Human Rights award

Pakistani lawyer Asma Jahangir was last week awarded the IBA's Bernard Simons Memorial Award - named after an English solicitor - for her work promoting women's rights in her home country.

Ms Jahangir received the human rights award at a prestigious ceremony attended by the South African minister of justice, Penuell Mpapa Maduna, and Martin Lee, chairman of Hong Kong's Democratic Party.

The founder of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, Ms Jahangir has defended more than 300 women accused of 'zina', extramarital sex, and handled cases concerning forced marriages, child abduction and bonded labourers.

She said the IBA spotlight would make a difference 'in the sense that our governments are keener to please the international community than the oppressed of their own country'.

But while the international community could lead the government to water, 'it's the people of Pakistan who can make it drink', she said.

Ms Jahangir has also founded a new organisation, South Asians for Human Rights, with the aim of building up a cross-border dialogue between India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka on common issues such as prisoners, trafficking of women, terrorism and rising intolerance.

An IBA report last year said the legal system in Pakistan is over-politicised and identified a host of serious problems which required reform.

Neil Rose