Law Society nominee wins award for human rights work

On 24 June, the Lawyer magazine awarded its Editor’s award for outstanding achievement to Pakistan lawyer Hina Jilani.

The Law Society had nominated Hina due to her work to highlight the plight of her fellow lawyers in Pakistan. Tony Fisher, Chair of the Society’s International Human Rights Committee collected the award at the ceremony on Hina’s behalf. Tony and Hina had previously met on 7 November 2007, when she had attended a Law Society press conference to give coverage to the constitutional crisis in Pakistan.

Hina Jilani was born in 1953 in Lahore and has tirelessly campaigned on human rights in Pakistan and around the world. She has been at the forefront of the movements for women's rights, human rights and peace in Pakistan and has campaigned on behalf of the most vulnerable members of society, successfully fighting cases for victims of domestic, fundamentalist and feudalistic violence, and the victims of 'honour killings’.

Most recently in April 2008, she completed her mandate as Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders. Appointed by the UN Secretary-General in 2000, her mandate was originally meant to be for three years but was in the end extended to 8. During this time Hina Jilani presented 36 reports, of which 21 were to the UN Commission on Human Rights, 7 to the General Assembly and 8 to the Human Rights Council. She carried out visits to 12 countries: Angola, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Israel and the OPT, Kyrgyzstan, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Nigeria, Serbia including Kosovo, Thailand, and Turkey.

In November 2007, following the turmoil and upheaval in Pakistan, Hina herself became one of those human rights defenders personally running the same risks that she was otherwise meant to report on under her UN mandate. When the Pakistan Government declared a state of emergency a warrant was issued for her arrest. Fortunately, she was abroad at the time carrying out her UN duties. At this time of personal risk, Hina campaigned ever more tirelessly to expose the situation in Pakistan on the behalf of lawyers and judges at risk in her homeland.
On 7 November 2007, she held a press conference at the Law Society. She also held a series of meetings with other high profile bodies, including International Federation for Human Rights, the World Organisation Against Torture, as well as demonstrating at Downing Street.

She has all through her career worked both nationally and internationally with a range of NGOs and NGO networks, and is member of the council and founding board of several international human rights institutions.

In 1980 Hina Jilani co-founded Pakistan's first all-female legal practice in 1980 with her sister and in 1986 they set up AGHS Legal Aid, the first free legal aid centre in Pakistan. Ms. Jilani was appointed Advocate of the High Court of Pakistan in 1981 and in 1992 she was appointed Advocate of the Supreme Court. She has also served as an expert to United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

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.

In 1983 Hina and her sister Asma spent 20 days in prison for protesting on behalf of a young blind girl named Safia Bibi. She had been raped, but she was in jail for adultery. The demonstration, on 12 February now has become the date for Pakistan Women's Day and on this day every year women in Pakistan come out onto the streets to commemorate the beginning of our struggle.

Hina Jilani has suffered personal risk in her unwavering and long-standing commitment to secure the basic freedoms and rights of people, first in her domestic jurisdiction in Pakistan and more recently in her role at the UN. Notwithstanding threats to her own liberty, such as an arrest warrant issued against her in 2007, Hina Jilani has continued in her efforts to remedy violations of people’s rights around the world.