Motoko Aizawa (she/her) was first appointed to the DC Commission on Human Rights in 2012, and became the chair in 2020. Commissioner Aizawa is an expert on the many dimensions of sustainable development, including the role of governments and business in respecting and protecting human rights, and advises the United Nations, governments and civil society on these topics.

 

Commissioner Aizawa spent more than two decades at the World Bank Group in various capacities, including as Sustainability Advisor to the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Network. Commissioner Aizawa began her career as a business lawyer, specializing in international transactions at Baker & McKenzie, and later at the International Finance Corporation, a private sector arm of the World Bank Group. After she left the World Bank, she served as Managing Director USA of the Institute for Human Rights in Business between 2014 and 2016. She has been a resident of Washington DC since 1989.

 

As a Ward 3 resident, Commissioner Aizawa received a Bachelor of Arts in History from the Hamilton College, and a Master of Laws in Public and Private International Law from the University of London