Ms Shahiya Ali Manik
Director, Social Affairs
Shahiya Ali Manik joined the SAARC Secretariat on 2 November 2023, as Director, Social Affairs.
Shahiya started her career in Foreign Service in 2015, working as the Director for Human Rights Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Maldives. She was posted to the Permanent Mission of Maldives to the UN Offices in Geneva in 2019 where she worked as First Secretary coordinating all work related to the Human Rights Council. She has extensive work experience in the field of Human Rights, where she closely monitored and coordinated Maldives human rights priorities at the Human Rights Council Sessions from 2019 to 2021. Shahiya has also served as the First Secretary of Maldives Mission in London in 2018.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Shahiya has worked as an assistance lecturer at the Civil Service Training Institute of Maldives where she conducted training programmes for Civil Servants, and she also worked at Maldivian Red Crescent as a Programme Field Officer. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 2009 from Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA, and has completed her Master of Arts in Refugee Care from University of Essex, Colchester, UK in 2014.
Shahiya is married and blessed with 3 children.