The InterDependent

Asma Jahangir launched her first legal battle when she was just 20 years old, without ever going to law school. It was 1972, and the Pakistani government of then-President Zulifkae Ali Bhutto had just detained Jahangir’s father, a member of the political opposition. Asma picked up a law textbook, filed a petition to the Supreme Court for his release, and, 10 years later, found out that she’d won.

For months now, protestors have crowded the streets of global capitals—first Tunis, then Cairo, Sana’a, Tripoli, and many more. They’ve defied violent regimes, shattered stereotypes, and inspired a global audience of admirers to prove, as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said back in August, human rights are “for all of us, all the time, everywhere.”

When UN historians look back at 2011, they may well remember it as the year of R2P—diplomatic parlance for the “Responsibility to Protect.” All states, the decade-old doctrine argues, are obligated to protect their citizens. Should they fail—whether out of inability or by design—the international community must step in.

This December 10, as the world marks International Human Rights Day, it is appropriate to worry about the future of the courageous women of the Arab Spring who stood tall against tyranny to achieve freedom and democracy. Women were at the heart of the upheavals across the Middle East and North Africa.