Leading Pakistani human rights lawyer Hina Jilani will deliver the 2009 Hal Wootten Lecture at the University of New South Wales this week on Thursday, 17 September.

A trail blazer in Pakistan's life-and-death struggle for the rights of women, children and minorities, Jilani will speak about human rights and international peace and security.

An Advocate of the High Court and Supreme Court of Pakistan, Jilani was a founding member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Women's Action Forum.

Along with her sister she established her country's first all-women's law firm in 1981. Since then she has continued to campaign on behalf of the most vulnerable members of Pakistani society, fighting cases for victims of domestic, fundamentalist and feudalistic violence, and the victims of so-called 'honour killings'.

In 2000 she was appointed United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders and served in this role until 2008.

She has worked for the UN Centre for Human Rights, the Carter Centre and the UN Conference on Women. She has served on the UN International Fact-Finding Commission on Darfur and is also a member of the Eminent Jurists Panel on Terrorism, Counter-terrorism and Human Rights.

Jilani is the recipient of many awards, including the American Bar Association's International Human Rights Lawyer Award in 2008. In April this year, she was appointed a member of the UN Commission to investigate breaches of human rights and international law in Gaza.

What: The 2009 Hal Wootten Lecture with Hina Jilani (Free public lecture)When: Thursday, 17 September, 6.15pm for a 6.30pm startWhere: The Law Theatre, Faculty of Law, UNSW Kensington campus

RSVP: Register online at www.law.unsw.edu.au/hw

Media contact: Denise Knight, UNSW Media | 02 9385 8920 | 0405 207 685