Sadia Rafiquddin (2011 - 2012)

Pakistan

Born in Sargodha, Pakistan, Sadia's early exposure to human rights violations and inequality motivated her to pursue a life devoted to social justice. Her  ambition is to contribute to the processes that build a more just and equitable Canada, where all people have the opportunity to reach their full potential - “A society in which the media, private sector, government and non-governmental institutions actively collaborate to integrate immigrants and refugees into Canadian society by providing the necessary economic and social opportunities critical to living a free life.”

Sadia’s participation in the 2006 WUSC International Seminar in Botswana ignited her passion to alleviate the impact of HIV/AIDS. She witnessed the elderly losing a generation of children to HIV/AIDS and disproportionately assuming the burden of care for orphans and vulnerable children. To further understand the issue, she returned to the region in 2007 to conduct ethnographic research on the social and cultural impact of HIV/AIDS on grandmothers in the township Katutura, Namibia. The following year, she presented her perspectives on community-based participatory research at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, while volunteering for the UNDP’s Red Ribbon Award

As Senior Research Analyst and Director of Fundraising for the G8 Research Group, Sadia assessed G8 compliance with commitments made at the annual G8 Summits. In this capacity, she published seventeen reports with particular emphasis on debt relief and good governance in the context of African development, energy security and global health. She also attended G8 Summits in Germany, Russia and Japan as an accredited journalist with the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail. 

Most recently, she examined Australian state government policies designed to bridge the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians for the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Sadia holds an Honours B.A. in International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto, where she was the first William Heaslip Scholar. At the same time, she maintained her commitment to volunteerism as a teacher for at-risk middle school students and worked with young women with physical disabilities. She also contributed research to Margaret MacMillan’s Nixon in China and Robert Bothwell’s Alliance and Illusion .  As a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, Sadia subsequently studied at the University of Sydney, Australia, and obtained a Master’s in Human Rights. Her dissertation examined the relationship between nationalism, state formation and the violation of minority rights in Pakistan.

In 2008, the Women’s Executive Network featured Sadia as one of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women, and her commitment to advancing social justice through Canadian public policy has led to a 2011/2012 Action Canada Fellowship. 

Sadia’s Sauvé Scholar project will explore her growing interest in communications, media and documentary filmmaking. She will examine the role of social media in advancing human rights and the condemnation of human rights violators, and in particular, Canada’s role in protecting human rights. She intends to produce a series of video interviews with leading human rights experts, NGOs and government officials from across Canada and around the world. The interviews will showcase positive national or local human rights projects in Canada and the world that wouldn’t otherwise be known. Further, the interviews will cast light on topics such as climate change, conflict and torture, and the Responsibility to Protect, particularly as they relate to Canada and Canadian public policy.
 
On any given day, Sadia can be found reading, boxing, learning a new recipe, photographing, painting, or exploring the world through travel.

Mother Tongue

English, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic

Country of origin

Pakistan

Country of Residence

Canada

Profession

Social justice advocate