Welcome. It's very good to have everybody here, together with our witnesses, for continuation of our study on the situation of women human rights defenders.
Today we have two witnesses.
From Geneva, by video conference, we have Sara Hossain.
Ms. Hossain practises constitutional, public interest and family law at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. She serves pro bono as the honorary executive director of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, which is called BLAST. That is a trust that works to make the legal system in Bangladesh more accessible to poor and marginalized people. Among a number of other things you'll see in her bio, she is also an honorary executive director of legal aid services and was the recipient of the 2016 International Women of Courage Award, presented by the United States Secretary of State.
We will start with Ms. Hossain, but before that I will introduce our witness who is here with us today: Asiya Nasir, who is a Pakistani politician, a parliamentarian affiliated with the political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam. She has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, from 2002 to May 2018. She has opposed a ban on consumption of alcohol by non-Muslim Pakistanis and also protested the ban on non-Muslims being elected prime minister or president of Pakistan. Her CV has also been submitted to the members of the committee.
I welcome both of the witnesses, recalling that the purpose of our study, of course, is to find out the different impacts and issues that are faced by women human rights defenders around the world.
We will begin with the video conference.
Ms. Hossain, you'll have 10 minutes to present your testimony.