Our Common Humanity in the Information Age. Principles and Values for Development

EVENT, 29 NOVEMBER 2006
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H.E. Martti Ahtisaari, Former President of Finland, Special Envoy of the United 
Nations Secretary-General for Kosovo
On 14 November 2005, Mr. Ahtisaari was appointed the Special Envoy of the Secretary-
General of the United Nations for the future status process for Kosovo. Prior to this, and 
upon leaving office as President of Finland, Mr. Ahtisaari founded the Non-
Governmental Organisation Crisis Management Initiative, where he is the Chairman of 
the Board. Other post-presidential activities have included facilitating the peace process 
between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement, chairing an 
independent panel on the security and safety of UN personnel in Iraq and appointments as 
the UN Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa and Personal Envoy of the OSCE CiO for 
Central Asia.
Since joining the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in 1965 Mr. Ahtisaari has held 
various positions in the Ministry including as Under-Secretary of State in charge of 
International Development Co-operation and Secretary of State. He served as the Special 
Representative of the Secretary-General for Namibia in 1978 to 1990 and became the 
Under-Secretary General for Administration and Management in 1987.
President Ahtisaari serves as Chairman of the Balkan Children and Youth Foundation, as 
well as of the Governing Council of Interpeace. In Finland, President Ahtisaari is active 
on the corporate governing boards of Elcoteq SE and UPM -Kymmene.
H.E. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, President of the General Assembly 
H.E. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa was elected President of the sixty-first session of 
the General Assembly on 8 June 2006. At the time, she was serving as Legal Adviser to 
the Royal Court in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
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Titles reflect the situation on 29 November 2006.

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174 | Our Common Humanity in the Information Age 
Sheikha Haya brings to the post a long and distinguished legal career at both the national 
and international levels, spanning three decades. One of the first two women to practise 
law in her country, she has held many senior positions with leading legal organizations of 
the world including the International Bar Association, where from 1997 to 1999 she was 
vice-chairwoman of the arbitration and dispute resolution committee, the first woman 
from the Middle East to serve in this capacity. Her pioneering role in the legal sphere has 
been coupled more recently with prestigious diplomatic assignments as her country's 
Ambassador to France, from 2000 to 2004, and as non-resident Ambassador to Belgium, 
Switzerland and Spain and the Kingdom's permanent representative to the United Nations 
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). She also was a member of 
the World Intellectual Property Organization's Arbitration Centre Consultative 
Committee and became Bahrain's representative on the International Court of Arbitration 
of the International Chamber of Commerce, an appointment that she still holds today.
A champion of women's rights, particularly in the legal sphere, Sheikha Haya has been an 
active participant in the movement to elevate the position of women in Bahrain before the 
Islamic sharia courts and is an advocate of a progressive interpretation of Islamic texts as 
they apply to women. She was a vice-president of the Bahrain Bar Society as well as a 
member of the Supreme Council of Culture, Art and Literature, and is currently a 
member of her country's Child Development Society and the Arab Women's Legal 
Network.
She holds an LLB from the University of Kuwait and studied international public law at 
the University of Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne. She also holds postgraduate degrees in 
civil private law from Alexandria University and in comparative law from Ain Shams 
University in Egypt. She is only the third woman to serve as President of the United 
Nations General Assembly, and the first since the twenty-fourth session in 1969.