About the Day
The International Day of Women in Diplomacy was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 June 2022, under Resolution A/RES/76/269. It is observed every 24 June. This page traces the people, the document, and the gap that the day was created to close.
Resolution A/RES/76/269
Adopted 20 June 2022
The resolution was tabled by the Maldives and co-sponsored by over 190 member states. It was the first UN instrument to formally acknowledge that women remain systemically underrepresented in foreign service — and to commit the General Assembly to changing that figure.
The text calls on member states, the UN, and regional organizations to mark the day annually with activities that promote the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in diplomacy at every level of seniority.
Three figures
01 · First Chair, UN Commission on Human Rights
1884 — 1962
Chair of the committee that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Roosevelt insisted that the document apply equally to women — a position contested at the time, and foundational to every diplomatic instrument that followed.
02 · First female U.S. Secretary of State
1937 — 2022
Refugee, scholar, and diplomat. Albright reshaped U.S. foreign policy after the Cold War and made the inclusion of women in peace processes a stated diplomatic priority. "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
03 · Permanent Representative of the Maldives to the UN
b. 1973
Lead author of UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/76/269, which formally established June 24 as the International Day of Women in Diplomacy. Her advocacy connected small-island nations to the global conversation on gender parity in foreign service.