Door tenant

Margaret Owen is a human rights lawyer focusing on women's and children's rights, mainly in developing countries and those afflicted by conflict and post conflict violence.

Formerly specialising in asylum and immigration cases, she then headed the law and policy section of IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation), did consultancies for UN Agencies before founding and directing WIdows for Peace through Democracy (WPD), the iNGO, with ECOSOC status at the UN, which focuses on the human rights if widows and wives of the disappeared. She is also a founder member of GAPS-UK, ( gender action on peace and security), that addresses implementation of UNSCR 1325 and subsequent UNSCR gender-related issues in the Women, Peace, Security agenda. She is a Patron of Peace in Kurdistan, and makes frequent visits to the Middle East. She also works on a variety of challenges relating to the rights of minority groups. She has a law degree from Cambridge and a Diploma in Social Administration from LSE, and is a member of the Middle Temple. She received an O.B.E in 2013 for her contribution to the advancement of women's human rights and especially for her pioneering work on widows' rights.