Irene Khan

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Irene Khan
Irene Khan 2003.jpg
Native name আইরিন খান
Born (1956-12-24) 24 December 1956 (age 67)
Sylhet, East Pakistan
(now Bangladesh)
Nationality Bangladeshi
Ethnicity Bengali
Education Law
Alma mater University of Manchester
Harvard Law School
Occupation Director-General of the International Development Law Organization
Title Chancellor
Predecessor Professor Sir Martin Harris
Successor Jackie Kay
Children 1 daughter
Relatives Mahbub Ali Khan (uncle)

Irene Zubaida Khan (born 24 December 1956) is a Bangladeshi lawyer who served as the seventh Secretary General of Amnesty International (2001-2009). In 2011, she was elected Director-General of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) in Rome, Italy, an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the promotion of the rule of law. She is also a consulting editor of The Daily Star.

Early life

Khan was born in Dhaka, in what was then East Pakistan to a relatively wealthy family. She is the daughter of Sikander Ali Khan, a medical doctor; granddaughter of Ahmed Ali Khan, a Cambridge University graduate and barrister; and great-granddaughter of Asdar Ali Khan, an eminent doctor of Calcutta who was the personal physician of Syed Hasan Imam. Her uncle, Rear Admiral Mahbub Ali Khan, was the chief of the Bangladesh Navy. She was the star pupil at St Francis Xavier's Green Herald International School, where she was the record holder at the school-leaving examinations.

During her childhood, East Pakistan became the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971 following a struggle that became known as the Bangladesh Liberation War. Human rights abuses that occurred during the war helped shape the teenage Khan's activist viewpoint. She left Bangladesh as a teenager for school in Northern Ireland.[1]

Khan went to England, where she studied law at the University of Manchester and then, in the United States, at Harvard Law School. She specialized in public international law and human rights.[2]

Career

Human rights

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

Khan 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, Khan led the UNHCR team in the Republic of Macedonia. This led to her being appointed as Deputy Director of International Protection later that year.

Amnesty International

Khan at the World Economic Forum 2007

Khan joined Amnesty International in 2001 as its Secretary General.[2] In her first year of office, she reformed Amnesty’s response to human rights crises and launched the campaign to close the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which held suspected enemy combatants. In 2004 she initiated a global campaign to stop violence against women. In May 2009 Khan launched Amnesty's “Demand Dignity” campaign to fight human rights abuses that impoverish people and keep them poor.[2]

Taking the helm in Amnesty International as the first woman, the first Asian and the first Muslim to guide the world’s largest human rights organization, Bangladeshi national Irene brought a new perspective to the organization. As an individual, she brought experience and enthusiasm for putting people at the heart of policy.[3]

Irene took up the leadership of Amnesty International in its 40th anniversary year as the organization began a process of change and renewal to address the complex nature of contemporary human rights violations, and confronted the challenging developments in the wake of the attacks of 11 September. She has also been at the helm of broadening the work of the organization in areas of economic, social and cultural rights, and initiating a process of internal reform and renewal to enable the organisation to respond flexibly and rapidly to world events.[3]

Irene reformed AI’s response to crisis situations, personally leading high level missions to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Israel/Occupied Territories, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Spain, Thailand, the Darfur region of Sudan and Nepal. Deeply concerned about women’s human rights, she initiated a process of consultations with women activists to design a global campaign by Amnesty International against violence on women, which was launched in March 2004.[3]

She drew attention to hidden human rights violations. In Australia, she heightened attention to the plight of asylum seekers in detention. In Burundi, she met with victims of massacres and urged President Buyoya and other parties to the conflict to end the cycle of human rights abuse. In Bulgaria, she led a campaign to end discrimination of those suffering from mental disabilities. In Mexico, she met the mothers of young girls who had murdered in Ciudad Juárez and took their claims for justice to President Fox. In Spain, she met survivors of the March 11 attacks in Madrid. In Nepal, she met King Gyanendra to discuss the country’s deteriorating human rights situation.[3]

Controversial settlement

Irene Khan resigned from Amnesty International on 31 December 2009, and it was revealed[4] in February 2011 that she had received a settlement payment of £530,000. The terms of this compromise agreement remain secret due to the loophole that Khan was employed by Amnesty International Ltd, which is not a charity, unlike the similarly named and related Amnesty International Charity.[4] In response to the "anger and puzzlement" of Amnesty International staff at this payout, AI issued a breakdown of the settlement and information on legal changes.[5]

Other humanitarian initiatives

  • Interested in working directly with people to change their lives, Irene helped to found the development organization, Concern Universal, in 1977, and began her work as a human rights activist with the International Commission of Jurists in 1979.[3]
  • In 2009 Khan was featured in Soldiers of Peace, an anti-war film.[6][7]

Awards

In 2008, she was one of the two finalists for the election of the new Chancellor of the University of Manchester.[12] In July 2009, she was appointed as Chancellor of the University of Salford[2] a post she held until January 2015.

Publications

  • 2009: The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights (W.W. Norton & Co.) : ISBN 0-393-33700-6, translated into French, German, Finnish, Dutch, Italian, Korean, and special South Asia edition by Viva, New Delhi.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ORG10/005/2009/en/39bbe06b-2e90-4bf3-bb33-dcf4a18990e1/org100052009en.html
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Tania Mason, Charity Commission has 'no jurisdiction' over board member's payment from Amnesty, civilsociety.co.uk, 21 February 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2011.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Non-profit organization positions
Preceded by Secretary-General of Amnesty International
2001–2009		 Succeeded by
Salil Shetty
Academic offices
Preceded by Chancellor of the University of Salford
2009–2015		 Succeeded by
Jackie Kay
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