Anika Rahman,
President, Americans for UNFPA
Anika Rahman, a well-known international women’s rights advocate , assumed the leadership of Americans for UNFPA in July 2004. For more than ten years, Ms. Rahman has monitored and analyzed United States and international population policies that affect the reproductive rights and health of women. As President of Americans for UNFPA, she oversees education, advocacy, and fundraising on behalf of the United Nations Population Fund.
The Founding Director of the International Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights (formerly, the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, CRLP), Ms. Rahman was responsible for the expansion of the Center’s global and U.S. foreign policy programs . Under her leadership, CRLP forged collaborative efforts with women’s rights organizations around the world and has been a strong advocate for placing reproductive rights within the context of international human rights.
Co-author of Female Genital Mutilation: A Practical Guide to Worldwide Laws and Policies (2000 Zed Books), Ms. Rahman’s articles on women’s health and rights have been published in academic, human rights, and legal journals, and in major newspapers throughout the country.
Prior to joining the CRLP, Ms. Rahman was a corporate associate working in the field of international law at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. In addition, she has worked on legal issues involving the rights of immigrants in the United States.
Ms. Rahman, a member of the New York bar, received her Juris Doctor in 1990 from Columbia Law School, where she was awarded a certificate, with honors, in International and Foreign Law by the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law. She was the co-chair of the Columbia Law Women’s Association and an articles editor of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. She received her Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in 1987 from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Currently, Ms. Rahman is a member of Columbia Law School’s Board of Visitors, and a member of the board of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee.
Ms. Rahman is a native of Bangladesh.