World Press Freedom Day 2017

Farida Shaheed, a sociologist, is the Executive Director of Pakistan’s leading women’s rights organization, Shirkat Gah - Women’s Resource Centre that strives to empower women and further a gender-equality social justice agenda. Recipient of several national and international human rights awards, Farida has worked for more than 25 years promoting and protecting cultural rights by fostering policies and projects designed in culturally sensitive ways to support the rights of marginalized sectors, including women, peasants, and religious and ethnic minorities. She has published widely on the interface of women, cultural identities, State-citizenship and how this impacts rights.

Appointed the first UN Independent Expert in the field of cultural rights in 2009, she continued as a Special Rapporteur on the same issue, following Human Rights Council Resolution 19/6 of 2012 until October 2015.