Shaneel Shavneel Lal is iTaukei and Indian and identifies as vakasalewalewa and hijra. They are a member of the inaugural cohort of the Young Justice Leaders.
Lal is the founder of the Conversion Therapy Action Group, a group that successfully advocated for the criminalization of conversion therapy in Aotearoa New Zealand. Lal is an executive board member of Rainbow Youth and Auckland Pride Festival and a trustee of Adhikaar Aotearoa, a non-profit charity that provides education, support and advocacy for queer South Asians.
Lal has served as an advisor to the New Zealand Minister of Education for three years and has sat on Amnesty International’s Youth Task Force. Lal has been Global Youth Leader for Open Government Partnership. Lal is a model, political commentator on queer and indigenous rights issues and a law and psychology student at the University of Auckland. Lal is a writer focusing on indigenous queerness.