The South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR), announces the appointment of its new Chairperson, Ms. Sultana Kamal and the Co-chairperson Mr. Mohamed Latheef. They were elected as Chairperson and Co-chairperson by the SAHR Bureau that met on 2 December 2017 at Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Bureau also appointed Ms. Asma Jahangir founder of SAHR as Spokesperson so that Ms. Jahangir could help SAHR to reach out to a wider audience including policy makers.
SAHR also welcomes its new Bureau members Ms. Sara Hossain (Bangladesh), Dr. Aminath Jameel (the Maldives), Asma Jahangir (Pakistan), Mohammad Tahseen (Pakistan) and Ms. Saroja Sivachandran (Sri Lanka).
SAHR takes this opportunity to thank Ms. Hina Jilani the outgoing Chairperson and Ms. Nimalka Fernando, outgoing Co-Chairperson for their leadership and commitment to SAHR during their tenure.
Sultana Kamal is a human rights lawyer and activist from Bangladesh. Currently, she is the chairperson of Transparency International, in Bangladesh She was appointed as an advisor to the caretaker government in October 2006 from which she resigned with 3 other colleagues in December the same year. She was active in Kachi Kanchar Mela, Sangskriti Sangsad, Struggles for Cultural Autonomy and the ’69 mass upheaval as well as social activism.
Mohamed Latheef from the Maldives has worked for more than three decades to transform Maldives from a feudalistic to a more inclusive, democratic and citizen oriented society. Towards this end, he has worked in different capacities such as, as an independent journalist, human rights activist, parliamentarian and civil society activist.
Deekshya Illangasinghe
Executive Director