Fatima Hassan: Fighting for Change, for a Lifetime

Today, we’re Marching for Change with Fatima Hassan, a daughter, sister, aunt, women’s advocate, and a human rights lawyer and social justice activist. She is the founder of the Health Justice Initiative (HJI). Among others, she is the recipient of the 2022 Calgary Peace Prize and is a 2023 Echoing Green Fellow.

She has dedicated her professional life to defending and promoting human rights in South Africa, especially in the health field. She holds a BA and LL.B from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and an LL.M from Duke University. She clerked at the Constitutional Court of South Africa; served as Ministerial Advisor in two portfolios; and headed the Open Society Foundations in SA for 6 years. She has previously served on several NGO and other Boards, and currently serves on the Advisory Group for Resolve to Save Lives and the University of Washington’s Department of Global Health Partner Advisory Board. She is an Honorary Research Associate at the UCT School of Public Health & Family Medicine.

Fatima Hassan is the recipient of the 2025 Sister of the Year award for Women’s Rights.

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