Asma Jahangir: "Will Pakistan's Democracy Survive?"

Asma Jahangir: "Will Pakistan's Democracy Survive?"

Open Society Institute and the Department of Legal Studies cordially invite you to the Fifth Marek Nowicki Memorial Lecture, delivered by the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, United Nations Commission on Human Rights

Asma Jahangir: "Will Pakistan's Democracy Survive?"

Asma Jahangir is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and has been twice

 elected as Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

From 1998 to 2004 she also served as Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Extrajudicial, Arbitrary or Summary Executions. She is also Co-Chair of South Asia for Human Rights since 2000, and the Director of the AGHS Legal Aid Cell, which provides free legal assistance to the needy.

Jahangir was instrumental in the formation of the Punjab Women Lawyers Association in 1980 and the Womens Action Forum in 1985. She was placed under house arrest and later imprisoned for participating in the movement to restore political and fundamental rights under the military regime in 1983. Due to her efforts to secure justice for disadvantaged groups, she has been frequently threatened by militant groups. Asma Jahangir has authored two books and five papers.

She has received honorary Doctor of Law degrees from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, Queens University, Canada, and Amherst College, USA. She has been the recipient of a number of international and national awards, among them the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1995. She served as a leading figure in the campaign waged by the women activists against the promulgation of the controversial Hadood Ordinances and draft law on evidence. Moreover, she has defended cases of discrimination against religious minorities, women and children. She represented several clients who were denied their fundamental rights. Notable amongst them are the cases she fought for brick kiln workers, who are mostly bonded labourers in Pakistan, and tried having legislation passed by the Parliament in favor of bonded workers.