New member of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to assume functions on 1 August 2008

31 July 2008

GENEVA--. Pakistani lawyer Shaheen Sardar Ali has been appointed member of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and will assume her new functions on 1 August 2008.

Ms. Shaheen Sardar Ali, who is Professor of law at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom and Professor II at the University of Oslo, Norway, will take the place Mr. Seyed Mohammed Hashemi (from the Islamic Republic of Iran), whose term has come to an end. Her main areas of interest and expertise are gender and human rights in Islamic and international law, children’s rights, as well as rights of women and minorities. She is the author of numerous books and articles on these subjects.

Former responsibilities of Ms. Shaheen Sardar Ali in Pakistan include professor of law at the University of Peshawar, whose Women’s Study Centre she headed as Director; Cabinet Minister in the North West Frontier Province; Chair of the National Commission on the Status of Women in Pakistan; Member of the Prime Minister’s National Consultative Committee for Women; and Member of the Senate Committee on the Status of Women. She has received a number of awards including the Asian Women of Achievement Award 2005 (Public Sector) of the United Kingdom in May 2005, and the British Muslims Annual Honours achievement plaque in the House of Lords in May 2002.

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is an independent human rights mechanism of the United Nations Human Rights Council, mandated to investigate instances of alleged arbitrary deprivation of liberty across the globe according to the standards set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the relevant international human rights instruments accepted by the State concerned. Its mandate also covers the issue of administrative custody of asylum-seekers and immigrants. By its resolution 6/4 adopted on 28 September 2007, the Human Rights Council extended the Working Group’s mandate for a further three-year period.

The Working Group is composed of five independent experts appointed according to criteria governing equitable geographical distribution which apply within the United Nations. These include Ms. Manuela Carmena Castrillo (from Spain) as its Chairperson-Rapporteur, Mr. Malick Sow (from Senegal) as its Vice-Chair, Mr. Aslan Abashidze (from the Russian Federation) and Mr. Roberto Garretón (from Chile).

For more information about the Working Group, please consult OHCHR Fact-Sheet N° 26 or visit the following website: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/detention/index.htm