During her first term, she was appointed as Secretary of State for European Affairs, yet she decided to leave this role in 1992 to initiate the Commission of Inquiry on human trafficking.

[citation needed] Outside of her career in Belgian politics, Lizin was the United Nations Independent Expert on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty from 1998 to 2004.

[5] In 2008, she created the organisation HOCRINT, an international co-ordination network that fight against honor crimes and forced marriages.

She played an active role for the End Human Trafficking Now (EHTN) organisation, in which she sat on the board till her death.

[8] A few days after being released from hospital in Paris, she died in Hotel Fort at Huy in Belgium on 17 October 2015 at the age of 66.