Moderator
Daljit Dhaliwal
Host of 21st Century UN Television Series
Daljit Dhaliwal was the anchor chair of Worldfocus on PBS, which aired its last broadcast on 2 April 2010. She has been best known for presenting the critically acclaimed program Foreign Exchange also on PBS and the United Nations Television produced 21st Century documentary seen on CUNY cable television, which includes one-on-one interviews. Ms. Dhaliwal also worked as an anchor for the ABC News Now, BBC, CNN International, and the Independent TV News (ITN) in London. More about Daljit Dhaliwal…
Speakers
From the United Nations
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid
Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
United Nations Under-Secretary-General
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid was appointed as Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, effective 1 January 2001, making her the first Saudi Arabian to head a United Nations agency. She has the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. Ms. Obaid has a long and distinguished career at the United Nations. She has worked for the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) from 1975 to 1998, where she rose to the rank of Deputy Executive Secretary. In 1998, she moved to UNFPA as Director of the then-Division for Arab States and Europe, occupying that position until 2001, when she assumed her current post.
More about Thoraya Ahmed Obaid…
Irina Bokova
Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Irina Bokova became Director-General of UNESCO in November 2009. Prior to this position, Ms. Bokova was Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria to France and Monaco, Personal Representative of the Bulgarian President to the "Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie" and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO from 2005 to 2009.
Born in 1952, she obtained an MBA from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and studied at the universities of Maryland and Harvard in the USA. During her long and distinguished career, she also served as Bulgaria's representative to the United Nations and as her country's Secretary of State for European integration and Foreign Minister. Ms Bokova has long promoted the transition to European integration. As Founder and Chairperson of the European Policy Forum, she worked to overcome divisions in Europe and promote the values of dialogue, diversity, human dignity and rights. More about Irina Bokova…
From the Civil Society
Kavita N. Ramdas
President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Fund for Women
Kavita N. Ramdas has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Fund for Women since 1996. She has dedicated herself to empowering women worldwide with the financial resources to increase girls’ access to education, defend women’s right to health and reproductive rights, prevent violence against women and advance women’s political participation, as well as other vital issues. Kavita has served on the boards of the Women’s Funding Network, the Women’s Rights Prize of the Gruber Foundation and the Ethical Globalization Initiative. She is the recipient of numerous philanthropic and leadership awards, including most recently, The Council on Foundations Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking. Kavita is currently serving on the Global Development Advisory Panel of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Advisory Panel of the Asian University for Women and the board of trustees of Princeton University and Mount Holyoke College. More on Kavita N. Ramdas…
From the Academia
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University
A Princeton faculty member since 2002, Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah is an internationally renowned scholar of moral and political philosophy, African and African American studies, and issues of personal and political identity, multiculturalism and nationalism. He is the author of numerous award-winning books, including "Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers," "The Ethics of Identity" and "Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race." His latest book, "Experiments in Ethics," explores how the new empirical moral psychology relates to the age-old project of philosophical ethics. More on Kwame Anthony Appiah…