Asma Jahangir

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Asma Jilani Jahangir (Urdu: عاصمہ جہانگیر ) (born 1952 in Lahore) is a Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist.

She has been the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief since 2004 (first attached to the former Commission on Human Rights, now to the Human Rights Council). Previously, she served as the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Arbitrary and Summary Executions.

Born into a prosperous family with a history of activism (her father, Malik Jilani, was a former colonel in the Pakistan Army, entered politics upon retirement and spent time in jail and under house arrest for opposing military dictatorships), Jahangir herself became involved at a young age in protests against the military regime in Pakistan. She completed her law degree in 1978.

She cut her teeth during protests against the Hudood Ordinance put in place as part of Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization program in Pakistan. She is a founding member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and has served as Secretary-General and later Chair of the organization.

In 1980, Asma Jahangir and her sister, Hina Jilani, got together with few fellow activists and lawyers and formed the first law firm established by women in Pakistan. They also helped form the Women's Action Forum (WAF) in the same year. The first WAF demonstration was in 1983 when some 25-50 women took to the streets protesting the famous Safia Bibi case. Safia, a young blind girl, had been raped yet had ended up in jail on the charge of zina. "We (their law firm) had been given a lot of cases by the advocate general and the moment this demonstration came to light, the cases were taken away from us." Asma recalls. ^[1]

In 1995, Jahangir received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.

In her capacity as a UN official, Jahangir was in Pakistan when a state of emergency was declared by President Pervez Musharraf. On November 5, 2007, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour indicated that Jahangir was among the judicial and political officials detained by the Musharraf government. ^[2]

On November 5, 2007, The Economist reported that: "Over 500 lawyers, opposition politicians and human rights activists have been arrested. They include Asma Jahangir, boss of the country’s human-rights commission and a former UN special rapporteur. In an e-mail from house arrest, where she has been placed for 90 days, Ms Jahangir regretted that General Musharraf had “lost his marbles”. ^[3]