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
Sep 15, 2014
Fear of ISIS Triggers Double Threat to Checks and Balances
Jun 25, 2014
Victory: No Fly List Process Ruled Unconstitutional
Jun 4, 2014
Relative of Americans Killed by Drone Strikes: No Justice in U.S. Courts
Mar 14, 2014
What You Should Know About America’s Secret Watchlists
Jan 29, 2014
CIA Considers Releasing Its Torture Reports to ACLU
Jun 18, 2013
ACLU Sues NYPD Over Unconstitutional Muslim Surveillance Program
Apr 11, 2013
Urgent White House Action Needed to Avert Guantánamo Human Rights Crisis