Irene
Zubaida Khan is the 7th Secretary General of Amnesty International, one of the
world's leading human rights organizations. She is the first woman, the first
Muslim and the first Asian to head the organization. Irene Khan grew up while
East Bengal was fighting for its independence from Pakistan. She witnessed many
human rights abuses during the struggle, which helped shape her worldview. She
left her country as a teen and studied abroad in Ireland and England and then
got her law degree in the US at Harvard Law School, specializing in international
law and human rights. In 1977, before graduating, she started the international
development and relief organization, Concern Universal. In 1980 she began working
at the United Nations and spent 20 years with the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR), working at headquarters and in the field to promote the
protection of refugees. She was appointed as UNHCR Chief of the Mission in India
in 1995 and led the UNHCR team in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia during
the Kosovo crisis in 1999.
In
2001, Irene Khan was chosen to head Amnesty International. She
has been a dynamic leader there, instituting many reforms in the global organization.
During her first year, for example, she launched a global program against violence
towards women, and she has broadened Amnesty International's focus beyond torture
and unfair trials and detention to also include issues such as discrimination,
hunger, illiteracy and corporate accountability. Irene Khan has received many
awards and honors for her dedication to human rights - she was awarded a Ford
Foundation Fellowship and received the Pilkington "Woman of the Year"
Award in 2002. In 2006, she was honored with the Sydney Peace Prize.
