Malé, Maldives – Ambassador Asim Ahmed, Permanent Representative of the Maldives in Geneva has been elected as one of the Vice-Presidents of the UN Human Rights Council for 2023.
Asim is among the four vice-presidents elected by the UN Human Rights Council for next year.
Ambassadors Maira Mariela Macdonal Alvarez of Bolivia, Muhammadou M.O. Kah of the Gambia, Marc Bichler of Luxembourg were next elected as vice-presidents of the council.
Human Rights Council today also elected Ambassador Václav Bálek, Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the United Nations Office at Geneva, to serve as its President for a one-year term beginning on 1 January 2023.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Shahid congratulated Dr Asim on his election and added that this is the result of President Ibrahim Mohammed Solih’s strong foreign policy.
Shahid, who also presided over the UN General Assembly, said Maldives would continue to uphold human rights and respect the principles and laws of democracy.
Dr. Asim Ahmed was appointed as the Maldives Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, in August 2020. He was approved as the country’s representative at the World Trade Organization last October.
Prior to that, Dr. Asim had been serving as Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He had previously held the post of Minister of Education, served as the President of the Local Government Authority (LGA) as well as on a number of boards, committees and high-level councils, including the National Security Council.
Asim completed his Bachelor of Arts (B.A) in Sociology and Politics at the University of South Pacific, Fiji, in 1989. In 1992, he attained a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, UK. He further completed a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Social Policy at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand in 2011.
