Irene Khan
| Irene Khan | |
|---|---|
Khan in November 2003
|
|
| Native name | আইরিন জোবায়দা খান |
| Born |
Irene Zubaida Khan 24 December 1956 Dhaka, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) |
| Nationality | Bangladeshi |
| Education | Law |
| Alma mater |
University of Manchester Harvard Law School |
| Occupation | Director-General, International Development Law Organization |
| Title | Chancellor |
| Predecessor | Professor Sir Martin Harris |
| Successor | Jackie Kay |
| Children | 1 daughter |
| Relatives | Mahbub Ali Khan (uncle) |
Irene Zubaida Khan (Bengali: আইরিন জোবায়দা খান; born 24 December 1956) is a Bangladeshi lawyer who served as the seventh Secretary General of Amnesty International from 2001 to 2009). In 2011, she was elected Director-General of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) in Rome, an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the promotion of the rule of law. She is also a consulting editor of The Daily Star.
Khan was born in Dhaka, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to a wealthy family. Her family came from Sylhet. She is the daughter of Sikander Ali Khan, a medical doctor; granddaughter of Ahmed Ali Khan, a Cambridge University graduate and barrister; and great-granddaughter of Asdar Ali Khan of Calcutta, the personal physician of Syed Hasan Imam. Her uncle, Rear Admiral Mahbub Ali Khan, was the chief of the Bangladesh Navy. 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.
During her childhood, East Pakistan became the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971 following the Bangladesh Liberation War. Human rights abuses that occurred during the war helped shape the teenage Khan's activist viewpoint. She left Bangladesh as a teenager for school in Northern Ireland.
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