Executive DirectorRights 4 Girls
Yasmin Vafa is co-founder and Executive Director of Rights4Girls, a human rights organization dedicated to defending the rights of vulnerable young women and girls in the U.S. As a human rights attorney and advocate, Yasmin’s work focuses on the intersections of race, gender, violence, and the law. She speaks widely on these issues and how they impact the lives of marginalized women and girls. Yasmin has successfully advocated for several laws, testified before the U.S. Senate and international human rights bodies, and been recognized for her advocacy by the United States Congress. She is co-author of several reports examining girls in the U.S. legal system, including the acclaimed, The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls' Story, which exposed the widespread criminalization of girls of color in the U.S. as a direct result of their victimization. The report has not only shaped the national conversation around women and girls’ incarceration, but helped ignite a movement to decriminalize survivors of gender-based violence.