 She has been awarded honorary degrees by

In 2009, Forbes ranked her as the 64th most powerful woman in the world.Her criticism of the Sri Lankan government, in alleging human rights violations and atrocities committed by them against Tamil civilians at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, has led the government and its supporters to apportion her own Tamil descent as the only reason for her criticism, a claim she strongly denies.This criticism by the Sri Lankan government is justified based on evidence available on cables originating from the US embassy in Colombo to the State Department during the final phase of the war.