Bio
Hina Shamsi () is the director of the ACLU National Security Project, which is dedicated to ensuring that U.S. national security policies and practices comply with the Constitution, civil liberties, and human rights. She has engaged in litigation, research, and policy advocacy on issues including the freedoms of speech and association, racial and religious discrimination, unlawful uses of force and detention, privacy and surveillance, and torture. Her work includes a focus on the intersection of national security and counterterrorism policies with international human rights and humanitarian law.
Hina has testified before Congress and appears regularly in the media. She is the author and co-author of publications on targeted killing, torture, and extraordinary rendition, and has monitored and reported on the military commissions at Guantánamo Bay. She is also a lecturer-in-law at Columbia Law School, where she teaches a course in international human rights.
Before joining the ACLU in her current position, Hina worked as a senior advisor to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions; as a staff attorney in the ACLU's National Security Project; as the acting director and senior counsel of Human Rights First's Law & Security Program; and, as an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. Hina is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Northwestern University School of Law.
Featured work
Jan 7, 2016
Landmark Settlement in Challenge to NYPD Surveillance of New York Muslims: What You Need to Know
Dec 7, 2015
Until the No Fly List Is Fixed, It Shouldn’t Be Used to Restrict People’s Freedoms
Aug 13, 2015
The Government's 'Predictive Judgments' Land Innocent Travelers on the No Fly List Without Meaningful Redress
Jun 10, 2015
Despite Global Recognition, the Plight of Guantánamo’s Best-Selling Author Worsens
May 13, 2015
Obama Apologized for the Drone Killings of Two Western Victims. What About Everyone Else?
Feb 17, 2015
Will White House Violent Extremism Summit Address Pressing Civil Rights Concerns?
Dec 9, 2014
The US's Story of Torture Doesn't Have to End With Impunity
Oct 27, 2014
Nobel Peace Prize Winners Call on Obama to Reckon With Torture