Rez Gardi is an international lawyer and human rights activist. Rez sought to use her difficult start in life as motivation to succeed, becoming New Zealand’s first female Kurdish lawyer. She graduated as a Fulbright Scholar with a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School. She is the first Kurd in history to graduate from Harvard Law. Rez is the founder of ‘Empower’ – a youth and refugee-led organisation aiming to address the underrepresentation of refugees in higher education. Rez was awarded the Young New Zealander of the Year in 2017 for her services to human rights. She was a Women of Influence Finalist and NEXT Woman of the Year Finalist in 2018. In 2019 she was awarded the Outstanding Youth Delegate Award at the UN Youth Assembly. In 2020 she was awarded a Global Impact Award for her work fighting for justice and in 2021 she was selected as a Peace Ambassador for the One Young World Summit.