Nabeelah Mia is currently the Head of the Penal Reform and Detention Monitoring Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights. She holds a BSocSci in Law and Psychology and an Honours in Psychology from the University of Cape Town, and a Masters in Law from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) specialising in Public Interest Law and Policy, and International and Comparative Law.

Nabeelah started off her career at Webber Wentzel, and has subsequent to that worked in a number of spaces, including at Sonke Gender Justice, the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (a Centre of University of Johannesburg) and the Centre for Environmental Rights. She was also fortunate to spend time clerking at the Constitutional Court of South Africa for Justice Nonkosi Mhlantla.

She is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Nabeelah is a dedicated advocate for human rights and is fuelled by an unwavering passion for social justice and the protection of dignity for all. With a focus on safeguarding the inherent worth of every individual, Nabeelah has worked on issues of torture prevention, ensuring the protection of the rights of those deprived of their liberty, and tirelessly seeking alternatives to detention within both the criminal justice system and the realm of immigration detention.