Hanan Rabbani

Hanan Abdel Rahman-Rabbani is the Open Society Foundations senior program officer on women’s rights and gender development, based at the Arab regional office in Amman, Jordan.  A graduate of the United World College, Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific in Victoria, Canada, she studied at Birzeit University in the West Bank, Durham University in England and earned a master's degree in development studies from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Netherlands. 

Rabbani has many years of experience working with various local, regional and international organizations on human rights, women’s rights and development issues in the Middle East/North Africa region.  In 1997-1999, she managed a pioneering women’s rights project, entitled Palestinian Model Parliament: Women and Legislation, the first national project to deal with women and legislation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The project sparked  extensive  interest and controversy at the local, regional and international levels and was awarded a French government prize as one of the best human rights projects of the year.

Prior to her current post, Rabbani worked for four years as a human rights officer and the head of Amman human rights office within the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq.   In Palestine, among other organizations, she has worked for Al Haq, Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling, Associates in Rural Development, and the Canadian International Development Agency. In Jordan, she worked as the Iraq Advisor for  The Friedrich Naumann Foundation’s Arab Regional Office. Additional consultancy work was performed for OHCHR, Amnesty International, International Crisis Group; Sisterhood is a Global Institute and other local and international organizations.