New York: Indian American Monika Kalra Varma has been appointed as the new director of the Washington-based Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights (RFK Center). RFK Center engages in long-term partnerships with human rights activists to initiate and enhance sustainable social justice movements. It works closely with international bodies including the UN and NGOs for launching consumer awareness campaigns aimed at fostering corporate responsibility.

"We are fortunate to have Monika at the helm of the center. She has played a pivotal role in transforming cutting edge economic and social rights concepts into some of our most successful and dynamic programmes. Under Monika's leadership we will continue to make an even greater impact on the movement for human rights," said the center's director Lynn Delaney.

"The RFK Center is a unique human rights organisation with an agenda wholly driven by its partners - some of the most inspiring and innovative human rights leaders in the world. It is truly an honour to be able to lead the center's efforts to contribute to our partners' social movements," said Varma.

Varma will oversee the center's day-to-day operations. She will work with the staff, board members, the Kennedy family and volunteers to construct advocacy programmes which provide on-going support to the center's partners, the RFK Human Rights Award winners. She will also oversee the annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award honouring courageous grassroots human rights defenders, the center said.

ABOUT MONIKA KALRA VARMA

A human rights lawyer, Varma currently also serves on the editorial board of the Harvard-based François-Xavier Bagnoud's Health and Human Rights journal. Earlier, Verma was a legal officer for the UN international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. She worked on the prosecution case against General Stanislav Galic, the Serb military commander in Sarajevo from 1992-1994, with the Office of the Prosecutor. She specifically focused on developing the crime of terror against General Galic, succeeding in the first international conviction of terror as a crime against humanity.

Ms. Varma served as a legal clerk for the Office of the Prosecutor at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she worked extensively on sexual assault crimes. Her article entitled, "Forced Marriage: Rwanda's Secret Revealed", was published in the UC Davis Journal of International Law and Policy.

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, San Diego. She attained a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of California at Davis School of Law and is currently a member of the California State Bar. She is proficient in spoken Hindi. She is married to Anurag Varma, a lawyer.