Bangladeshi human rights activist Irene Zubaida Khan has been appointed as the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
Irene, a lawyer and the former secretary-general of Amnesty International (from 2001 to 2009) will begin her three-year tenure from August 2020. She joins the UN in place of David Kaye whose six-year tenure came to end.
She is the first woman to be appointed to this mandate in its 27 years of existence when the UN began appointing experts on free speech.
The United Nations Special Rapporteurs are independent investigators who examine the situation of human rights all over the globe. They report directly to the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly but do not receive any remuneration for their efforts to maintain their independence.
She will be taking the responsibility of documenting violations of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
Besides, she will also be advising governments, advocating on behalf of those whose rights are affected, and mobilizing international support for the cause.
Irene was also the first woman to head Amnesty International. She had also served as the director-general of International Development Law Organisation.
She studied at boarding school in Northern Ireland, followed by law degrees at the University of Manchester and Harvard. After a 20-year career at the UN refugee agency, Khan took over the helm of Amnesty International in 2001.
