Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Annual Lecture: The Liberté Series - The Struggle for Human Rights in India

Vrinda Grover (Advocate, Supreme Court of India)

Moderated by Razia Iqbal (BBC)

Recording

The Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Annual Lecture 2017: The Liberté Series - The Struggle for Human Rights in India

Speaker biography

Vrinda Grover is a lawyer, researcher and human rights activist based in New Delhi, India. She obtained her law degree from Delhi University and her Masters in Law from New York University, School of Law. She has been actively engaged with the women's rights and human rights movements in India.

As a lawyer she has appeared in landmark cases representing victims and survivors of sexual violence, communal conflict, extra judicial executions, custodial torture and human rights defenders.

Vrinda’s research and writing probes the impunity of the state for human rights violations particularly in areas of militarization and conflict; and the role of law in the subordination of women. She was a Research Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Delhi 2013-2014. She has done seminal research on the 1984 anti Sikh pogrom and the attack on Christians in Kandhamal in 2008.

Vrinda has contributed to the drafting of laws including, The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005; The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012; The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013; The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013 - relating to sexual violence against women; the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010; a legislation for protection from communal and targeted violence.

She has actively engaged with UN human rights mechanisms and is a member of the UN Women Civil Society Advisory Group for South Asia (CSAG). She has actively engaged with UN human rights mechanisms, including submitting shadow reports to Universal Periodic Review and shadow report to the CEDAW Committee.

Vrinda is a Bureau member of South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR).

Vrinda is a prominent commentator in the media on jurisprudential issues relating to accountability for violence against women and other vulnerable groups. In 2013, 'TIME' magazine listed her among the 100 most influential people in the world.

Organiser: SOAS South Asia Institute in association with the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust

Contact email: ssai@soas.ac.uk

Phone: +44 (0)20 7898 4390