Asma Jahangir was Pakistan’s leading human rights lawyer. She showed incredible courage in defending the most vulnerable Pakistanis- women, children, minorities and poor. She was also a social activist who co-founded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in 1987. She was well known for playing a prominent role in the Lawyers Movements.

She also served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion from 2004 to 2010. She became the vice-chair of the Defense for Children International (1986) in Geneva. She became the first woman of Pakistan to serve as the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association. She also co-chaired South Asia Forum for Human Rights and became the vice president of International Federation for Human Rights. In 2016 she was named as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran.

She was awarded the Millennium Peace Prize by UNIFEM in 2001. She received Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2005. She is the recipient of 1995 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders and the UNESCO Bilbao Prize for the Promotion of Culture of Human Rights. In 2002 Jahangir was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as a part of the 1000 Women for Peace project. In 2014 Jahangir received Right Livelihood Award for defending and promoting human rights in Pakistan. She also received Freedom Award, Hilal-e-Imtiaz and Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 2010. It is the second highest civilian award of Pakistan.

 In 2016 she was awarded Legion of Honor (France). Jahangir was posthumously awarded the Nishan-i-Imtiaz in 2018. It is the highest degree of service to state award of Pakistan.