Hamidon Ali

Permanent Representative to the United Nations

Date of Birth: 1950

In early 2010, Hamidon Ali became President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, which monitors UN progress on development goals. The ministerial session of the Council's annual meeting on 28 June-2 July focused on the Millennium Development Goals, particularly women's rights and development cooperation. The session resulted in the establishment of a new body, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (or UN Women for short).

Born in 1950, Ali studied at Australia's Monash University and earned a master's in public administration from Harvard University in the United States. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1974. He served as Second Secretary to the Paris Embassy (1978-81), First Secretary to Beijing (1981-83) and Minister Counsellor to Tokyo (1988-91).

He returned to Kuala Lumpur to act as Under-Secretary responsible for multilateral and regional affairs with organisations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation. As Ambassador to the UN's Geneva office from 1996 to 2000, he was concurrently emissary to the World Trade Organisation and UN Conference on Disarmament. More consular duties followed and he served as High Commissioner to Singapore (2000-03) and Indonesia (2003-05).

Since his tenure at the UN General Assembly began in 2005, Ali has led a number of forums related to development and South-South cooperation, as the Vice-President of UN Children's Fund, the Vice-Chairman of the UN Forum on Forests and the Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement Coordinating Bureau.