Ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan is Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva. In her position as Chief Negotiator for the COP23 Presidency, Ambassador Khan will be overseeing the formal negotiating process on behalf of the Fijian Presidency. Ambassador Khan is a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of Fiji and a barrister of the Inner Temple London. She graduated from Sussex University, England, where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in law and of the University of Cambridge where she obtained a Masters in Law degree and a Master of Philosophy degree in Criminology. Born in Fiji, she served as the Fijian Director of Public Prosecutions from 1994 to 1999. In 1999, she was appointed a High Court judge – the first woman to be appointed a judge in Fiji. She served as a criminal judge until April 2009, when she started her own consultancy. She was appointed to her ambassadorial post by the Prime Minister in 2014. She is a member of the Advisory Council for the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice on the International Criminal Court and serves as a trustee for several NGOs that focus on women and youth.