Ugandan human rights lawyer and gender activist Laura Nyirinkindi has been appointed to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

The UN body, whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world, said she was appointed as a new member from African states of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls.

It announced the news of her appointment on its account of the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Friday (October 13).

Nyirinkindi, who has been working on combating violence against women in Africa for over 22 years, was appointed during the 54th regular session of the UNHRC, which was held in Geneva, Switzerland from September 11.

“It is a big honour because it was a very competitive process and they selected one person from the continent. So, I am really glad for the recognition but also, I feel very humble because I see it as a responsibility,” she told New Vision in an interview on Saturday when asked how she felt about the appointment.

The 52-year-old said it is her responsibility now to make the world a better place for women and girls.

“We are living in a very difficult time, so you look at it more out of a sense of what can I give, what can I do and what value will I add to make the world a better place for women and girls. It is not about anything that I am going to get; it is about what I am going to do,” she said.

Nyirinkindi was the chairperson of FIDA Uganda (2010-2014) and is the regional vice-president (Africa) of FIDA International (Eastern and Southern region).

She has a degree in law from Makerere University and a master’s degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford in the UK.

Focusing on governance, rule of law, human rights and gender, Nyirinkindi has worked in over 31 countries since 2006, and is on many international boards, including that of Root Change, an American non-governmental organization.

“All these have been opportunities for me to go and learn and to give back. In FIDA, we give back; that is how we see our responsibility,” she said.

As a human rights lawyer, Nyirinkindi works to support change management and organizational development processes for civil society organizations and government entities.

She believes that processes of empowering groups and communities to articulate and shape their aspirations best succeed when expressed and implemented by the men and women in those spaces.

She is passionate about promoting social justice for vulnerable and disempowered communities, particularly in Africa.

The advocate based in Kampala sat on the African Development Bank-Civil Society Committee, where she represented the East African region on issues of people-centred development.

She is keen to promote human rights education in Africa and feels at home in the creatives and has been known to produce musicals, pen poems and dabble in African fashion.

Nyirinkindi is also the senior managing consultant at Pro Initiatives Agency, a firm she founded, and has worked there since 2003.

About UNHRC’s group

The UNHRC’s Working Group is composed of five independent experts of balanced geographical representation, working collectively as a group and producing work in the name of the mandate which was created to intensify efforts to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and girls throughout the world.

On its website, the UNHRC explains the purpose of the mandate, saying women and girls everywhere are still subject to significant disadvantage as the result of discriminatory laws and practices.

“Equality has not been achieved in any country in the world, and pledges to eliminate discriminatory laws have not been fulfilled,” it says.

At its fifteenth session in 2010, the Human Rights Council adopted by consensus resolution 15/23 to establish a Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice.

When renewed in June 2019 through resolution 41/6, the mandate name was changed from the Working Group on discrimination against women in law and practice to the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls.

The mandate was renewed in June 2022 through resolution 50/18.