Irene Khan
Encyclopedia
Irene Zubaida Khan is a Bangladeshi
human rights activist. She was the seventh Secretary General of Amnesty International
until her resignation on 31 December 2009. She was appointed as a member of the Charity Commission of England and Wales on 1 January 2010 but resigned after a controversy over post-retirement payoffs from Amnesty International. Khan joined The Daily Star
, a Bangladeshi newspaper, as consulting editor on 15 May 2010. She is the Chancellor
of the University of Salford
.
On 17 November 2011 she has been elected new Director-General of the International Development Law Organization - IDLO, an intergovernmental organization based in Rome, Italy.
. She was the star pupil at St Francis Xavier's Green Herald International School
where she was the record holder at the school leaving examinations. The daughter of a non-practicing medical doctor Sikander Ali Khan, granddaughter of Cambridge graduate and barrister Ahmed Ali Khan and great granddaughter of an eminent doctor of Calcuuta who was the personal physician of Syed Hasan Imam
. Her uncle Rear Admiral Mahbub Ali Khan
was the chief of the Bangladesh Navy
. Irene' great-great uncle Ghazanfar Ali Khan was the first Muslim Cambridge graduate from Sylhet
. Irene's first cousin Zubaida Khan is married to Tarique Rahman the son of a former prime minister and a president of Bangladesh. During her upbringing, East Pakistan
– now Bangladesh – was fighting for independence from Pakistan. Human rights abuses that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War
in which Bangladesh achieved independence, helped shape teenage Khan's activist viewpoint. She left Bangladesh
as a teenager for school in Northern Ireland
. Khan then went to England and studied law at the University of Manchester
and then, in the United States, at Harvard Law School
She specialized in public international law
and human rights. She is the Chancellor
of the University of Salford
.
in 1977, an international development and emergency relief organisation. She began her career as a human rights activist with the International Commission of Jurists
in 1979.
Khan went to work at the United Nations
in 1980. She spent 20 years at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In 1995 she was appointed UNHCR Chief of Mission in India, becoming the youngest UNHCR country representative at that time.
During the Kosovo crisis in 1999, Khan led the UNHCR team in the Republic of Macedonia
. This led to her being appointed as Deputy Director of International Protection later that year.
Khan is featured in a 2003 TV documentary titled "Human Rights", by French award-winning filmmaker Denis Delestrac
. The film, shot in Colombia
, Israel
, Palestine
and Pakistan
, analyses how armed conflicts affect civilian communities and foster forced migration
.
in 2001 as its Secretary General. In her first year of office, she reformed Amnesty's response to human rights crises and launched the campaign to close Guantanamo prison camp. In 2004 she initiated a global campaign to stop violence against women. In May 2009 Khan launched Amnesty's "Demand Dignity" campaign to fight human rights abuses that impoverish people and keep them poor.
, the Conservative
MP for Shipley
, decried the payment, telling the Daily Express
, "I am sure people making donations to Amnesty, in the belief they are alleviating poverty, never dreamed they were subsidizing a fat cat payout. This will disillusion many benefactors." On 14 March 2011, Irene Khan resigned as UK Charity Commissioner, a public office taken up by Khan in early 2010 after leaving Amnesty, citing lack of time due to overseas commitments. Some had questioned Khan's appointment to the board of the charity regulator in the aftermath of the pay-off scandal. Announcing Khan's resignation from the Charity Commission, Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, said: "Charities have a critical role to play in the Big Society and the Charity Commission, as the independent regulator has the important job of supervising the sector and preserving public confidence in charities."
Fellowship in 1979 and the Pilkington "Woman of the Year" Award 2002 as well as the Sydney Peace Prize
2006. In 2007 she received an honorary doctorate at the Ghent University
. She received honorary doctorates from Universities of London (SOAS), Manchester, St. Andrews, Salford and Stafford in UK, American University of Beirut (Lebanon), Ferris (Japan), and State University of New York (USA). In 2008 she was one of the two persons whose name was put forward for the election of the new Chancellor of The University of Manchester. In July 2009 she was appointed as Chancellor of the University of Salford
. On June 29, 2010 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Edinburgh
.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
human rights activist. She was the seventh Secretary General of Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
until her resignation on 31 December 2009. She was appointed as a member of the Charity Commission of England and Wales on 1 January 2010 but resigned after a controversy over post-retirement payoffs from Amnesty International. Khan joined The Daily Star
The Daily Star (Bangladesh)
The Daily Star is the largest circulating English daily newspaper in Bangladesh. Established by Syed Mohammed Ali in 14 January 1991, the newspaper is owned by Mediastar a venture of the Transcom Group, headed by Latifur Rahman...
, a Bangladeshi newspaper, as consulting editor on 15 May 2010. She is the Chancellor
Chancellor (education)
A chancellor or vice-chancellor is the chief executive of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as president or rector....
of the University of Salford
University of Salford
The University of Salford is a campus university based in Salford, Greater Manchester, England with approximately 20,000 registered students. The main campus is about west of Manchester city centre, on the A6, opposite the former home of the physicist, James Prescott Joule and the Working Class...
.
On 17 November 2011 she has been elected new Director-General of the International Development Law Organization - IDLO, an intergovernmental organization based in Rome, Italy.
Early years
Khan grew up in a relatively wealthy family in BangladeshBangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
. She was the star pupil at St Francis Xavier's Green Herald International School
St Francis Xavier's Green Herald International School
SFX Greenherald International School is a private English schools in Bangladesh. Located in Mohammadpur, Dhaka, right beside St. Joseph Higher Secondary School. The school is administered by the Catholic Archdiocese of Dhaka...
where she was the record holder at the school leaving examinations. The daughter of a non-practicing medical doctor Sikander Ali Khan, granddaughter of Cambridge graduate and barrister Ahmed Ali Khan and great granddaughter of an eminent doctor of Calcuuta who was the personal physician of Syed Hasan Imam
Syed Hasan Imam
Syed Hasan Imam born in year 1871, was an Indian politician who served as the President of the Indian National Congress.He was the fourth Muslim to become the President of Indian National Congress. One of his ancestors was the private tutor to Aurangzeb. Hasan Imam's father was a professor of...
. Her uncle Rear Admiral Mahbub Ali Khan
Mahbub Ali Khan
Rear Admiral Mahbub Ali Khan was the Chief of Naval Staff of the Bangladesh Navy since 1979 till his death in 1984. He is known for his heroic actions done for his country...
was the chief of the Bangladesh Navy
Bangladesh Navy
The Bangladesh Navy is the naval arm of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. At present the navy is mostly limited to coastal patrolling, however it is implementing an ambitious procurement and expansion program to ensure the security of Bangladesh's maritime boundary...
. Irene' great-great uncle Ghazanfar Ali Khan was the first Muslim Cambridge graduate from Sylhet
Sylhet
Sylhet , is a major city in north-eastern Bangladesh. It is the main city of Sylhet Division and Sylhet District, and was granted metropolitan city status in March 2009. Sylhet is located on the banks of the Surma Valley and is surrounded by the Jaintia, Khasi and Tripura hills...
. Irene's first cousin Zubaida Khan is married to Tarique Rahman the son of a former prime minister and a president of Bangladesh. During her upbringing, East Pakistan
East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a provincial state of Pakistan established in 14 August 1947. The provincial state existed until its declaration of independence on 26 March 1971 as the independent nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan recognized the new nation on 16 December 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal...
– now Bangladesh – was fighting for independence from Pakistan. Human rights abuses that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War
Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War was an armed conflict pitting East Pakistan and India against West Pakistan. The war resulted in the secession of East Pakistan, which became the independent nation of Bangladesh....
in which Bangladesh achieved independence, helped shape teenage Khan's activist viewpoint. She left Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
as a teenager for school in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. Khan then went to England and studied law at the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
and then, in the United States, at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
She specialized in public international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
and human rights. She is the Chancellor
Chancellor (education)
A chancellor or vice-chancellor is the chief executive of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as president or rector....
of the University of Salford
University of Salford
The University of Salford is a campus university based in Salford, Greater Manchester, England with approximately 20,000 registered students. The main campus is about west of Manchester city centre, on the A6, opposite the former home of the physicist, James Prescott Joule and the Working Class...
.
Human rights career
Khan helped to create the organisation Concern UniversalConcern Universal
Concern Universal is the International Development and Emergency Relief organisation which works with people in some of the poorest countries of the world to find local, sustainable solutions to poverty & inequality.-History:...
in 1977, an international development and emergency relief organisation. She began her career as a human rights activist with the International Commission of Jurists
International Commission of Jurists
The International Commission of Jurists is an international human rights non-governmental organization. The Commission itself is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists , including members of the senior judiciary in Australia, Canada, and South Africa and the former UN High Commissioner for Human...
in 1979.
Khan went to work at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in 1980. She spent 20 years at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In 1995 she was appointed UNHCR Chief of Mission in India, becoming the youngest UNHCR country representative at that time.
During the Kosovo crisis in 1999, Khan led the UNHCR team in the Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
. This led to her being appointed as Deputy Director of International Protection later that year.
Khan is featured in a 2003 TV documentary titled "Human Rights", by French award-winning filmmaker Denis Delestrac
Denis Delestrac
Denis Delestrac is an award-winning documentary filmmaker.-Biography:A law and journalism graduate, Delestrac made his debut in non-fiction filmmaking in 2001 and signed a number of hits including IMAX blockbuster "Mystery of the Nile" and “Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space”, his first...
. The film, shot in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, analyses how armed conflicts affect civilian communities and foster forced migration
Forced migration
Forced migration refers to the coerced movement of a person or persons away from their home or home region...
.
Amnesty International career
Khan joined Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
in 2001 as its Secretary General. In her first year of office, she reformed Amnesty's response to human rights crises and launched the campaign to close Guantanamo prison camp. In 2004 she initiated a global campaign to stop violence against women. In May 2009 Khan launched Amnesty's "Demand Dignity" campaign to fight human rights abuses that impoverish people and keep them poor.
Controversy
In February 2011, newspaper stories in the UK revealed that Khan had received a payment of UK £533,103 from Amnesty International following her resignation from the organisation on 31 December 2009, a fact discovered in Amnesty's records for the 2009–2010 financial year. The sum paid to her was in excess of four times her annual salary of £132,490. The deputy secretary general, Kate Gilmore – who also resigned in December 2009 – received an ex-gratia payment of £320,000. Peter Pack, the chairman of Amnesty's international executive committee, said on 19 February 2011, "The payments to outgoing secretary general Irene Khan shown in the accounts of AI (Amnesty International) Ltd for the year ending March 31st 2010 include payments made as part of a confidential agreement between AI Ltd and Irene Khan." and that "It is a term of this agreement that no further comment on it will be made by either party." On 21 February Pack issued a further statement, in which he said that the payment was a "unique situation" that was "in the best interest of Amnesty’s work" and that there would be no repetition of it. He stated that "the new secretary general, with the full support of the IEC, has initiated a process to review our employment policies and procedures to ensure that such a situation does not happen again." Pack also stated that Ammesty was "fully committed to applying all the resources that we receive from our millions of supporters to the fight for human rights". In a statement released by Pack following the media coverage of the story, Pack described the decision to award the payment to Khan as the "least worst option". Philip DaviesPhilip Davies
Philip Andrew Davies is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Shipley in West Yorkshire.-Early life:...
, the Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MP for Shipley
Shipley (UK Parliament constituency)
-Elections in the 2000s:-Elections in the 1990s:-Elections in the 1980s:-Elections in the 1970s:-Elections in the 1910s:...
, decried the payment, telling the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
, "I am sure people making donations to Amnesty, in the belief they are alleviating poverty, never dreamed they were subsidizing a fat cat payout. This will disillusion many benefactors." On 14 March 2011, Irene Khan resigned as UK Charity Commissioner, a public office taken up by Khan in early 2010 after leaving Amnesty, citing lack of time due to overseas commitments. Some had questioned Khan's appointment to the board of the charity regulator in the aftermath of the pay-off scandal. Announcing Khan's resignation from the Charity Commission, Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, said: "Charities have a critical role to play in the Big Society and the Charity Commission, as the independent regulator has the important job of supervising the sector and preserving public confidence in charities."
Other humanitarian initiatives
In 2009 Khan was featured in the project "Soldiers of Peace", an anti-war film.Awards
Khan received a Ford FoundationFord Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
Fellowship in 1979 and the Pilkington "Woman of the Year" Award 2002 as well as the Sydney Peace Prize
Sydney Peace Prize
The Sydney Peace Prize is awarded by the Sydney Peace Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation associated with the University of Sydney. The Sydney Peace Prize is the only International Peace Prize awarded in Australia....
2006. In 2007 she received an honorary doctorate at the Ghent University
Ghent University
Ghent University is a Dutch-speaking public university located in Ghent, Belgium. It is one of the larger Flemish universities, consisting of 32,000 students and 7,100 staff members. The current rector is Paul Van Cauwenberge.It was established in 1817 by King William I of the Netherlands...
. She received honorary doctorates from Universities of London (SOAS), Manchester, St. Andrews, Salford and Stafford in UK, American University of Beirut (Lebanon), Ferris (Japan), and State University of New York (USA). In 2008 she was one of the two persons whose name was put forward for the election of the new Chancellor of The University of Manchester. In July 2009 she was appointed as Chancellor of the University of Salford
University of Salford
The University of Salford is a campus university based in Salford, Greater Manchester, England with approximately 20,000 registered students. The main campus is about west of Manchester city centre, on the A6, opposite the former home of the physicist, James Prescott Joule and the Working Class...
. On June 29, 2010 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
.
Publications
- 2009: The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights (W.W. Norton & Co.) : ISBN 0393337006, translated in French, German, Finnish, Dutch, Italian, Korean, and special South Asia edition by Viva, New Delhi.
External links
- Amnesty International - Listen to Women: Irene Khan
- Harvard Law School - Practitioners of Conscience: Irene Khan
- Listen to Irene Kahn on The Forum from the BBC World Service
- Irene Khan: ""You Cannot Import Human Rights"
- Irene Khan on The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights - video by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
- Letter from Khan's lawyers to Civil Society on her salary and severance package