Binaifer Nowrojee

Binaifer Nowrojee (born 1963 in London; raised in Nairobi, Kenya) is an international human rights lawyer. She has been president of the Open Society Foundations since June 2024 and is the first woman president of the organisation.

Early life and education

Nowrojee was born in London to an Indian family of Parsi heritage and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. She attended Hospital Hill Primary School and Loreto Convent Msongari in Nairobi.

Career

Early legal career

After graduating, Nowrojee worked as a staff attorney at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First).

Her evidence collection has been credited as contributing to the first prosecution of rape as a war crime at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in the case of Prosecutor v. Akayesu (1998). She subsequently testified at the ICTR in the separate case of Prosecutor v. Karemera et al. in 2005.

Harvard Law School

Following her time at Human Rights Watch, Nowrojee served as a lecturer at Harvard Law School. She also held a fellowship at Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights, where her research focused on how international tribunals deliver justice for rape survivors.

In May 2026, the Open Society Foundations announced a $30 million, three-year commitment to organizations working to counter antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate in the United States and internationally.

She speaks publicly regarding authoritarian governments and the threats to democratic institutions and rights for women and LGBTQ+ communities. Her views have been featured in interviews with NPR, The Guardian, Deutsche Welle, the Associated Press,

Recognition

Nowrojee contributes commentary to Project Syndicate and Foreign Policy on topics such as international humanitarian law, gender equality, and democratic backsliding. According to the International Law Institute, she received its 2025 Lifetime Impact Award, recognizing lifetime contributions to international law.

She has spoken at the Munich Security Conference (2026) and delivered a plenary address at the Women Deliver 2026 Conference in Melbourne, Australia.

Works

Nowrojee, Binaifer. Shattered Lives: Sexual Violence during the Rwandan Genocide and its Aftermath. Human Rights Watch, 1996.