Haya Rashed Al Khalifa

Shaikha Haya is the principal and founding partner of Haya Rashed Al Khalifa Law Firm.

Shaikha Haya was one of the first two women in Bahrain to practice law when she was admitted as a lawyer in Bahrain in 1979. Prior to setting up her practice, she was the vice chairwoman of the Arbitration ( Committe D ) in International Bar Association from 1997 to 1999. She was the former counsel at the Bahrain Ministry of State for Legal Affairs as well as a senior attorney at another major Bahraini law firm. She has been admitted to the Court of Cassation and the Constitutional Court of Bahrain and is a member of the Bahrain Bar Association.

Shaikha Haya obtained a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Kuwait in 1974. She has also obtained a Diploma in Civil Rights Private Law from the University of Alexandria, Egypt, in 1986 and a Diploma in Comparative Law from the University of Ain Shams, Egypt, in 1988.

The Shaikha has had an illustrious diplomatic career. From 2000 to 2004 she was Bahrain's Ambassador to France and its non-resident Ambassador to Belgium, Switzerland and Spain, becoming the first Bahraini woman Ambassador. She is also Bahrain\'s permanent delegate to UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. She has been the President of the 61st Session of the United Nations General Assembly 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.

Shaikha Haya was as ex-member of the World Intellectual Property Organisation Arbitration Committee and ex- member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Court of Arbitration. She is also a member of the Bahrain Supreme Council of Culture, Arts & Literature and the former Vice-President of the Bahrain Bar Association. She has been appointed in 2008 to chair the Consumer Advisory Group of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, Bahrain Chair Person of the Board of BCDR since 2010 todate. Elected chair person of the world Heritage Committe 2018.