Prominent Pakistani human rights defender Hina Jilani becomes new OMCT President

Ms. Jilaniwas elected to a four-year term on Saturday 26 November at the organization’sGeneral Assembly meeting held every four years. Addressing OMCT partners and membersof its SOS-Torture network of more than 200 non-governmental organizationsaround the world, she said she would focus on boosting its cohesion to make itsvoice louder.

“We can’t just condemn points ofview; we have to convince people,”she said. “We have to show them that these values did not come out of nothing,that they are worth being preserved. Wehave to show that undermining these values is not in the best interest ofhumanity.”

An award-winning lawyer from Pakistanand active forthe last three decades in promoting peace, human rights and women's rights, Ms. Jilani has litigated several cases in her home country whichhave become landmarks in setting human rights standards. Ms. Jilani intends to build upon the work of herpredecessor Yves Berthelot, who throughout his presidency had already pushedfor greater collaboration and information dissemination within the SOS-Torture network,which has grown four-fold since its creation in 1985. At a time of increasinginsecurity for the human rights community, the election of a practitioner fromthe South comes as a reassurance of OMCT’s investment in building its networkas a powerful strategy to combat torture.

OMCT’sGeneral Assembly elected its new Executive Council, now consisting of:Dick Marty and Mokthar Trifi, two leading human rights lawyers from Switzerlandand Tunisia respectively, as Vice Presidents. Other members of the OMCT includeOlga Sadovskaya (Russian Federation), Yves Berthelot (France), Aminata Dieye(Senegal), Samuel Mohochi (Kenya), Jahel Quiroga (Colombia), Claudia Samayoa (Guatemala), Henri Tiphagne (India) and Peter Zangl (Germany) and Anthony Travis (Treasurer).

A leading figure of the human rights movement

“Ms. Jilani will be a very goodpresident because what she knows about human rights and torture she learned notfrom books but from real life,” said the outgoing President, a former UNCTADjoint Secretary General who has successfully led OMCT for the past eight years.

Ms. Jilani created Pakistan’s first all-women law firmand co-founded Pakistan’s first legal aid centre in 1986. In 1991 helped set up a shelter for women fleeing violence andabuse and presented one of the first cases of domestic violence in the country.Ms. Jilani was also one of the founders of the Human RightsCommission of Pakistan, an NGO promotinghuman rights in Pakistan. She also created Pakistan’s Women Action Forum, aprominent women’s rights group whose campaigns have been at the heart of thedemocracy movement in the country. Ms. Jilani has been a lawyer at the SupremeCourt of Pakistan since 1992.

At the international level, she wasthe first United Nations SpecialRepresentative of the Secretary-General on the situation of Human RightsDefenders, and was the first woman to hold thispost inoffice, from 2000 to 2008. As such, Ms. Jilani participated in formal and informal ExpertGroup meetings of UN human rights bodies, and was appointed in 2006 and 2009,respectively, to the UN International Fact-Finding Commissions on Darfur and onthe Gaza Conflict.

Herexpertise and lifelong dedication to human rights has earned her internationalrecognition. In 2013, she joined The Elders, a group of statesmen, peaceactivists and human rights advocates, brought together by Nobel Peace Prizewinner Nelson Mandela. In 2000 she was honoured with the AmnestyInternational Genetta Sagan Award for Women’s Rights, just a year after she wasawarded the Human Rights Award by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

Now is the time to step up efforts

She spoke after a two-day forumorganized on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of OMCT and its SOS-Torturenetwork, along with high-profile representatives such as UN Human RightsCommissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al-Hussein, who shared concern that many countries were“returning to authoritarianism”, human rights defenders around the world wereunder “enormous pressure”, and that reprisals and arbitrary detentions wereincreasingly done under the pretext of fighting terrorist activities. The HighCommissioner said he feared that declarations such as United StatesPresident-elect Donald Trump’s campaign declarations (condoning ill treatmentsuch as “waterboarding”, for instance) might inspire other Governments toresume resorting to torture, hence exacerbating the practice around the world.

She also seemed undeterred by the consequent risks of wavering support of multilateral institutions, since the US election and the British “Brexit” vote triggered a waveof speculation as to a possible shift in funding priorities away frominternational aid, and since the withdrawal by several States such as South Africa, Burundi, Gambia and Russia from the International CriminalCourt, triggered concerns over the deconstruction of a system built up toprotect victims of serious human rights violations.

“This is not an easy time for humanrights defenders, but when has it been for us? We keep our determinationdespite all the challenges,” she told activists. “The global donors mustunderstand that if there is hesitation in supporting these human rightsdefenders and their networks it will only reduce our outreach. But we did itbefore we had money. We have no reason to believe that this is a favour to anyone organization or community.”

Ms. Jilani said that OMCT was one ofthe organizations best placed to uphold human rights and combat torture, adding:“It has the experience, the capacity, and the knowledge to take this challengeforward.”

The OMCT Executive Council is now composed of:

Pakistan: Hina Jilani, President

Switzerland: DickMarty, Vice-President

United Kingdom: AnthonyTravis, Treasurer

France: Yves Berthelot

Tunisia: Mokhtar Trifi, Vice-President

Senegal: Aminata Dieye

Kenya: Samuel Mohochi

Colombia: Jahel Quiroga

Russia Olga Sadovskaya

Guatemala: ClaudiaSamayoa

India: Henri Tiphagne

Germany: Peter Zangl

About the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

OMCT is short for the World Organisation Against Torture – in French, asthe organization created in 1985 is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. OMCTworks for, with and through an international coalition of over 200non-governmental organizations – the SOS-Torture network – fighting torture,summary executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and allother cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment in the world.

For more information, please visit: www.omct.org

For our latest campaign #HumansAgainstTorture: www.joinhat.org.

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For all media inquiries: Lori Brumat, OMCT Head of Communications: lb@omct.org.