Irene Khan

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Irene Khan

Born 24 December 1956
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Education Victoria University of Manchester, Harvard Law School
Employers Amnesty International
Title Secretary General
Predecessor Pierre Sané
Successor Incumbent
Website
amnesty.org

Irene Zubaida Khan, born December 24, 1956 in Dhaka, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), is the Secretary General of Amnesty International, a human rights organization. She is the seventh Secretary General.[1]

Contents

[edit] Early years

Khan grew up in a relatively wealthy family in what was then the eastern, Bengali-speaking wing of Pakistan which was racked by poverty. During her upbringing, East Bengal was fighting for independence from Pakistan. Human rights abuses that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in which Bangladesh achieved independence, helped shape teenage Khan's activist viewpoint. She left Bangladesh as a teenager for school in Northern Ireland.[citation needed] Irene then went to England and studied law at the Victoria University of Manchester and then, in the United States, at Harvard Law School. She specialised in public international law and human rights, graduating in 1978. [2]

[edit] Human Rights Career

Irene helped to create the organisation Concern Universal in 1977, an international development and emergency relief organisation working in partnership with Children in Crossfire. She began her career as a human rights activist with the International Commission of Jurists in 1979.

Irene went to work at the United Nations in 1980. She spent 20 years at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In 1995 she was appointed UNHCR Chief of Mission in India, becoming the youngest UNHCR country representative at that time.

During the Kosovo crisis in 1999, Irene led the UNHCR team in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. This led to her being appointed as Deputy Director of International Protection later that year. [3]

[edit] Amnesty International career

Khan joined Amnesty International in as its Secretary General. She is the first woman, the first Asian, the first Bangladeshi and the first Muslim to hold the position of Amnesty International Secretary General.[1] In her first year of office, she reformed Amnesty's response to crisis situations and initiated a global campaign against violence towards women.

[edit] Awards

Khan received a Ford Foundation Fellowship and the Pilkington "Woman of the Year" Award 2002[1] as well as the Sydney Peace Prize 2006. In 2007 she received an institutional honorary doctorate at the Ghent University.[citation needed] She is one of the two persons whose name have been put forward for the election of the new Chancellor of The University of Manchester.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Irene Khan - Biography Amnesty International
  2. ^ Irene Zubaida Khan
  3. ^ Irene Zubaida Khan

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Pierre Sané		 Secretary-General of Amnesty International
2001–present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
v • d • e
Sydney Peace Prize laureates

Muhammad Yunus (1998) · Desmond Tutu (1999) · Xanana Gusmão (2000) · William Deane (2001) · Mary Robinson (2002) · Hanan Ashrawi (2003) · Arundhati Roy (2004) · Olara Otunnu (2005) · Irene Khan (2006) · Hans Blix (2007)