Senator the Honourable Marlene Malahoo Forte

Senator and Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade

Senator the Honourable Marlene Malahoo Forte is an Attorney at Law by profession.  She was appointed Senator and Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, with special responsibility for Foreign Trade, on July 15, 2009.

Minister Malahoo Forte has had an outstanding career as a Judge of the Resident Magistrates’ Courts and has also served as an Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions.  In addition, she was President of the Association of Resident Magistrates, as well as President of the Legal Officers’ Staff Association.  She was a lecturer in Criminal [Law] Practice and Procedure at the Norman Manley Law School on the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies, Jamaica.

The Minister of State has been honoured by the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, as a Young Global Leader (YGL) 2010 and is now a member of the Forum of Young Global Leaders.  She has been named among the Top Five Jamaican Women in the Field of Law, in the list of Jamaica’s 50 Most Powerful Women.  She is the recipient of the Veuve Clicquot Woman of Excellence Award, for professional achievements in law, as well as the Bigga High Achiever’s Award for her contribution to the legal and justice systems. She currently heads the Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI), a Committee of United Way of Jamaica, focussing on education, health and rights advocacy, on behalf of women and children; and is a member of the Board of Governors of United Way of Jamaica.

She is Yale World Fellow of Yale University and an Edward S. Mason Fellow of Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.

Minister Malahoo Forte was born in Westmoreland, Jamaica and is a Christian by religion.  A past Head Girl of Manning’s [High] School, she holds the degree of Master in Public Administration (MPA) (concentration in Political Advocacy and Leadership) plus a Certificate in Public Policy and Management from Harvard University; a Master of Laws Degree (LLM) in Financial Development and Regulatory Laws, with Merit, from King’s College London, (where she was a Commonwealth Scholar); a Bachelor of Laws Degree (LLB) with Honours, from the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus, Barbados and a Certificate in Legal Education from the Norman Manley Law School, Jamaica, where she also received the Ken Smith Prize for Trial Advocacy.

She is extremely passionate about Jamaica’s development opportunities and challenges.  She strongly believes that the country’s potentials far exceed its problems. She is committed to making the machinery of Government work better for the people.  Law reform remains an area of keen interest for her.