Shams Asadi is the City of Vienna’s human rights commissioner and the director of the newly opened Human Rights Office of the City of Vienna. Before becoming the city’s human rights commissioner, she was involved in protecting employees’ rights and combatting discrimination for the Viennese regional government. A trained spatial development planner of Iranian origin, Shams has lived, studied and worked in Iran, Turkey, the USA and Austria. She specialises in urban regeneration and strategic redevelopment, representing the City of Vienna internationally in these fields, and has worked hard to improve social equality closer to home, focussing on gender mainstreaming and diversity and being involved in, founding and sitting on a number of different boards, commissions and associations for the furtherance of social equality and improved intercultural communication.
Information valid as of autumn 2015.