addition to her career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she also served as an international civil servant, as Director of the Secretariat of the Policy Making Organs of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 2013 to 2020.
Euripides L. Evriviades is a Cypriot former diplomat who served as High Commissioner of Cyprus to the UK, accredited to the Court of St. James's and Permanent Representative of Cyprus to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). He chaired the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Secretariat, having previously chaired its executive committee. He was born in Larnaca, Cyprus and is married to Anastasia Iacovidou-Evriviades, an attorney-at-law.
Stuart Harold Comberbach is a Zimbabwean diplomat and politician. Currently, he serves as Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Zimbabwe to the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva, Switzerland.
Collen Vixen Kelapile is the ambassador and permanent representative of Botswana to the United Nations since 2018. On 23 July 2021 he was elected President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council for the 2022 session.
Shorna-Kay Richards is a Jamaican career diplomat currently serving as the Jamaican Ambassador to Japan. She previously served as the Director of the Bilateral Relations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the United Nations in New York City and served as Vice-Chair of the UN Disarmament Commission.
Saroja Sirisena is a Sri Lankan diplomat. She serves as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, which she was appointed to in 2020. She has previously held diplomatic positions at the United Nations, as well as in Austria and India.
Wayne McCook is a Jamaican lawyer and career diplomat who was Jamaican first resident ambassador to China and served as Jamaica's permanent representative to the United Nations offices in Geneva, Switzerland and Rome, Italy. After four decades of diplomatic career, McCook retired from public service to a private career where he served as senior adviser to the Director General of World Trade Organization (WTO). He is married to Jennifer Liu, and has two children, Alexa and Adam McCook
Nabeela Abdulla Al Mulla in Kuwait City, is a Kuwaiti diplomat, scholar, and educator. Al Mulla was the first woman ambassador from Kuwait and the Gulf Cooperation Council. She was also the first woman from the Middle East and South Asia to chair the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2002. In 2004, Al Mulla became the first Arab woman to be named Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Throughout her career, Al Mulla has represented Kuwait in diplomatic missions in Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mauritius, Botswana, and the Bahamas. She has also represented Kuwait in international organizations such as the United Nations, European Union, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In 2022, she was appointed by the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres as a member of the United Nations' Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (ABDM).
