Nazila Ghanea
{{Short description|Iranian British lawyer at Oxford Uni}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2025}}
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{{Infobox person
| name = Nazila Ghanea
| image = Nazila Ghanea at the World Humanist Congress by Arnfinn Peterson (sq cropped).jpg
| image_size =
| caption = at the World Humanist Congress in 2023 (by Arnfinn Petterson)
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1968
| birth_place = Shiraz
| known_for = United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
| education = Keele University, Leeds University and Oxford University
| employer = University of Oxford
| occupation = Professor of law
| predecessor = Ahmed Shaheed (as rapporteur)
| successor = incumbent (2024)
| spouse =
| children =
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| nationality = Iran
}}
Nazila Ghanea (born August 1968) is an Iranian-born British lawyer. She is a professor of law at Oxford University and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
Life
Ghanea was born in Shiraz in August 1968.https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/8EURxbbcLftDrNDU8qb3uTeLWg8/appointments She left Iran in about 1979. She took her first degree at Keele University and she has master's degrees from Leeds University and Oxford University. She returned to her alma mater to gain her doctorate.{{Cite web |title=Nazila Ghanea |url=https://www.kellogg.ox.ac.uk/our-people/nazila-ghanea/ |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=Kellogg College |language=en-GB}}
In 2000 she was employed at the University of London.{{Cite web |title=Ms. Nazila Ghanea: Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief |url=https://ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-religion-or-belief/ms-nazila-ghanea |access-date=9 June 2024 |publisher=United Nations}} In 2006 she left London to be the Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford and to lead their Master's course on International human rights law. She has spent three decades in academia including a year teaching in China.
In 2018 she and her co-authors, Heiner Bielefeldt and Michael Wiener, were given the inaugural (Senior) Alberigo Award for their 2016 work,Freedom of Religion or Belief: An International Law Commentary.{{Cite web |title=Nazila Ghanea awarded Alberigo Award {{!}} Faculty of Law |url=https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/news/2019-03-15-nazila-ghanea-awarded-alberigo-award |access-date=2024-06-09 |publisher=University of Oxford|date=15 March 2019 }}
She became the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief on 1 August 2022 when she succeeded Professor Ahmed Shaheed of the University of Essex. She had been proposed for the role by the state of Oman and several NGOs. She was chosen finally after short listing and interviews. It is an unpaid position to support the commitment of 173 countries to article 18 which states "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching."{{Cite news |last=REZAEI |first=ROGHAYEH |date=18 July 2022 |title=Nazila Ghanea: The New UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief |url=https://iranwire.com/en/religious-minorities/105798-nazila-ghanea-thenew-un-special-rapporteur-on-freedom-of-religion-or-belief/ |access-date=9 June 2024 |work=IranWire}}
Ghanea was the first Iranian to hold the UN position although she said in a 2022 interview that she had not returned to Iran since she left as a child. She also said that she had been surprised that year by tensions in Leicester which some saw as Muslims versus Hindus, while others saw this as a simplification. Ghanea had not been asked to get involved professionally but she was concerned at what had influenced a city to unrest – which she had seen as a beacon of religious tolerance.{{Cite web |last=Peacock |first=Ruth |date=15 November 2022 |title=Big Interview: UN FoRB rapporteur Professor Nazila Ghanea |url=https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/big-interview/un-rapporteur-forb-cannot-allow-you-to-violate-the-rights-of-others/ |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=Religion Media Centre |language=en-GB}}
Ghanea has been a member of the panel organised by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to assist OSCE nations with achieving religious freedoms.
In 2024 she addressed the United Nations General Assembly as their Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief with her report, "Hatred on the basis of religion or belief". In October she visited Hungary where "church-state relations now uncomfortably resemble those during the Communist era".{{Cite news |last=Faludy |first=Alexander |date=18 October 2024 |title=UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WORRIED BY SITUATION IN HUNGARY |url=https://balkaninsight.com/2024/10/18/un-special-rapporteur-on-religious-freedom-worried-by-situation-in-hungary/ |access-date=22 October 2024 |work=Reporting Democrary}}
Publications include
- The Challenge of Religious Discrimination at the Dawn of the New Millennium, 2003, edited by{{Cite book |last=Ghanea-Hercock |first=Nazila |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uU3vCAAAQBAJ&q=Nazila+Ghanea |title=The Challenge of Religious Discrimination at the Dawn of the New Millennium |date=11 November 2013 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-94-017-5968-7 |language=en}}
- Human Rights, the UN and the Bahá’ís in Iran, 2003
- Does God believe in Human Rights, 2007{{Cite web |date=19 December 2022 |title=Interview: Nazila Ghanea on Religious Freedom and Gender Equality as Non-Clashing Rights |url=https://talkabout.iclrs.org/2022/12/19/interview-nazila-ghanea/ |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Talk About: Law and Religion |language=en-US}}
- Freedom of Religion or Belief: An International Law Commentary, 2016 (with Heiner Bielefeldt and Michael Wiener)
- Women and Religious Freedom: Synergies and Opportunities, 2017{{Cite book |last1=Ghanea |first1=Nazila |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4pesol12-JAC&q=Nazila+Ghanea |title=Women and Religious Freedom: Synergies and Opportunities |last2=freedom |first2=United States commission on international religious |date=2017 |publisher=Government Printing Office |isbn=978-0-16-094283-9 |language=en}}
- Hatred on the basis of religion or belief: Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, 2024{{Cite web |last=Ghanea |first=Nazila |date=8 January 2024 |title=Hatred on the basis of religion or belief: Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief |url=https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g23/267/05/pdf/g2326705.pdf?token=DlIHoIYTK9HYVR4zi3&fe=true |access-date=9 June 2024 |publisher=United Nations}}
References
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{{United Nations Special Rapporteurs}}
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Category:United Nations special rapporteurs
Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford
Category:Alumni of Keele University
Category:Alumni of the University of Leeds