Hanaa Edwar holds a law degree from Baghdad University. She has been a Human Rights, Women’s Rights and Democracy Activist for 50 years. She is co-founder and Chairperson of the Iraqi Al-Amal Association, a local NGO established in 1992. She is co-founder of the Iraqi Women Network, which was founded in 2004 and comprises more than ninety women’s organizations and groups from all over the country. She holds the Sean MacBride Peace Prize 2011 for her contribution ‘to the advancement of democracy and human rights’, and her ‘firm stand against violence and war’. In December 2011, UNAMI recognised her as an outstanding Human Rights Defender in Iraq and in 2013 the TAKREEM Foundation awarded her Arab Woman of the Year.