Binaifer Nowrojee is the president of the Open Society Foundations, the world’s largest private funder working to promote human rights, equity, and justice.
Nowrojee, an international human rights lawyer, previously served as vice president leading regional programs, the first regional director for the Asia-Pacific, and the founding director of the East Africa foundation, bringing extensive experience and expertise on the two continents through grant making, advocacy, research, and strategic litigation.
Earlier in her career, Nowrojee was an investigator at Human Rights Watch, where she documented sexual violence during the genocide in Rwanda, helping secure the first ever convictions for genocide and rape as a weapon of war. She was also a lecturer at Harvard Law School and a fellow at Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights. Nowrojee holds a JD from Columbia Law School and an LLM from Harvard Law School.
In 2025, she received the International Law Institute’s Lifetime Impact Award for her leadership advancing rights, equity, and justice globally.
