Tanveer Jahan

She was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan. She completed her early education at Government High School and earned a post-graduation degree in Philosophy from the University of the Punjab.[5] She married analyst and columnist Wajahat Masood. The couple has a daughter, Kamini (Kamini is a Sanskrit word and means beautiful lady).[6]

She started taking part in the human rights movement for the restoration of democracy and gender equality as a student.[7] In 1995 she started working with Human Rights Commission of Pakistan[8] (an independent human rights body that engages in providing support to persecuted religious, gender and other minority groups).[9] As a coordinator of the women's rights program, she engaged in fact-finding missions and provided evidence-based data on violation of women's rights to HRCP's annual report.[10]

In 2003 she began serving as Executive Director of the Democratic Commission for Human Development, which engages in integrated initiatives in human rights education, research, and advocacy.[11] She developed training modules on conflict resolution and prevention, human rights advocacy, child rights, women rights, and active citizenship.[12] She contributed to making UN human rights treaties and declarations available in Urdu including; UDHR, ICCPR, ICESCR, CEDAW, CAT, CRC, Declaration of principles of tolerance, the Elimination of Intolerance and of Discrimination and many others.

She introduced a human rights course for secondary school students[13] that helped expose children to concepts of human rights, non-discrimination and equality, citizenship, and tolerance.[14] She worked to bring the human rights agenda to the development work of small community-based organizations, and has provided training[15] to thousands of lawyers, journalists, and activists[16] on themes such as; conflict analysis, conflict resolution, early warning systems, human rights and protection of human rights defenders.[17]

She spoke out against child marriage,[18] corporal punishment,[19] child trafficking in the Gulf States, child abuse,[20] custodial torture,[21] death penalty,[22] religious extremism, gender-based violence[23] and has been pushing for an autonomous commission on children's rights,[24] which was established in Pakistan in April 2020. She advocates for mainstreaming women's rights,[25] effective women's political participation,[26] equal rights of women and men,[27] and endorses international women's day.[28][29] While a member of the NCSW she was involved in panel discussions on religious minority rights,[30][31] policy dialogues on pro-women laws and policies, and reports and research studies on women's rights.[32]

She has joined campaigns[33] and networks, and has led some of them, including the Child Rights Movement.[24] She is a member of the Civil Society Working Group on GSP+, an advocacy group established to monitor Pakistan's compliance with international human rights commitments, and engage with stakeholders, including European Union governments, on key reforms required to meet the GSP+ conditions. She is a member of the Joint Action Committee for People's Rights, a platform of human rights organizations and defenders working across Pakistan to speak against human rights violations.[34]

She worked with international organizations, and began working as Country Representative of Label Step, Switzerland in 2004.[35] She served as a Consultant with Norwegian Human Rights Fund from 2003 to 2014.[36] She has given talks and lectures on international forums on the theme such as women's rights[37][38] and rights of human rights defenders.[39]

She launched a campaign against degrading treatment and torture in 2013[40] under which a study on Pakistan's criminal justice system highlighted its obstacles to dispensation of justice.[41] She launched a campaign for protection of human rights defenders and women-centric organizations in Pakistan in 2016[42] under which two studies assessed the challenges and threats they face.[43]

She has served as the National Coordinator of the Pakistan Human Rights Defenders Network (PHRDN) since 2016,[2] which is aimed at improving the skills of human rights defenders in analyzing risk assessment and capacity assessment[44] and enables them to deal with risks and threats for their protection as well as their organizations’[45] security,[46] and advocating for protection[47] of human rights defenders' rights.[48]

In 2018, along with other organizations, PHRDN consulted with the National Commission for Human Rights on the formulation of policy guidelines for the protection of human rights defenders in Pakistan.[49][50] In 2019, it launched a research study[51] assessing the economic, developmental and relational impact of policy for regulation of INGOs in Pakistan[52] and the markers of national interest in the social sector.[53]

She has contributed to several publications[12] on themes such as human rights and peacebuilding.

• What is advocacy?
• Using Media for human rights advocacy
• Training module on human rights activism
• Training module on Women's Rights
• Training module on Child Rights
• Training module on Religious Freedom & Minorities Rights
• Training module on conflict handling skills
• Study on Impact of compromise in murder cases[54]

• Democratic Commission for Human Development
• Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
• National Commission on the Status of Women