Vrinda Grover | "Law, the State, and Human Rights in India"

Vrinda Grover is a lawyer, researcher, human rights and women’s rights activist based in New Delhi, India. As a lawyer she has appeared in landmark human rights cases and represented women and child survivors of domestic and sexual violence, victims and survivors of communal massacre, extrajudicial killings and custodial torture, sexual minorities, trade unions and political activists. Focused on the impunity of the state in relation to human rights violations, her research and writing inquires into the role of law in the subordination of women; the failure of the criminal justice system during communal and targeted violence; the effect of ‘security’ laws on human rights; rights of undocumented workers; challenges confronting internally displaced persons; and examines impunity for enforced disappearances and torture in conflict situations. She has contributed to the drafting of laws in the country including, the 2013 Criminal Law Amendment to the law against sexual assault; The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012; the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010; a law for protection from Communal and Targeted Violence.  A member of many government committees in India, a prominent commentator in the media and an expert on jurisprudential issues relating to accountability for violence against women and other marginalised groups, she is presently a Research Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Delhi. She has actively engaged with UN human rights mechanisms including the Universal Periodic Review and UN Special Rapporteurs. Vrinda Grover is a member of the UN Women India Civil Society Advisory Group; Bureau member of South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR); a founder member of the Working Group on Human Rights in India and the UN (WGHR). She was also named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2013.