Hina Jilani, Lahore

Hina Jilani is a well-known lawyer and human-rights activist in Pakistan. Along with her sister, Asma Jahangir, she co-founded Pakistan's first all-female legal practice in 1980. She is also one of the founders of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Women's Action Forum, a pressure group campaigning against Pakistan's discriminatory legislation, as well as the founder of Pakistan's first legal aid center in 1986. A prominent lawyer and civil society activist for the last three decades, Jilani specializes in human rights litigation and the human rights of women, children, minorities, and prisoners. She has conducted several cases that have become landmarks in setting human rights standards in Pakistan. Jilani has been involved with the United Nations Center for Human Rights, the Carter Center, and the UN Conference on Women. From 2000 to 2008, she was the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders. In 2006, she was appointed to the UN International Fact-Finding Commission on Darfur. She is also a member of the Eminent Jurists Panel on Terrorism, Counter-terrorism and Human Rights.