Shamsul Bari

Dr Shamsul Bari is the Founder-Chairman of Research Initiatives, Bangladesh (RIB), an NGO established in 2002, focused primarily upon action research on poverty issues.

He returned to Bangladesh in 1999 upon retirement from UNHCR, Geneva, the UN Refugee agency, which he served for 23 years in different capacities including as Head of Legal Section, Protection Division, Country Representative and Regional Director.

Before joining UNHCR, Dr. Bari had studied in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), UK, USA and Belgium, for degrees in English Literature, International Relations and Law, including Bar-at-law and Doctor of Law. He taught at the Universities of Chicago and Minnesota in the US.

Before setting up RIB, Dr. Bari had served as the Honorary Executive Director of PRPA, the research division of Grameen Trust, a sister agency of Grameen Bank. He has also been involved with BLAST, Bangladesh’s foremost legal aid organization, first as the Honorary Executive Director and subsequently as Chairman of the Executive Committee and presently as Vice Chairman of its Board of Trustees.

From 2002 to 2009, Dr. Shamsul Bari served as a member of RAWOO, an Advisory Council of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development. From 2008 to 2014 he served as the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council of the UN for the promotion and protection of human rights in Somalia. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), a London/Geneva based international legal aid organization.

Dr. Bari also co-chaired Transparency Advisory Group (TAG), which was set up in 2011 in New Delhi by South Asian scholars/activists/and practitioners of the right to information (RTI) law to coordinate regional efforts for the promotion and implementation of RTI. He has written several books on RTI and contributes a regular column on the subject to the Daily Star, a Dhaka English daily.

Dr. Shamsul Bari is the author of many other books and articles on subjects ranging from international law and international relations, refugee law, poverty issues and early childhood education.