Sheikha Alya Ahmed Al Thani, Qatar’s UN representative, joins esteemed speakers at the Gender in Foreign Policy conference, exploring gender’s role in diplomacy and addressing the gendered impact of conflicts such as Israel’s war on Gaza.

Sheikha Alya Ahmed Al Thani is among the leading diplomats, public officials, academics and students set to speak at the Gender in Foreign Policy conference.

Qatar’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York will deliver a pre-recorded speech during the conference’s welcome and opening remarks portion on Thursday.

Other illustrious speakers taking centre stage at the conference include Dalia Grybauskaitė, former President of Lithuania, Androulla Kaminara, former EU Ambassador to Pakistan and, among others, Ghulam Hoosein Asmal, Ambassador of South Africa to Qatar.

Moza Al Hajri, a Foreign Service Student at Georgetown and three-time awardee of the Education Excellence Award from Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, will moderate the conference.

Spearheaded by Georgetown University Qatar’s Hiwaraat conference series, the conference will explore the importance of gender in foreign policy and diplomatic practice.

The conference will also unpack the role and risks of AI in policy and practice concerning gender.

During discussions about gender and conflict, speakers such as Nada Tarbush, Permanent Palestinian Mission to the UN in Geneva and Kuzmenko Andrii, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from Ukraine to Qatar – among others, will unpack case studies from the Gaza Strip, Ukraine and Afghanistan.

In February, experts within the UN called on Israel to implement a ceasefire that prioritises the needs of Palestinian women and girls.

“At this stage of the conflict, there is an urgent and growing need to address the near total disruption of schooling, massive destruction of housing, lack of access to… health care and supplies, and heightened risk of arbitrary detention and violence, including gender-based violence, faced by women and girls in Gaza and the West Bank,” the UN experts said.

Israel’s renewed onslaught has taken a harsh toll on the enclave’s women and children, who form at least 70% of the 33,729 Palestinian death toll since October 7.

A survey published in January by the UN Women entity found that at least 3,000 women were widowed and more than 10,000 children were orphaned after the death of a parent.

The almost one million women and girls displaced by violent Israeli attacks were also battling an imminent risk of famine, overcrowding in temporary shelters and scarce resources as well as a lack of access to WASH facilities.

According to the World Health Organisation, WASH is a catch-all phrase – referring to water, sanitation, health care waste management, hygiene and environmental cleaning infrastructure.

The United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Office (UN OCHA) estimates that Israel has damaged or destroyed 57% of Gaza’s WASH facilities.

This severely hampers the enclave’s women’s ability to uphold menstrual cleanliness – not only impacting their physical health but also scaring them mentally.