By AGGREY MUTAMBO

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Kenyan human rights lawyer Binaifer Nowrojee will become the first woman from the Global South to head the Open Society Foundations, ending a three-year period of restructuring for the pro-democracy organisation.

Ms Nowrojee was appointed the president of Open Society Foundations (OSF) in a unanimous decision by the Board of Directors for the organisation, a dispatch said on Monday. She will replace Mark Malloch-brown who will be stepping in June this year.

Currently the vice-president for programmes at OSF, she joined the organisation in 2004, having previously worked at the Human Rights Watch (HRW).

George Soros, the founder of OSF, said this appointment is part of efforts to make the organisation “truly global”.

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“At the outset, that was merely an aspiration. But now I feel that this ambition has been fulfilled with Binaifer Nowrojee as president of the Foundations, supported by an international team,” Soros said in a statement.

Educated at Columbia, and Havard law schools, Nowrojee has been in the human rights work for nearly three decades, having also been Director for OSF in East Africa, regional director for Asia Pacific and Vice President for Organisational Transformation.

She once testified as an expert witness at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda., which was trying suspects of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

“I have accepted this position because I know that when Open Society is at its best, it is an inspiring place to work,” she told OSF staff in a statement. 

“We have endured a prolonged period of disruption, and this has not come without pain and loss, as many of you have said goodbye to colleagues and ended relationships with long-time grantees.

“As we move into becoming a more integrated network, it is time for us to redouble our commitment to the important work that we are here to do, even as we support each other to restore the health and vitality of the organisation,” she said.

“As a lawyer, much of my professional life has focused on pushing international courts to deliver justice to victims of sexual violence in conflict. I am Kenyan, of Indian origin, and have lived and worked in Kenya, Tanzania, Singapore, the UK and US.”