Hannah Forster (The Gambia)

Country: The Gambia

Hannah Forster is the executive director of the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies in The Gambia. Originally created by the Gambian government in 1989 and independent since 1995, the Center’s mission is to ensure respect for individual rights and freedoms through educational activities and publications, as provided in the African Charter on Human and People’s RIghts.

She has been a powerful force in the pan-African campaign advocating for the adoption of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.  In 2007, Forster became the first Gambian to receive the United States Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award.