ASMITA BASU

Asmita has 20 years of experience in project management, research, campaigning, advocacy, and capacity development in the fields of gender and human rights. She was the programmes director at Amnesty International India (2017-19). Her key work has been in drafting laws and reviewing law/policy implementation on violence against women and women’s equality and rights in India, Bangladesh, and Lao PDR. She was involved in drafting India’s civil law on domestic violence and in implementing one of India’s largest violence against women prevention projects (‘Safe Cities Initiative’), supported by the UK Department for International Development in Madhya Pradesh. She has been invited to United Nations-organised expert group meetings on gender rights and was listed as a Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) expert for capacity development in the Asia-Pacific region. Her extensive experience also includes conducting programme and project evaluations, as well as providing technical advice for designing and implementing development aid programmes on issues such as refugee rights, crime prevention, child rights, labour rights, governance, and minority rights. She is currently volunteering with Médecins Sans Frontières as humanitarian affairs manager in Yemen.