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Sara Hossain

Sara Hossain is a Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh specializing in constitutional, corporate, and family law. She is a partner at the law firm of Dr. Kamal Hossain and Associates and serves pro bono as the Honorary Executive Director of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust. She is also currently a Professor of Practice at SOAS, University of London and an overseas bencher of Middle Temple. She has been serving since December 2022 as the Chair of the International Fact Finding Mission on Iran, appointed by the President of the UN Human Rights Council, and was earlier a Member of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 Protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. She is currently serving as the chair of the UN Human Rights Council’s Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran. Sara earlier served on the UN Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 Protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and on the UN Expert Group on Accountability in the DPRK, in both cases appointed by the President of the UN Human Rights Council. Sara is currently a member of several boards, including national development organizations, D-NET, and IID. She is a Bencher of the Middle Temple. Sara was educated at Wadham College, Oxford (1988), called to the Bar from Middle Temple (1989), then enrolled in the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh (1992) and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (2008). She has been involved in landmark cases and campaigns on gender equality (‘fatwa’ violence discriminatory rape laws, sexual harassment), prohibition of corporal punishment in schools, protection against torture and freedom of expression, among others. Sara has received awards for her work from among others the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, the US State Department (Women of Courage). She writes and speaks on issues of women’s rights, discrimination, public interest litigation, freedom of expression and access to justice.