Mikiko Otani is Chair of UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, an international human rights lawyer and a practicing lawyer of family law in Japan with a focus on women’s and children’s rights. She is a Council member of International Bar Association (IBA) Human Rights Institute, a Commissioner and an Executive Committee member of International Commission of Jurists and an Executive Council member of Asian Society of International Law. She served as Chair of Committee on International Human Rights of Japan Federation of Bar Associations, a Vice-President of Japan Women Bar Association and Co-Chair of IBA Women Lawyers’ Interest Group. As a leading woman lawyer representing civil society in Japan, she served as Alternate Representative of Japan to UN GA Third Committee (2005-2006) and Advisor of Japanese Delegation to UN Commission on the Status of Women (2009). Admitted to Tokyo Bar Association (1990). B.A. in Law from Sophia University in Tokyo (1987), Master of International and Public Affairs from Columbia University in New York (1999), LL.M. from University of Tokyo (2003) and Doctor of Law from Aoyama Gakuin University (2020). Areas of her focus include human rights education, child participation, girl child, human trafficking and access to justice.