Zainab Malik

Program Manager Innovation Labs

As a lawyer, my first case was of a 7 year old survivor of gang rape who had been forced to enter into a compromise with her attackers. Failed by the legal system at every step in her long and arduous journey, she was left with no choice but to abandon all hope for justice. Since then I have been committed to making sure that the law and its mechanisms work to provide redress to the most vulnerable and marginalised groups.

Zainab Malik is the Programme Manager for the Justice Innovation Labs at the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL). She is responsible for designing and implementing the HiiL Justice Innovation Labs.

Zainab found her drive for fighting for justice by working on providing legal representation for prisoners on death row, and survivors of police torture and sexual and gender based violence in Pakistan. She has a decade of experience in Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and influencing legislative and policy change to make justice systems work for the most vulnerable and marginalised groups. She is also an experienced trainer focusing on empowering human rights defenders to use the UN human rights system to support their movements on the ground. Before joining Hiil, Zainab was working in the fields of international development and rule of law. With an intergovernmental organisation based in The Hague, she designed programs on enhancing access to justice in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), East and Horn of Africa, and Sahel. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Human Rights in the Picture – a foundation using visual story-telling to influence change.

Zainab is married with a daughter. She enjoys yoga, reading and drinking coffee.

Contact info

zainab.malik@hiil.org
+31 70 762 0700