Mary Shanthi Dairiam is a Malaysian human rights and women's rights advocate and United Nations(UN) official. She has since 2004 served on the UN's Gender Equality Task Force,[2] and on the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women.[3] From 2004 to 2008, she was also a member of the UN's CEDAW committee,[4] within which she was appointed Rapporteur in January 2007.[5]
In 2010, Dairiam was appointed as one of three UN experts to lead an inquiry into the Israeli navy's response to the Marmara flotillathat sought to break a blockade of Gaza.[6]
Dairiam is the founder and a current director of International Women's Rights Action Watch - Asia Pacific, a charity devoted to the implementation of the CEDAW convention.[7]
CEDAW Committee Member, 2005-2008;
CEDAW Committee, Rapporteur, 2007-2008; Member, Gender Equality Task Force,
Member, Advisory Panel, Disability Rights Fund, Boston, USA. 2008-present
Member of the Board of Directors, International Women Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW), Malaysia, 1996- Present;
Non Aligned Movement (NAM) Institute for the Empowerment of Women. Member of the Advisory Committee, Malaysia, 2007- Present;
The National Advisory Council on Women, Member, Malaysia, March 2005- present