Sara Hossain
Sara Hossain is a Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, practicing in the areas of constitutional, corporate and family law. She is a partner at the law firm of Dr. Kamal Hossain and Associates, and also serves pro bono as the Honorary Executive Director of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST). She is currently a Professor of Practice at SOAS, University of London. Sara has been recently appointed as the chair of the new fact-finding mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran by the UN Human Rights Council.
Sara 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 advisory boards, including of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, and the regional network, South Asians for human Rights. She also sits on the board of two national development organization, D-NET, and IID. She is a Bencher of the Middle Temple.
Sara was educated at Wadham College, Oxford (1988), and 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, freedom of expression and access to justice.