Yasmeen Hassan

Yasmeen Hassan is a human rights lawyer who served as the Global Executive Director and previously Deputy Executive Director of Equality Now, a human rights organization focused on equality for women and girls (2008-2023).  Yasmeen has worked at the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (2003-2008) where she led the Secretary General’s first study on violence against women (2006) and the Secretary General’s campaign on violence against women (2008).  She practiced corporate law at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York and California (1995-2003). She serves on the boards of Musawah (a movement for equality in the Muslim family) and Women for Women International and on the advisory boards of Gucci Chime for Change and Gucci Changemakers.  She has served on the Council on Foreign Relations’ Advisory Board on Child Marriage, provided expert guidance to the U.N. Trust to End Violence Against Women, and advocates for women’s rights through appearances in numerous media outlets, including CNN, Al Jazeera, the Huffington Post, the New York Times and the Washington Post. She was named as Forbes 50 Over 50, received Stanford Law School’s National Public Service Award, SAKHI’s Gender Justice Award and the Government of Finland’s International Gender Equality Prize on behalf of Equality Now. Yasmeen is a native of Pakistan and authored the country’s first study of domestic violence, which ultimately became Pakistan’s submission to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Yasmeen holds a J.D., from Harvard Law School and a B.A in Political Science from Mount Holyoke College.  She grew up in Lahore, Pakistan and lives in New York with her two wonderful sons.