Uzma Noorani

Uzma Noorani is a rights activist and has been working in the field of human rights and women rights for over two decades.

As a human rights activist she has :

· Served on the council of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) for over a decade. Through her work in HRCP she has conducted fact finding missions all over Pakistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir to assess the state of human rights. She has monitored and observed the election process and conducted visits to jails to highlight the plight of prisoners. She has taken part in workshops, seminars and protest rallies conducted by HRCP.

· Founding member of Women’s Action Forum (WAF) a pioneer women’s rights organization of Pakistan. As an activist she has been lobbying and advocating for the rights of women since the early 80’s. She has supported non-violent solutions during ethnic strife in Karachi in the mid 90’s.

· She is as an office bearer of Pakistan India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFD), and a member of South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR).

· Ms.Noorani was instrumental in the inception of Panah Shelter Home and is a Founder Trustee of Panah Trust. She is also a Managing Trustee and General Secretary.

· Founding member of People’s Resistance, a civil society group campaigning for the restoration of the judiciary in 2007.

· Member of Violence against Women Watch (Aurat Foundation) and Joint Action Committee which is a coalition of several NGO’s that come together to work on specific issue’s

Due to her rich experience Ms.Noorani has been invited to speak at various forums and participated in several workshops, both national and international. She has been interviewed by both electronic and print media. Ms.Noorani has helped initiate several campaigns and pressure groups to lobby on various issues of human rights, women’s’ rights, environment, peace, justice and law.

As a peace activist she has participated in various forums advocating peace. Recently she was part of a delegation to Afghanistan to participate in a trialogue on peace (India, Pakistan and Afghanistan).

Additionally she has advocated and lobbied against discriminatory laws like the Hudood Ordinances ,and Blasphemy Law and campaigned for special legislation such as a law on domestic violence.