New secretary general for Amnesty International

Irene Khan from Bangladesh on Friday officially took up her role as Secretary General of Amnesty International, during the AI International Council (ICM) meeting, held as of August 17 in Dakar, Senegal.

Irene Khan is the seventh Secretary General to serve in the organization's 40-year history and is the first woman and first Asian to hold the position at the international human rights organization.

Irene takes over from Pierre Sane, who was Secretary General for 10 years and has now joined UNESCO as Director for Social and Human Rights.

Irene Khan joins Amnesty International from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees with which she worked for 21 years. During this time she held a range of positions but focussed on direct work with refugees and displaced people to protect their rights. It is this commitment to direct contact which she intends to bring to her new position. She said, "Human rights violations are perpetrated on a massive scale, hundreds, thousands, millions. But at its very essence, Amnesty International is about individuals: those whose rights are violated and those who speak out against the violations. Human rights violations are not committed against the "other side" but against a mother, a sister, a brother, a son. Our challenge is to mobilize millions of people across the globe in solidarity with the victims, to know their names, their faces, their identities, their stories."

Amnesty International's International Council (ICM) is held every two years and brings together 500 members of Amnesty International to decide on future plans and to address the changing face of human rights work.