General Information 

Name

Nahida Sobhan

Nationality

Bangladeshi

Marital Status

Married with two children (one daughter, one son)

Education 

1999

Diplôme de Relation International (cycle long); L’ Institute d’ Administration Public, Paris, France

1994

M.A. in English, Dhaka University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

1992

B.A. in English, Dhaka University, Dhaka

1986

H.S.C. Examination (Science), Holy Cross College, Dhaka Board, Bangladesh

1984

S.S.C Examination (Science), Agrani Girls’ School, Dhaka Board, Bangladesh.

Language Proficiency 

Bangla

Native language

English

Read, Write, Speak, skill level – proficient

French

Read, write, speak, skill level – good

Hindi

Speak, skill level – average

Other Fellowship and Training 

1999

Summer Course on International Public Law, The Hague Academy of 1nternational Law, the Hague, the Netherlands

1998

Diplôme d ‘Etudes en Langue Francaise du Premier Degre, CAVILAM, Vichy, France

1997

Fellowship of Conference on Disarmament

Work Experience 

Ms. Nahida Sobhan is a career diplomat working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh. She joined the Foreign Service of Bangladesh in 1995. From February 2020, she is working as the Ambassador of Bangladesh to Jordan, Palestine and Syria. She worked as Director General of the United Nations and Human Rights Wing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until January 2020.

In her capacity as DG (United Nations) she was in charge of international peace and security, human rights, humanitarian issues including Rohingya issues, disarmament, treaty bodies, etc. She is the Member Secretary of the National Task Force on implementation of national strategy on refugees and undocumented Myanmar Nationals’, which is responsible for formulating policies and implementation of the strategies and policies on Rohingya issues.

Previously, she served in different capacities in Bangladesh Missions in Rome, Kolkata and Geneva.

In the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the UN Offices in Geneva, she was in charge of Human Rights and migration issues. During her stay in Geneva, as the only member of Bangladesh delegation at expert level on human rights issues, she worked closely with the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms as well as with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. She served as a member of the Working Group on Situations at the Complaints Procedure mechanism of the Human Rights Council in 2011. She, on behalf of the Government of Bangladesh, led intense negotiations on a number of resolutions at the Human Rights Council including the resolutions on ‘Human Rights and Climate Change’ from 2012 till 2016.

During her stay in Geneva, she represented the country at the Global Forum on Migration and Development as the focal Point of Bangladesh. In 2013, from Geneva, she served as a coordinator for the UN led Global Leadership Consultation Meeting on Population Dynamics in the context of Post -2015 development Agenda, and the Global Experts Meeting on Migration in the Post- 2015 Development Agenda which were held in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2013 and 2014 consecutively. These two meetings, under the leadership of Bangladesh generated global consensus to include ‘Migration’ in the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030.

She was a Member of Bangladesh delegation, as Alternate Permanent Representative to the FAO, WFP and IFAD from 2001 to 2004, while serving in the Embassy of Bangladesh in Rome. She also engaged in various aspects of bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Italy including trade. While serving in Kolkata, India, she worked on trafficking and also bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India.

She served as the Director of South East Asia Wing and United Nations and Human Rights Wing previously. Prior to that, she also worked as Assistant Secretary in the Africa and Welfare Wing, United Nations Wing and in Protocol Wing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As a career diplomat and member of BCS (FA) cadre, she has gained long experience of working with the international community in both bilateral and multilateral setting. She has acquired specialization in multilateral diplomacy with skills in international negotiations and conference diplomacy. Over the years she has acquired specialty on human rights and migration issues. Previous and current areas of work and specialized engagements, including a total number of more than 10 years of direct work experience in the field of human rights in various capacities has infused strong negotiation skills into her professional attributes.