Rizwana Hasan

Syeda Rizwana Hasan (born 15 January 1968) is a Bangladeshi lawyer and environmentalist. She was an adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh and as adviser of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Water Resources and Information and Broadcasting. As an environmentalist, her work is focused on regulations for the shipbreaking industry in Bangladesh, and was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2009. She was also awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2012 for her "uncompromising courage and impassioned leadership in a campaign of judicial activism in Bangladesh that affirms the people's right to a good environment as nothing less than their right to dignity and life."

Early life and education Syeda Rizwana Hasan was born on 15 January 1968, into a Bengali Muslim Zamindar family called Narapati Haveli in Habiganj District, East Pakistan. She studied in Viqarunnisa Noon School and College for her secondary education and Holy Cross College for her higher secondary education, before attending the University of Dhaka for her bachelor's and master's degree in law. She has also successfully sued organizations involved in filling lakes to build real estate, the improper use of polythene, hill cutting, deforestation, shrimp farming, and building illegal establishments on St. Martin's Island.

Awards Under Hasan's leadership, BELA won the Global 500 Roll of Honor in 2003 by the United Nations Environment Program. She herself won:

In 2022, Hasan received the International Women of Courage Award from the United States Department of State.

Personal life Hasan was born in Habiganj to the parents Syed Mahibul Hasan and Suraiya Hasan. She married her classmate lawyer-entrepreneur Abu Bakar Siddique, and has a daughter, Nehla Siddique and two sons, Ahmed Zarir Siddique and Ahmed Zeedan Siddique. In April 2014, her husband Siddique, managing director of a garment factory owned by Nasrul Hamid Bipu, was briefly abducted by unknown individuals.

Selected works Laws & decision on compensation in Bangladesh, 2001 Judicial decisions on environment in South Asia : up to 2000, 2005 Judicial decisions on environment in South Asia, 2001-2004, 2006 Supreme Court on wetland conservation, 2014