SC Advocate Menaka Guruswamy Features In Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers List

Apoorva Mandhani

23 Jan 2019 1:51 PM GMT

  • SC Advocate Menaka Guruswamy Features In Foreign Policys 100 Global Thinkers List

    Dr. Menaka Guruswamy, whose arguments in the Section 377 case had put the Apex Court to think about the human cost of the archaic provision, has now featured in Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers list.This was the 10th annual special edition of Global Thinkers and Dr. Guruswamy was listed under the "Activism and the Arts" category. The recognition especially acknowledges the...

    Dr. Menaka Guruswamy, whose arguments in the Section 377 case had put the Apex Court to think about the human cost of the archaic provision, has now featured in Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers list.

    This was the 10th annual special edition of Global Thinkers and Dr. Guruswamy was listed under the "Activism and the Arts" category. The recognition especially acknowledges the international impact of her successful fight against the provision, which was highlighted in an article written by Frank Mugisha, the Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda.
    Her feature in the list reads: "In 2018, Menaka Guruswamy argued for the decriminalization of LGBT relationships before India's Supreme Court and won a landmark decision. Maintaining that the Indian Constitution must recognize love and not just sexual acts, Guruswamy artfully defined the essential problems with Section 377—a colonial-era law that penalized gay sex with prison terms. India's decision has prompted conversations on post-colonial law reform in other Commonwealth countries, including Malaysia and Kenya."
    Dr. Guruswamy, who is a graduate of NLSIU, Bangalore, holds an LL.M from Harvard Law School and a BCL from the University of Oxford. Since her time at Oxford, she has worked at a law firm in New York and as a Human Rights Consultant to the United Nations, taught at the New York University School of Law, and practiced law for the Office of the Attorney General of India.
    Back in September, 2017, Dr. Guruswamy also became the first Indian woman scholar to have her portrait unveiled at Rhodes House in Oxford University. She is currently an advocate at her own practice in New Delhi.

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