Centenary Lecture: Hina Jilani, human rights lawyer, SOAS University of London
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 2017-03-20

https://www.soas.ac.uk/centenary/
Baroness Valerie Amos CH shares a conversation with Hina Jilani discussing the right to defend human rights and the situation of human rights defenders globally in this Centenary Lecture held at SOAS University of London on 16 March 2017.
You can find out more about this event at https://goo.gl/vY2twx

Biography
Hina Jilani is lawyer practicing in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and is the Director of AGHS Legal Aid Cell, a legal aid and human rights NGO in Pakistan. Ms. Jilani established Pakistan’s first all-women’s law firm in 1980, and cases she has conducted have, on numerous occasions, become landmarks for setting standards for human rights in Pakistan. Special areas of concern in her work have been the rights of women, minorities, children and prisoners, including political prisoners. Her activity in these areas include legal aid, advocacy for rights, proposing and preparing legislative drafts for law reform, and designing and conducting projects for the protection, promotion and implementation of the human rights of disadvantaged groups and their social, political and economic development. 

She served as the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders from 2000 to 2008. She was appointed as a member of the UN Fact Finding Mission on Gaza in April 2009, and a member of the UN Security Council established International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur in October 2004. She was appointed as a member of the Global Civil Society Advisory Group to UN Women 2012-2015.

She is a member of the founding board of several international human rights institutions. She was elected as the Chair of South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) in December 2010. She co-founded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Women’s Action Forum in 1986 and 1980, respectively. In June 2013 Ms. Jilani became a member of The Elders, a group of global independent leaders established by Nelson Mandela to work for peace and human rights. Ms. Jilani is the recipient of numerous human rights awards including the Human Rights Monitor Award in 1991, the American Bar Association Litigation Award in 1992, the Human Rights First Award in 1999, the Amnesty International Genetta Sagan Award for Women’s Rights in 2000 and the Millennium Peace Prize in the following year. She was awarded the Honorary Doctorate in Laws (honoris causa) by Trinity College, Dublin in 2016 and by the Roehampton University, United Kingdom in 2009.