Shaista Shameem

Shaista Shameem, a Fijian lawyer of Pakistani and Indian descent, was director of the Fiji Human Rights Commission (FHRC) from 2002 to 2007, and its director and chairperson from 2007 to 2009. A graduate of the University of the South Pacific, she holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Waikato and a Masters in Law from the University of Auckland.

After working in the media and as a sociology lecturer in New Zealand, Shameen returned to Fiji and was involved in the constitutional case of Chandrika Prasad v the State which reinstated the 1997 Constitution following the coup d'état of 2000 led by George Speight. She served in 2004-05 as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Use of Mercenaries and has since 2005 been a member of the UN Working Group on Mercenaries. In 2005 Shameem was invited to assist a UN assessment of the courts in Timor L'este, but was prevented from visiting the territory. In 2009 she was elected chair of the Working Group. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT).