Amb. Dr. Iruthisham Adam
Ambassador Dr. Iruthisham Adam has been a member of PILPG's Circle of Former Ambassadors to the United Nations Human Rights Council since March 2023.
Dr. Adam is a Former Minister and a career diplomat of over 25 years, having served in key diplomatic posts in London, New York, and Geneva.
During her ambassadorship to the U.N. Office and WTO in Geneva (2009- 2014), Dr. Adam held other posts as the first Ambassador of Maldives to Germany, Italy, and Turkey and as the Ambassador to Switzerland. She served as the Vice President of the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2013 and the Vice Chairperson of the U.N. Conferences on the International Convention Against Torture in 2010.Dr. Adam advanced in her diplomatic career and became a champion of empowered women, lead negotiator, and influential diplomat on women and child rights, rights of the disabled, international human rights issues, and a strong voice for small states' vulnerability. She led the negotiations for Women's Economic and Political Empowerment and the Protocol to the Convention on Child Rights. She led resolutions on protecting Human Rights and Climate Change, the Environment Protection at HRC, and establishing a Trust Fund for Small States and LDCs. She contributed to the effective functioning of the UN HRC mechanisms.
Dr. Adam served as the Minister of Youth & Sports from 2016-2018, Minister of Health from 2015-2016, and Deputy Minister of Law and Gender in 2014. Under her leadership as the Minister of Health, she brought landmark reforms into the health system through the implementation of proposals for universal health coverage, accessibility of land, air, and sea ambulance services, the establishment of medical councils under the new health legislation, upgrading and modernizing the infrastructure of hospitals and health centers, advancement of medical services.As a champion of youth and gender equality, Dr. Adam ensured that more than 400 infrastructure projects on the sports arena (futsal, netball, basketball, football grounds) were established so that each inhabited island population had a sports facility and new youth centers were accessible. She has empowered and mobilized the youth communities through youth leadership programs and the implementation of the very first National Sports Act of the Maldives.
Dr. Adam holds a Ph.D. in International Studies with Distinction from the European International University, Paris, and achieved a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership with Higher Distinction from California Metropolitan University in 2022. She has an M.A. with Distinction from the University of Westminster, London, a Postgraduate Certificate in Diplomatic Studies from Oxford University, and a B.A. in Management and Public Administration from the University of South Pacific, Fiji. In 2022, H.E. Adam received the "Distinguished Lifetime Achiever Award" by Women Icon powered by Times Women. In recognition of her lifetime achievements, she received the University of Westminster "Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2021 and British Chevening Award in 1998.