Welcome To Zasha

Maja Daruwala, a barrister from Lincolns Inn has been working to advocate for rights and social justice for over 40 years. Her special interests lie in civil liberties, gender equality, systems reform, rule of law, accountability, promoting access to information and access to justice.

For 20 years she was the Director of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative where she is now a board member and the senior advisor. CHRI is an international NGO mandated to ensure the practical realization of human rights across the Commonwealth and has a special focus on police and prison reform and right to information. 

Over the past three years, Ms. Daruwala was also Senior Advisor to Tata Trusts, India’s largest philanthropy and is Convenor and Chief Editor of the India Justice Reports 2019 and 2020. She is also a Board Member of both the Population Foundation of India, concerned with women’s health and reproductive rights, the Media Foundation and the Centre for Social Justice, that promotes civil liberties and the rights of vulnerable groups. Most recently she has joined the advisory board of the Global Governance Forum. 

Previously she has chaired the Minority Rights Group, London and has served on the board of the Justice Initiative at Open Society Justice Institute, New York, promoting rights-based law reform worldwide. She has also served as External Advisor for the World Bank Group’s Governance and Anticorruption Strategy.