H.E. Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa is the President of the sixty-first session of the United Nations General Assembly. Prior to being elected President, she was serving as Legal Adviser to the Royal Court in the Kingdom of Bahrain. One of the first two women to practice 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. Over the same period she was the Kingdom's permanent representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Sheikha Haya, who is trilingual in Arabic, English and French, holds an LLB from the University of Kuwait and studied international public law at the University of Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne. Recently, she sat down with Citizens for Global Solutions’ Press Secretary Michael Shank for this interview.

The role of the President of the United Nations General Assembly has become increasingly more important over the last few years, particularly as the General Assembly engages in efforts to make the U.N. a more effective organization. How do you see the role of the GA President evolving further? What kind of contribution do you anticipate making?

The role of the General Assembly is clearly set out in the Charter of the United Nations. It is the first organ mentioned in the Charter and it consists of all the Member States. In fact, it is the “chief deliberative, policy making and representative organ of the United Nations” which the 2005 World Summit reaffirmed.

The world is constantly changing and it is imperative that the United Nations not only adapts but responds effectively to the new requirements and the new responsibilities that are expected of it. This is why reform is of the essence and revitalizing the General Assembly, as an essential component of this reform process, will ensure a stronger, more effective United Nations.

Now as this revitalization is underway, the role of the President must also be enhanced to ensure greater continuity of the work of the General Assembly. The President of the General Assembly plays an important role in moving forward the agenda and forging consensus, this is what we have seen in previous sessions and what I plan to continue.

I intend to work closely with all Member States to continue enhancing the role and authority of the General Assembly. An important aspect of this objective is to ensure that Member States work in a constructive manner so that the General Assembly could achieve tangible results. After all, we need to guarantee that our work has a direct and positive impact on the lives of the nations and people we represent.

As far as the issues defining your term, what do you believe should be the GA’s priorities during this session?

The General Assembly will continue moving ahead with the reform process and recommendations outlined in the 2005 World Summit such as Security Council reform, the strengthening of the Economic and Social Council, management reform, the issue of disarmament and non proliferation, Mandate review, and System-wide Coherence.

We will also be holding two high level events at the beginning of the Sixty-first Session, one on migration and development and the other on least developed countries and both will require follow up.
We will also work to consolidate the achievements of the Sixtieth Session. In particular we will have to ensure that the bodies established during the Sixtieth Session—the Peacebuilding Commission, the Human Rights Council and the Central Emergency Response Fund—function well and live up to expectations.

Furthermore, the theme of this session’s General Debate is implementing a global partnership for development. I look forward to hearing many suggestions and recommendations from Member States, as we develop a way forward on many of the issues that still remain.

It sounds like you see the role of the President as a facilitator, as a convener, to help the Member States better facilitate and act on these issues.

The President is indeed a facilitator and coordinator. The President helps mobilize the political will of the Member States reflecting their interests so that concrete results can be achieved.

How do you see the General Assembly resolving the issue of voting blocs? Do the rules and procedures need to be changed? Will better diplomacy ameliorate that problem?

The General Assembly consists of all 192 Member States and these Member States are organized in regional and sub-regional groups. I do not think voting blocs are the real problem, more and more states see political groupings as providing negotiation leverage. What is important is to ensure that a genuine dialogue exists and the values and principles of the Charter should guide our deliberations.

The General Assembly is reviewing its working methods, pending on their assessment the rules and procedures will reflect that.

As for diplomacy, I think there is always an opportunity to build more trust between Member States by being more transparent. We carry a heavy burden on our shoulders to help the hundreds of millions of people around the world respond to the challenges ahead. We must not lose sight of this responsibility.

How do you see your office building that climate, that culture of trust and diplomacy? Is that something that your office will help initiate?

The foundation of trust and diplomacy already exists. This does not imply, however, that there are no issues of contention among Member States but they can be overcome; it is a two-way process. On our end, the President’s office is committed to working with all Member States in an open, inclusive and transparent way. In turn, Member States must strive to work in a constructive manner and not lose sight that compromise is imperative. It is a give and take process, that is inevitable but it is not a zero sum game. The compromise, in the form of resolutions, can and should satisfy Member States as a whole.

Where do you think we are in the reform process? Do we have a lot more to accomplish?

Many achievements have taken place during the Sixtieth Session, under the leadership of President Eliasson. The Human Rights Council and the Peacebuilding Commission were established, a Central Emergency Response Fund was set up. Yet there is a lot left to do. We need to follow up the work of these newly established entities and we have to move ahead on management reform, revitalization of the General Assembly, Security Council Reform, and System-wide Coherence.

Another pressing challenge is to move at a faster pace towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. We have until 2015 for the MDGs, only nine years left.

Essentially this session is about continuity, consolidation and development.

What is preventing us from moving more quickly on issues like poverty and climate change?

Fighting abject poverty is a responsibility of all nation states. In order to fight this successfully, it requires a genuine partnership between the countries afflicted with poverty and the international community. As I mentioned earlier, we have dedicated this year’s General Debate to implementing a global partnership for development which aims at forging a closer partnership between donor countries and recipient countries.

Fighting abject poverty requires sufficient and predictable resources coupled with good governance. It is encouraging to note that donors have committed 0.7% of their Gross National Income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance (ODA) but more needs to be done.

As far as climate change is concerned, the discussion of the environment is on the agenda of the Sixty-first Session. There are a world set of agreed instruments to regulate the gas emissions that affect climate change. This issue is of global concern and we shall continue to strive to make sustainable development a reality.

I am certain this issue will gain momentum during this session and I anticipate that the Report on System Wide Coherence that we shall be receiving in the coming months will address these issues.

We have 25,000 members throughout the United States. If you could give them a message, what would be your message to them about the U.N.?

I just have a very short message: I urge you to all read the preamble of the Charter of the United Nations. This organization was established after two world wars in order to prevent other major wars from occurring and give children a brighter future. It is an Organization of hope. For it to work effectively it needs the full support of all Member States and influential states such as the United States have a key role to play in this process. It is indeed vital that the people of the United States offer more support to the United Nations which will in turn promote the United States’ own interest in maintaining peace and security.

With US-Arab/Muslim world relations at a precipice, do you see your Bahraini nationality helping improve US-Arab/Muslim world relations during your time at UN GA President?

First and foremost I am a human being. I was elected by the Assembly and represent the interests of 192 Member States. I am not here to push a Bahraini agenda, or an Arab agenda. I come from that region and it has shaped who I am. I am honored to be the first Arab woman, the first Muslim woman here.

I come from a country that is tolerant, diverse, and peaceful. It is embedded in my culture and in me and I will use my role as President of the General Assembly to bridge differences in all parts of the world by promoting the work of the General Assembly.

When you were young did you ever imagine that you would be the President of the U.N. General Assembly?

No, I never thought I would be the President of the General Assembly. I studied and then practiced law, civil and commercial law to be more precise. My law profession paved the path for me to assume this position.

I was a member of the International Bar Association which taught me a great deal. I also worked in the ICC Arbitration Center in Paris which has helped me understand different perspectives. Being a civil law practitioner, I wanted to understand the different systems. I was familiar with the French law system but was very interested in understanding the common law system better. So I started to read more about it and then I wrote a piece that discussed the differences between the common law system in England and the United States and the civil law system. It was very insightful.

While I was practicing law, I was appointed as the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to France. It was a wonderful experience and it changed my views on many things. My law background trained me to constantly examine issues from multiple perspectives. This background was essential to my diplomatic career, it enhanced it.

So you’re always hyper-sensitive as to how people will respond to what you’re saying.

Yes.

What inspired you to go into law?

I always had the curiosity to understand the other. In our culture, men were the only ones that typically practiced law and that perplexed me. I was interested in understanding this discipline. I studied French, the general principles of law and Shari’ah law.

Shari’ah law intrigued me because you study the derivation of laws from holy text, the origins of an idea and how it evolved to cater to the needs of society.

So it is always transforming.

Of course, it is imperative. This is what happens in France, in the United States, everywhere. Ideas and laws have to evolve to respond to our times. Unfortunately, at times certain ideas and laws stagnate and you end up following ideas that are outdated and that is a problem, we must be progressive.

It almost needs to mirror science and technology that is always transforming…

Precisely, the legal methodology that we develop must address our present needs. Everyone realizes this; we cannot adopt laws that have not been updated to respond to the changing realities of our time.

I’ve been fortunate to spend some time in Syria, Iran and Jordan over the past couple of years. In Qom specifically, in Iran, I was fortunate enough to be trained a little bit in the structure of Shari’ah law and it sounded very, very fascinating.

Indeed it is. The logical process and analysis leading up to a law from a given idea or a few ideas is very fascinating. Many important principles of law are derived from Shari’ah law which is interesting.

It is like listening to a discussion, you piece the ideas and words of one person with the ideas of another in a way that is suitable for society at that given time. By the same token, through discussion, through multilateralism we are exposed to ideas of other cultures and this fosters tolerance and peace.