Souhayr Belhassen

Souhayr Belhassen (* 1943 in Gabès ) is a Tunisian journalist and human rights defender. In April 2007, she was elected President of the International League for Human Rights (French Fédération internationale des droits de l' Homme of ligues, FIDH ).

She studied law in Tunis and political science in Paris and then worked as a journalist for the weekly magazine Jeune Afrique and the Reuters news agency. 1967 Belhassen involved in the protests against the Six Day War. Since 1984 she is involved in the Ligue Tunisienne des droits de l' homme ( LTDH ), the umbrella organization of the FIDH belonging to the Tunisian League for Human Rights. After she had in 1993 launched a campaign for the petition in support of Algerian women and thereby denounced the inaction of the Tunisian authorities in view of the situation in the neighboring country, she had to go into exile for five years. On 24 April 2007 she was elected president of the FIDH. On 1 February 2008, she received from the Faculté de droit an honorary doctorate from the Université catholique de Louvain.