On this page:
O'Brien Fellows in Residence
O'Brien Graduate Fellows
Associate Fellows
Visiting Fellows & Scholars
Banting Fellows
This page lists聽Fellows and Researchers associated with the CHRLP over the years.
O'Brien Fellows in Residence
Find a former fellow聽by last name: A-F听触 G-K | L-P | Q-U | V-Z
Omogboyega Abe
In residence January - May 2020
A prolific researcher and speaker, he sits on the Executive Council of the International Law Association, Nigerian Branch, and is a member of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers, the International Bar Association, the Nigerian Bar Association and the Association of Professional Negotiators and Mediators. He is also the Managing Editor for the Journal of Comparative Law in Africa, University of Cape Town, South Africa, and a Member of the Editorial Board of the Pretoria University Law Press (PULP), University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Omo has studied in Nigeria, Hungary, South Africa, and the United States, where he spent time as a Fulbright Scholar at Loyola University, Chicago.
Semahagn G. Abebe
Dr Abebe was in residence from September 2013 to May 2014. He came to 91社区 through the Scholars at Risk Network. 91社区 Law's Focus online magazine for their January 2014 edition.
Dr. Semahagn G. Abebe [semahagn [at] gmail.com (email)] received his LLM degree in International Economic Law and Human Rights Law from the University of Amsterdam and studied Masters (LLM) and Doctorate Degree (PhD) at the University of Goettingen. 聽His PhD work focused on federalism and the accommodation of linguistic diversity in the context of the Ethiopian ethnic federal system that has been adopted since 1995.
He has extensive teaching and research experience. He was formerly a lecturer of law at different universities in Ethiopia. In 2012-2013, he was a Bank of Ireland post-doctoral fellow at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway. During the fellowship at Galway, he taught International Trade and Human Rights Seminar course to LLM students. Since 2012, he has also worked as an affiliated faculty at the Center for Intercultural Studies, Saint Louis University.
He has also published a number of articles and his first book is under publication. His articles deals with various issues including financial sector liberalization under the World Trade Organization and the implications to the African financial sector, the opportunities and challenges of adopting ethnic federal system in sub-Saharan Africa, 聽traditional institutions and legal pluralism in Africa as well as the human rights implications of land grab in Africa. He has also presented various papers in different international academic conferences. In April 2013, he was invited to make a speech on 鈥楧emocracy and Human Rights: The Case of Ethiopia鈥� in a special event at the University of Geneva.
His book The Last Post Cold-War Socialist Federation: Ethnicity, Ideology and Democracy in Ethiopia addresses the ideological fundamentals behind the structure and function of the Ethiopian ethnic federal system and its implications for building a democratic federal structure in the country. The book is to be published by Ashgate Publishers in February 2014.
You can read him on (Ethiopian blog, mostly in Amharic).
Nora Ahmetaj
In residence February - June 2017.
Nora Ahmetaj [nora.ahmetaj [at] gmail.com (email)] is a founder of the Centre for Research, Documentation and Publication (CRDP), which was established in 2010. Its foundation was inspired by a profound need to seek transitional justice, reconciliation and right to truth for victims and former adversaries of the Kosovo conflict. Prior to working at CRDP, she was engaged as a consultant for the European Commission,聽for a variety of international organizations such as UNDP, ICG, AI and HRW. During the armed conflict in Kosovo, she conducted聽investigations聽of聽war crimes聽and crimes against humanity for the Humanitarian Law Centre. From 2010-2012 she was a member of the Regional Coordination Council of Coalition for Regional Truth Commission (RECOM) for war crimes committed during the years 1991-2001 in Former Yugoslavia.
Her specialization has been human rights, conflict transformation, and transitional justice. She was trained in human rights and international relations at Harvard鈥檚 Kennedy School, the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy from 1999-2000. She earned an MA in Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies from the University of Troms酶, Norway in 2005, and in 2008 she attended a Tufts University intensive course on Solving Non-violent Conflicts. In 2010, she attended an Advanced Learning Course for Professionals on Dealing with the Past in Switzerland. In fall 2015, as an AHDA fellow, Ms. Ahmetaj took up issues related to reparations, and developed a project that explored conceptual and practical applications regarding reconciliation.
脰yk眉 Didem Ayd谋n
December 2020 - November 2021
Associate Professor Dr. 脰yk眉 Didem Ayd谋n (聽[.pdf]) is a tenured professor of Constitutional Law at the Hacettepe University Law School in Ankara. They are a member of the Ankara Bar Association, the Founding President of the Nation's First Center for LGBTIQ+ Rights of the Ankara Bar Association and a former member of the Commission for Democracy through Law (The Venice Commission) of the Council of Europe. They are also an individual member of Transgender Europe. An former Member of the Academic Ethics Board of the Hacettepe University, they are currently a member of the Executive Committee of Hacettepe Center for Bioethics.聽
Dr. Ayd谋n has been the Reporter of the Committee for Drafting the Hacettepe Proposal for a New Constitution for Turkey, and drafted the text of the University鈥檚 proposal back in 2014. (The proposal had been submitted to 鈥淭he Constitution Reconciliation Committee鈥� of the Turkish Grand National Assembly).
Professor Ayd谋n has received scholarships from organizations such as the European Union, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and the Max-Planck Institute. After returning to Turkey in 2004, Professor Aydin worked as an assistant professor, doctor and lecturer. 脰ky眉 Didem Aydin researches national and international criminal law, criminal law reform politics, freedom of thought, thought crimes, women's rights, sexual rights and children's rights.
Fayyaz Baqir
Fayyaz Baqir had previously completed a stay as visiting scholar on Gender, State and Civil Society Relations at the Department of Cultural Sciences of the Gothenburg University, Sweden. During 2014/15, he taught and researched on human rights and informal justice at the School of European and International Public Law at Tilburg University, Netherlands. His practice and academic interests include participatory development, human rights, aid effectiveness, poverty alleviation, and social accountability.
He co-designed and taught cross-border videoconference-based courses in partnership with the American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS) on themes relating to Justice and Peace, Social Change and Human Development in Pakistan for Georgetown University, Harvard University, Wellesley College and Fatima Jinnah University.
Earlier, he served as Senior Advisor on Civil Society for the United Nations in Pakistan. He received a Top Contributors Award from the UNDP鈥檚 Global Poverty Reduction Network in 2007 and 2008. He served as National Coordinator of UNDP鈥檚 flagship small grants programs LIFE, GEF/SGP and PTF from 1993-2005. Due to the extraordinary performance of these small grants programs, he received an Outstanding Performance Award by the UNDP Country Office in 2004, for creating a vibrant small grants program for low-income communities in Pakistan.聽
Recently, he published a post at the Canadian Science Policy Conference: .
Sarwat D. Bashi
Sarwat Dalal Bashi [halabiatik [at] gmail.com ">email] is an international human rights and justice specialist with a wide experience in the field of civil society. He worked at the International Rescue Committee in Turkey for more than two years as a Protection and Rule of Law Manager. In 2015, Sarwat became a Fellow of the United Nations Alliance of Civilization (UNAOC) and travelled to the United States, Germany, Bosnia and Belgium to do research and provide advice on migration and integration issues. Prior to his UNAOC role, he worked as a Research Consultant for Human Rights Watch, spending more than a year in the emergency division in northern Syria, investigating, documenting and exposing human rights violations in crisis situations on a rapid-response basis.
Sarwat holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Aleppo, 2005; he has practiced law and legal consultancy for eight years, specializing in criminal and human rights cases. He was honored by the Syrian Bar Association as a Master Lawyer in 2008. He has a diverse portfolio of certificates, such as Protection and Human Rights, International Organization Management, and Conflict/Interfaith Conflict Management and Negotiation 鈥� from UNHCR, IRC, University of Geneva, Harvard University, U.S. Institute of Peace, and International Relations and Security Network, respectively. In 2008, he published International Human Rights and Development,聽a book n which he reflected on the situation of Middle Eastern countries.
Annyssa Bellal
Dr. Annyssa Bellal [annyssa_bellal [at] hotmail.com (email)] is聽an international lawyer, specialised in international humanitarian law, human rights law and criminal law. She received her PhD in public international law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Switzerland) and聽an LLM in Philosophy of Law and History of Human Rights from the University of Lyon and Grenoble (France). She also holds a Master of Advanced studies in International Relations and an MA in Law from the University of Geneva.
Until March 2014, Annyssa Bellal was a human rights officer and legal adviser within the rule of law and democracy section聽of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, where she dealt with issues relating to peaceful protests, armed non-state actors and was the focal point on the legal aspects arising from the situation in the Central African Republic. In 2012, she was employed as a full-time University Lecturer at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway where she taught International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law. Prior to that position, Dr. Bellal聽was a Senior Researcher at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and Hauser Global Law School visiting scholar at New York University. She also was a legal adviser for the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs within the Department of Public International Law, as well as for the International Committee of the Red Cross where she was the acting Head of the Customary International Humanitarian Law Project.
Her publications and research interests focus on various topics, such the legal framework applicable to armed non-state actors, the use of force during the 鈥楢rab Spring鈥�, immunity of States and States officials and the commission of international crimes as well as issues relating to the arms trade from a human rights point of view. Her publications include a book on immunities of States and State officials in case of serious human rights violations (Immunit茅s et violations graves des droits humains, vers une 茅volution du droit international public?, Bruylant, 2011) and award-winning article on 鈥業nternational Law and Armed Non-State Actors in Afghanistan鈥� (International Review of the Red Cross, 2011, SNIS Geneva Award 2011).
Marianne Bevan
In residence January - May 2019
Marianne is currently a senior researcher at the New Zealand Department of Corrections. Her research focuses largely on the experiences of women in the criminal justice system. She has conducted a range of qualitative studies looking into women's pathways into offending, the dynamics of women's family violence offending, and best practices in the case management, rehabilitation and reintegration of women. Her research also has a strong focus on documenting and understanding the role that trauma plays in the offending patterns of people in prison, and the implications of this for treatment. Her research has been used to inform the re-design of Corrections policies and practices to better suit the needs, circumstances and aspirations of women, and was used as the foundation for Correction鈥檚 first women's strategy - Wahine e rere ana ki te pae hou.
Marianne has a background in international development, focused on gender, peace and security. She earned a Master of Development Studies from Victoria University and as part of this she conducted research in Timor-Leste on gender and United Nations police reform. She also worked in Togo, Liberia and Ghana on mainstreaming gender into Security Sector Reform processes.
Marianne is also interested in the role of creativity and storytelling in Corrections. She is part of the New Zealand Arts in Corrections network and has facilitated a book club in Arohata Women's Prison the for past four years.
Mauro Cristeche
Mauro Cristeche is a Researcher at Argentina's National Research Council (CONICET) and Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at the National University of La Plata (UNLP), in Argentina. He is a Researcher and Board Member at the Institute of Legal Culture (UNLP), where he coordinates the Area 鈥淪tate, Public Policies and Rights鈥�.
His area of research includes economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR), welfare and labor policies, poverty, and inequality. He is also interested in theoretical debates on economic policies and legal issues from a critical perspective. His current project focuses on analyzing some of the main welfare policies in Argentina, their link with the labor market, and their impact on ESCR, and exploring a comparative perspective with other countries.
He holds a PhD in Law from the University of Buenos Aires in 2013. In 2015 he was an Erasmus Mundus postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Public Law, International and Community of University Degli Studi di Padova (Italy). In 2016 he received the Young Researcher Award from the National University of La Plata, for his scientific work at the Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences. In 2017 he obtained a Fulbright scholarship to a postdoctoral stay at the Department of Sociology of Johns Hopkins University (United States). He has developed academic activities in other Universities in Europe and America, and he is currently a visiting researcher at the CRIMT, University of Montreal. In 2019 he is publishing (co-authored) the book 鈥淚nvestigaciones sociojur铆dicas contempor谩neas鈥�.
Read his contribution to the CHRLP blog.
Lauren Curatolo
In residence from September to December 2017.
Lauren Curatolo, Esq., is a practicing criminal defense trial attorney at The Legal Aid Society in Queens, New York. She has provided legal representation to hundreds of indigent clients faced with complex legal and social issues. Lauren works to mitigate the devastating collateral consequences her clients face as a result of their felony and misdemeanor charges, and to address the systemic injustices within the criminal justice system. The Legal Aid Society's Criminal Practice is the largest public defender program in the U.S. and serves as the primary provider of indigent defense services in New York City.聽
Lauren attended City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law, the premier public interest law school in the U.S.. While at CUNY Law, Lauren was in the International Women's Human Rights Clinic. She worked with Legal Aid's Exploitation Intervention Project to represent and advocate on behalf of survivors of sex trafficking. Lauren also traveled to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake had displaced 聽thousands of people there and worked with a team from her clinic to interview survivors of sexual violence living in displacement camps, engaged with U.N. agencies, and conducted know-your-rights trainings for women's 聽grassroots organizations on enforcing international human rights standards in Haiti. Lauren also worked for the Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee in Geneva in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.聽
Lauren was awarded a full academic and leadership scholarship through the Posse Foundation as an undergraduate student and attended Middlebury College in Vermont. There, she was a Women's and Gender Studies major and received high honors for her thesis, which explored the colonization of the female body in Algeria.聽
Lauren's interests are in exploring the feminist voice and the particularized role it plays in elevating the stories and voices of the perceived "Others" who find themselves in the criminal justice system. She is interested in storytelling as a tool in effective advocacy. As an O鈥橞rien Fellow, Lauren will be exploring the ways in which the criminal justice system works to disenfranchise and dehumanize individuals who fall outside of hegemonic and heteronormative scripts.
Radha D鈥橲ouza
In residence March-June 2018.
Pwaangulongii Dauod
In residence November 2019 - September 2020
Pwaangulongii Dauod is a Nigerian writer. He studied Literature at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and earned an MFA Creative Writing from the University of Virginia. He is a Macdowell Colony Fellow. A winner of the 2018 Gerard Kraak Prize, Dauod has also been shortlisted for the Miles Morland Writing Scholarship and Short Story Day Africa Prize. He has written for Granta Magazine, The Evergreen Review, the Johannesburg Review of Books and Brittle Paper. He is currently working on a novel and a booklength essay.
Ebenezer Durojaye聽 
In residence January - May 2016.
Ebenezer Durojaye [ebenezerdurojaye19 [at] gmail.com (email)] is currently an Associate Professor of Law and Head/Senior Researcher of the Socioeconomic Rights Project at the Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape, South Africa. His research interests include issues relating to health and human rights, access to medicines as human rights, women鈥檚 access to health care, sexual and reproductive health and rights, the link between culture and women鈥檚 rights, human rights issues raised by HIV/AIDS, adolescents sexual and reproductive health and rights, corruption, constitutionalism and access to justice in Africa. He has published widely in these areas with some of his articles appearing in reputable international journals. More recently, he has been involved in research and advocacy work relating to the link between access to housing and poverty in South Africa
From 2012 to 2014, he provided technical support to the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights (Ms Magdalena Sepulveda Carmona). This included preparing background documents on poverty situations prior to country visits to some African countries, including Mozambique and Namibia. More importantly, he was involved in the drafting of the Guiding Principles on Extreme poverty and Human Rights, which was adopted by the Human Rights Council in September 2012.
Since 2010, he has served as one of the independent experts to the African Commission on Human and Peoples鈥� Rights Committee on the Protection of the Rights of People Living with HIV (PLHIV) and those at Risk, Vulnerable to and Affected by HIV. In this capacity, he has been involved in the drafting of a number of important resolutions on HIV and human rights in Africa. He was also involved in the drafting of the first General Comments of the Commission relating to article 14 (1) (d) and (e) of the Protocol to the African Charter n the Rights of Women, adopted by the African Commission in 2012.
He is co-editor of two important books in his area of research interests: Strengthening Sexual and Reproductive Health as Human Rights in Africa (eds. with Prof. Charles Ngwena (Pretoria University Law Press: Pretoria 2014) and Constitution Building in Africa (with Profs. J de Visser and N Steyler and Dr. D Powell eds) (Nomos Publishing: Broschiert 2015). He is also the editor of a recently published book Litigating the Right to Health in Africa: Challenges and Prospects (Ashgate: London 2015).
Dorothy Estrada-Tanck
In residence January - February 2020.
She holds a PhD in Law from the European University Institute, an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a law degree (Mexico City). She enjoys broad academic and professional experience in the United Nations, State bodies and NGOs in Mexico, Italy, the US and Spain, focusing on issues of human rights, migration, gender, and socio-economic justice.
Dorothy has published extensively in English and Spanish, and she is the author of Human Security and Human Rights under International Law: The Protections Offered to Persons Confronting Structural Vulnerability (Oxford: Hart Publishing 2016), which received the Best Book Prize 2017 of the Inter-American Bar Association Washington, D.C.). Read her contribution to the CHRLP blog.
Michelle Farrell
In residence January - May 2016.
Michelle聽Farrell is a senior lecturer in law at the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool. Michelle specializes in international law and in international human rights law and is Director of the School鈥檚 International Law and Human Rights Unit. Michelle's research is interdisciplinary in nature. She is particularly interested in political, ethical and critical perspectives on human rights and also has a keen interest in conflict, counter-terrorism and states of emergency from historical, theoretical and human rights perspectives.
Michelle's first monograph The Prohibition on Torture in Exceptional Circumstances was published with Cambridge University Press in 2013. Her monograph deconstructs the discourse on the use of torture in exceptional circumstances. She is currently involved in a number of projects, including a particularly timely examination of the representation of Human Rights in the UK Media in the context of the Human Rights Act repeal debates.
Before joining the School of Law and Social Justice in September 2012, Michelle held the National University of Ireland EJ Phelan Postgraduate Fellowship in International Law and was based at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway. Michelle has also previously held a position at the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation. Michelle was awarded her PhD from the National University of Ireland, Galway, in 2011. Michelle also holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the same institution and a BA in European Studies from Trinity College Dublin. In the past, Michelle has also worked for Amnesty International, Irish Section, and for Physicians for Human Rights, Israel.
Hadley Friedland
In residence May - June 2016.
Hadley Friedland, LLB, LLM, PhD [hadfried [at] gmail.com (email)] is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law. She has been Research Director of the Indigenous Law Research Unit [ILRU] at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law since 2012 and is co-creator, with Dr. Val Napoleon, of the main ILRU methodology. She was Research Coordinator for the Indigenous Bar Association鈥檚 鈥淎ccessing Justice and Reconciliation Project,鈥� which was foundational to the TRC鈥檚 Calls to Actions regarding Indigenous laws in Canada. Dr. Friedland has worked extensively with Indigenous communities across Canada. Friedland has spoken and published in the areas of Indigenous legal traditions, Aboriginal law, legal theory, criminal justice, family law, child welfare, knowledge mobilization, restorative justice and therapeutic jurisprudence.
Recent publications include articles in the Indigenous Law Journal, the 91社区 Law Journal and the Oxford Handbook of Criminal Law. Prior to law school Dr. Friedland worked with vulnerable children, youth and families for many years, and currently serves on the board of Chimo Youth Retreat Centre and the Aseniwuche Winewak Nation Justice Committee in Alberta. Dr. Friedland has won numerous awards for her graduate work, including a Vanier Scholarship and the inaugural SSHRC Impact Talent Award. Her LLM thesis, The Wetiko Legal Principles is used widely in law schools across North America. Her PhD dissertation, Reclaiming the Language of Law: The Contemporary Articulation and Application of Cree Legal Principles in Canada, was awarded a Governor General Gold Medal.
Justice Anthony Francis Tissa Fernando
Justice Fernando was in residence from January to late March 2013. He was the second O'Brien Fellow in Residence to be welcomed at 91社区.
Anthony Francis Tissa Fernando is a Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of the Seychelles, the final appellate court of that republic. Prior to his appointment to the bench in January 2009, he was the Attorney General of the Seychelles from January 1999 to December 2008.
He began his career as a State Counsel in the Attorney General鈥檚 Department of Sri Lanka in November 1979. In February 1991, he joined the Attorney General鈥檚 Department of the Seychelles as a Senior State Counsel and was subsequently promoted to the post of Principal State Counsel of Seychelles in October 1992, a post equivalent to Solicitor General and the Director of Public Prosecutions of another commonwealth jurisdiction. He has Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and was admitted as an Attorney-at-Law by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in February 1979.
Anthony Francis Tissa Fernando聽is also a lecturer in Criminal Law at the University of Seychelles for the LL.B. programme conducted by the University of London and a lecturer for the Young Leaders Programme (YLP) conducted by the University of Seychelles on the Seychelles Constitution, with special emphasis on the Fundamental Human Rights Charter enshrined and entrenched therein.聽He has also lectured in Constitutional and Public Law, the Law of Contracts and Mercantile Law at the Open University of Sri Lanka and in Criminal Law at the Sri Lanka Law College.
Ayodele Ganiu
Ayodele is an Artist and Activist committed to advocating and defending artistic freedom of expression, cultural policy and copyright reforms as well as promoting development of creative industries in Africa. He holds a BSc (Hons.) in Finance from University of Lagos, Nigeria (2004). Ayodele is an alumnus of the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy, Berlin-Germany (2009), a graduate of the EU-funded Cultural Leadership Train-the-Trainer programme in Nairobi-Kenya (2012) and Cultural Entrepreneurship course in Cape Town-South Africa (2015). He has attended several human right and advocacy courses focusing on artistic freedom including the Artwatch Africa鈥檚 Understanding Cultural Rights programme in Lagos (2014), Artwatch Africa Response course on International Human Right Mechanisms, Lagos (2017), Human rights-based approach to researching and documenting violations of artistic freedom (2017) and Strategic Campaigning course (2018) by FREEMUSE in Copenhagen-Denmark. He is an alumnus of the Arts Rights Justice Academy, an advanced course on Protecting and Defending Freedom of Artistic Expression and Artists at Risk hosted by UNESCO Chair at University of Hildesheim in Germany (2018).
He is currently the Programme Director at Intro Afrika, a cultural organization advocating against social injustice through the arts. He also serves as the Nigerian national coordinator for Artwatch Africa, a human right programme which promotes and defends the rights of artists to freedom of expression. Between August 2017 and December 2018, he worked as programme officer for Africa at Freemuse, an international human rights organization defending artistic freedom. At Freemuse, he was part of the team that conducted the research for State of Artistic Freedom (SAF) Report 2018; Creativity Wronged: How women鈥檚 right to artistic freedom is denied and marginalized (2018) and State of Artistic Freedom (SAF) Report 2019.
Ayodele has coordinated several campaigns that secured freedom for artists persecuted for their works. He has provided emergency assistance for artists at risk including arranging legal representation and trial observation, medical treatment and emergency relocation. In 2016 and 2017, he coordinated 2 major stakeholders鈥� forums that contributed to Federal Executive Council鈥檚 approval of a new Nigerian Copyright Bill in 2018 for better protection of artists鈥� intellectual property rights. In 2017, he coordinated the arts sector鈥檚 campaigns in the coalition of Nigerian civil society advocacy which stopped the NGO Regulatory Commission Bill that threatened freedom of civil society organisations. He successfully coordinated a partnership agreement between the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA)/Arterial Network Nigeria and Nigeria鈥檚 foremost law firm Ajumogobia & Okeke in 2018 to provide pro bono legal backing aimed at improving protection for Nigerian artists against the impunity of pirates and other criminals infringing on their intellectual property rights. Also in 2018, he contributed to the Arts Rights Justice Laboratory, an international think tank on artists鈥� safety by the University of Hildesheim鈥檚 UNESCO Chair held in Salvador-Bahia, Brazil. Read his contribution to the CHLRP blog.
Claudia Geiringer
Professor Claudia Geiringer [Claudia.Geiringer [at] vuw.ac.nz (email)] holds the Chair in Public Law at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and is the co-Director of the New Zealand Centre for Public Law. She holds an LLM from Columbia Law School (where she was a human rights fellow, a Fulbright Scholar, an Ethel Benjamin Scholar and a James Kent Scholar).
Professor Geiringer has a particular research interest in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, as well as other instances of the 鈥淐ommonwealth model鈥� of human rights protection. She has worked for both the New Zealand and Victorian governments, advising on their respective statutory human rights charters, and appearing in human rights litigation before the New Zealand and Victorian courts.
She presently holds a NZ$504,000 three-year research grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand to conduct an evaluation of the effectiveness of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
Jason Haynes聽
In residence June to August 2022
Dr. Jason Haynes is Deputy Dean (Graduate Studies & Research) and Senior Lecturer in Law, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. He previously served as Senior Legal Officer at the British High Commission, Bridgetown, Barbados, where he acted in the capacity of an international lawyer for the UK Crown Prosecution Service鈥檚 (CPS) International Division. He is an Academic Fellow at the Honourable Society of Middle Temple, UK; an O鈥橞rien Fellow in Residence at 91社区, Canada; and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. He is an attorney-at-law admitted to practise in St Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados, and is the author of the monograph, Caribbean Anti-Trafficking Law and Practice (Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2019), which has been well received by lawyers and judges globally, including Mrs. Justice Maura McGowan DBE QC, High Court Judge of England and Wales, who has described the book in her review as 鈥渁 challenging intellectual workout鈥�.
Jason was a Trafficking in Persons (TIP) International Legal Consultant for the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), and is the National Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery at the International Academy of Comparative Law.
He completed his LLB (with First Class Honours) at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus; his LLM (with Distinction) at the University of Nottingham; and his PhD in Law at Durham University. His PhD thesis won the UNESCO/Juan Bosch Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Social Science Research in Latin America and the Caribbean.
He is a National Scholar (St Vincent and the Grenadines); a British Chevening Scholar; and a Commonwealth Scholar.
Pranoto Iskandar
In residence from September 2015 to January 2016.
Pranoto Iskandar [pranotoi [at] imr.or.id (email)] is Founding Director of The Institute for Migrant Rights and Editor of the Institute鈥檚 scholarly publication program for the advancement of international and comparative legal studies. His most recent publishing initiative through the Institute is The Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law. The Institute has been noted as the first of its kind and marked a substantial progress in Indonesia's non governmental sector. Also, he serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Migration and Border Studies.
Iskandar had lectured at several universities, including the Peking University's School of Transnational Law, Monash University Malaysia, and some Indonesian law schools. Previously, he worked at some Jakarta-based law firms. He is the Inaugural Fellow for The Institute of Asia and Pacific Studies, Malaysia of the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus and has been a visiting scholar at University of Oslo's Norwegian Centre for Human Rights. He has written, edited and translated a number of books and articles on international law, constitutionalism, human rights, and migration.聽His non-state centred textbook on international law adopted by numerous law schools and beyond nationwide and is designed to redefine it as a less emotionally charged subject of inquiry. His monograph on the universality of international human rights as a matter of the utmost importance awarded the 2007 prominent scholarly聽work by the Indonesia's ministry of education.
Pranoto Iskandar is interested in developing a variety of academically rigorous and viable human rights driven proposals for law reform in the area of immigration and constitutional laws in the midst of the domestic entrenchment of international and foreign laws in non liberal polities.
Recent publications:
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Jeffrey Kahn
Jeffrey Kahn was our third O'Brien Fellow in Residence. He was in residence from September to December 2013.
Jeffrey Kahn [jkahn [at] mail.smu.edu ">email] joined the SMU Law Faculty in Fall 2006. He teaches and writes on American constitutional law, Russian law, human rights, and national security law. In 2007-2008, he received the Maguire Teaching Fellow Award from the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility at SMU for his seminar, 鈥淧erspectives on Counterterrorism.鈥�
His latest research on U.S. topics focuses on the right to travel and national security. His most recent book, Mrs. Shipley鈥檚 Ghost: The Right to Travel and Terrorist Watchlists (University of Michigan Press, 2013), critically examines the U.S. Government鈥檚 No Fly List. Among other publications, his articles have appeared in the UCLA Law Review, Michigan Law Review, and the peer-reviewed Journal of National Security Law and Policy.
His work on Russian law has been noted by name by the editors of the New York Times and published in various law reviews as well as the peer-reviewed Post-Soviet Affairs and the Review of Central and East European Law. His latest research has focused primarily on the influence in Russia of the European Convention on Human Rights. In 2011, Russian President Dmitrii Medvedev鈥檚 Human Rights Council asked him鈥攖he one American among six other experts from Russia, one from Germany, and one from the Netherlands鈥攖o write an expert report on the second conviction of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. This work and its continuing repercussions was described in a recent essay published in the New York Times (online) and International Herald Tribune (print).
He is a founding member of the Advisory Board for the SMU Embrey Human Rights Education Program. SMU is the first university in the South, and only the fifth in the country, to offer an academic major in human rights. The major is currently the fastest growing major in the University. He is also a Faculty Associate of the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies.
SMU Website Bio Page:
SSRN Author Page:
Arafat Khan
Arafat Hosen Khan is a fully qualified English Barrister and an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh with an advanced degree in law. He is a researcher and a Senior Lecturer of the Department of Law, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is also a Partner at the Apex Court Chambers - a leading law firm in Bangladesh. Prior to this, he was working as an associate at Dr. Kamal Hossain & Associates, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
He has significant experience in institutional capacity building for a range of institutions including, Department of Labour (DoL), Department of Inspections for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), criminal justice sector institutions, National Legal Aid Services Organization, Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), judicial capacity building among the indigenous population, Bangladesh Parliament, and women police (Police Reform) in Bangladesh. He has 10 years of professional experience, including several assignments related to access to justice and good governance, and have excellent experience in contemporary human rights issues. He worked all over Bangladesh and have excellent experience with some of the National and International NGOs focused on access to justice and human rights in Bangladesh including, ILO, USAID, DFID, UNDP, CHRI, BLAST, ASK, Manuser Jonno Foundation, and BELA. He worked on several UNDP projects as a legal expert (National Consultant) including the Justice Sector Facility (JSF) Project, Improving Democracy through Parliamentary Development (IPD) Project and the Justice Sector Strategy Dialogue Project.
He has also worked in several ILO projects as a national consultant including National Employment Injury Compensation Project, Promoting Fundamental Rights and Labour Relations in Export Oriented Industries in Bangladesh (FRLR) Project and ILO shrimp project. He worked as a National Consultant for EU - Legal & Local Governance Expert for Activating Village Courts in Bangladesh (AVCB) Phase II Evaluation cum Formulation Mission and also legal consultant for Danish Working Environment Authority, Royal Danish Embassy, Dhaka. He also worked various public interest litigation matters relating to access to justice and protecting the rights of the poor, women, children, labour, people with disabilities and the indigenous population of Bangladesh. He is a published writer on the contemporary legal and human rights issue.
Arafat has published a books and several academic articles both nationally and internationally. He holds an MA in Global Ethics and Human Values from the King's College London with Chevening Scholarship awarded by FCO, UK.
Read his contribution to the CHLRP blog.
Zelalem Kibret Baza
Zelalem Kibret is an Ethiopian scholar and blogger. Previously, he was a Scholar-at-Risk fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, at New York University School of Law. Among other things, his research focuses on transitional politics and justice, traditional justice, individuals in International law, counterterrorism, and New Social Movements and Liberation Technology. By training, Zelalem is a lawyer specialized on Public International Law. He was a Professor of law at Ambo University in Ethiopia until April 2014.
Besides his teaching activities, Zelalem is a blogger at the Zone Nine Blogging platform, a collective which blogs and campaigns on Human Rights, Constitutionalism, and Democracy in Ethiopia. To mention a few, Zelalem is the co-recipient of the 2015 Committee to Protect Journalists鈥� (CPJ) International Press Freedom award and the 2015 Reporter Sans Frontieres鈥� (RSF) Citizen-Journalist award.
Zelalem earned his LL.M degree from Addis Ababa University in Public International Law. In June 2016, he was selected as one of the Mandela Washington Fellows 鈥� a flagship program of President Obama鈥檚 Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) 鈥� and spent six weeks at the University of Virginia, The College of William and Mary, Thomas Jefferson鈥檚 Monticello, James Monroe鈥檚 Highland and at James Madison鈥檚 Montpelier 鈥� under the civic leadership track.
Read his contribution to the CHRLP blog.
Zoneziwoh Mbondgulo Wondieh
In residence September 2014 - January 2015.
R. Zoneziwoh Mbondgulo Wondieh [zoneziwoh [at] gmail.com (email)] is a feminist activist, an award winning humanitarian storyteller and blogger, with over five years of experience in gender activism, policy advocacy and youth leadership. Currently, she serves as the executive director of Women For A Change Cameroon (WFAC); a young feminist group working for the promotion of women and adolescents sexual and reproductive health rights, leadership and development.
Zoneziwoh is an alumna of the African Leadership Centre (ALC) Kenya, and also a Mandela Washington Fellow; President Obama's inaugural leadership program for young African leaders.
Zoneziwoh holds a Bachelors in Environmental Sciences and an MA (non-degree) in Conflict, Security and Development, King鈥檚 College London. She blogs at
Valentin Migabo
In residence June 2021 - May 2022
Politologue et sp茅cialiste en gestion des conflits et de la paix, Valentin Migabo peut enfin publier ses travaux sur la situation qui r猫gne dans la r茅gion des Grands lacs, en Afrique, min茅e par plus de 20 ans de conflits. Depuis mai 2019, il est le premier chercheur invit茅 par le comit茅 Scholars at Risk de l鈥橴QAM (SAR/ Universitaires en danger, en fran莽ais). Ce r茅seau universitaire permet 脿 des chercheurs de partout dans le monde, et dont la vie est menac茅e, d'obtenir des postes dans des universit茅s o霉 ils pourront effectuer leurs recherches en s茅curit茅 et en toute libert茅.
Congolais d鈥檕rigine, Valentin Migabo poss猫de une solide exp茅rience en tant que travailleur de terrain dans les zones de conflit ou post-conflit. Il a particip茅 aux Op茅rations de maintien de la paix en Afrique de l鈥橭uest et du Centre. En 2009-2010, son mandat en C么te d鈥橧voire, au sein de l鈥橴nit茅 post-conflit du Programme des Nations Unies pour le d茅veloppement (PNUD), l鈥檃 amen茅 脿 participer 脿 la mise en 艙uvre du programme de d茅sarmement, de d茅mobilisation et de r茅insertion sociale des anciens combattants. Gr芒ce au Fonds Social de la R茅publique D茅mocratique du Congo (FSRDC), un organisme qui a pour mission de participer 脿 l鈥檈ffort de reconstruction et de d茅veloppement du pays, il a collabor茅, en partenariat avec la Banque Mondiale, 脿 la conception d鈥檜ne cartographie des conflits dans les provinces orientales et du Sud-Kivu (2014-2018). De 2011 脿 2016, il a 茅t茅 agent humanitaire pour le compte de diverses organisations non gouvernementales, toujours en RDC. Enfin, il a aussi 茅t茅 chercheur au Centre de recherche ouest africain (WARC) et membre du r茅seau du Conseil pour le d茅veloppement de la recherche en sciences sociales en Afrique (CODESRIA), de 2007 脿 2009.
Tanya Monforte
In residence from September 1 to December 31, 2015.
Tanya Monforte [tmmonforte11 [at] gmail.com (email)] is the former director of the International Human Rights M.A. Program at the American University in Cairo, where she was also a professor of law and served on the steering committee of the Institute for Gender and Women鈥檚 Studies. She has been a visiting faculty at Brown University, Addis Ababa University, and the University of Texas.
She holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an M.A. in the Sociology of Law from the O帽ati International Institute for the Sociology of Law. She also holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Spanish. She was a Chayes Scholar in Transitional Justice, and a Harvard Human Rights Fellow.
Tanya Monforte鈥檚 background in the sociology of law has contributed to her interdisciplinary approach to law. Participating in a research group of scholars from various social science disciplines and institutions in the Global South, she has developed a critical research agenda on the international protection of the child. She has published on the topic of children associated with armed groups and has a forthcoming publication on peace education during times of conflict. She will further develop this line of research during her time at the Center for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.
Her research project in the law of treaties addresses the International Law Commission鈥檚 Guide to Practice on Reservations to Treaties and specifically deals with the ILC鈥檚 treatment of 鈥渟haria鈥� reservations to human rights treaties. Tanya Monforte is currently working on a reflective essay of her years directing a human rights program under an authoritarian government.
Anne-Marie Mooney Cotter聽
In residence from September 2013 to February 2014.
Dr. Anne-Marie Mooney Cotter, Esq., [am.cotter [at] hotmail.com (email)] earned her Bachelor鈥檚 degree from 91社区 at age 18, her Juris Doctor law degree from one of the leading civil rights institutions Howard University School of Law, and her Doctorate degree (Ph.D.) from Concordia University, where she specialized in Political Economy International Law, particularly on the issue of equality. She has written widely on various aspects of inequality and the law from an international perspective.
Her work experience has been extensive: Chief Advisor, and later Administrative Law Judge appointed by the Prime Minister to the Veterans Review and Appeals Tribunal in Canada; Supervising Attorney in Alaska and Executive Director in Nevada for聽the Legal Services Corporation in the United States; National Director for an environmental network in Canada; Faculty for Business Law at the Law School, Law Society of Ireland; Associate at the law firm of Blake Cassels and Graydon LLP, with a secondment as in-house counsel with Agrium Inc. in Canada; Attorney with the Disability Law Center of Alaska; and solo practitioner of the Social Security Disability Law Firm. She is also a gold medallist in figure skating. A Montrealer, she is fluent in both English and French. Dr. Cotter is the wife of Mark Badger and the proud mother of Bill and Jill.
Monica Moyo
In residence January to June 2017.
Monica Moyo [monica.moyo [at] mail.mcgill.ca (email)] has been involved in international human rights research and advocacy for a decade. Although her primary interest is human rights approaches to global poverty and economic justice, she has worked and volunteered with numerous organizations on a broad range of human rights issues. She has been a guest scholar in the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution, human rights fellow at the Transitional Justice Institute in Northern Ireland, student-director of the human rights litigation clinic at the University of Minnesota, and fellow at the American Society of International Law. She has also participated in human rights advocacy before the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva and, most recently, volunteered with NGOs in Israel, focusing on the economic challenges facing refugees and asylum seekers.
Ms. Moyo holds degrees from the universities of Oxford (MSt), Minnesota (JD), Z眉rich (MAS-LLM), Chicago (MA), Oral Roberts (MDiv) and California Lutheran (BSc). She is admitted to the New York Bar.
Nivedita Narain
In residence September to December 2018.
Her doctoral work explored the roles and competencies of social change professionals. Nivedita is interested in exploring how group rights impinge on those of individuals, especially women in indigenous communities. She is researching the dynamics of collective action at the intersectionality of class, ethnicity, caste and gender. She aims to document the history of the SHG movement as a vehicle of social change.
Dr. Narain was an Erasmus Mundus Fellow at the University of Gottingen. She was a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Development Practice at the Ambedkar University Delhi, and an Atlantic Visiting Fellow at the Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Nivedita has a PhD in Management from IIT Delhi, a Masters in International Development Policy from Cornell University, an MBA from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand; and a Bachelors in Mathematics from Delhi University.
Charles Ngwena
In residence in September 2013.
Charles Ngwena [charlesngwena [at] gmail.com (email)], LLB, LLM (Wales), LLD (Free State), Barrister-at-Law, is a Professor in the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa. He has published widely on issues at the intersection between human rights and health care, including HIV/AIDS and reproductive and sexual health with a focus on the African region. He also writes on disability rights.
He serves on editorial committees and editorial boards of a number of international journals. He is the Convening Editor of the African Disability Rights Yearbook and Section Editor of Developing World Bioethics (for Law and Bioethics), and is on the editorial boards of Medical Law International and the Journal of African Law. He is a co-editor and co-author of Employment equity law (with JL Pretorius & E Klink) which was first published in 2001 by Butterworths and is updated annually. With Rebecca Cook, he is co-editor of Health and human rights (Ashgate, 2007). With Ebenezer Durojaye, he is co-editor of a forthcoming book 鈥� Strengthening sexual and reproductive rights in the African region through human rights (Pretoria University Law Press).
Olubayo Oluduro
In residence January to May 2017.
Olubayo Oluduro [olubayooluduro [at] yahoo.com (email)] is a Professor of Law at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria. He is currently a Visiting Professor with the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He received a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree of the University of Lagos in 1995, and he was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1996 with a Second Class (Upper Division). Oluduro won the Debo Akande best prize in Criminal Procedure in the Bar Final Examinations. He also received a Master of Laws (LL.M) degree of the University of Lagos in 1998 and a Master of Philosophy in Law (M.Phil.) degree of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in 2009. He completed a Doctor of Law (Ph.D) degree of the University of Ghent, Belgium in 2012.
In addition to his legal education, he holds the Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree of the Ekiti State University in 2001. He is a Notary Public and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He has published extensively both in local and international refereed journals on a wide range of legal and interdisciplinary subjects. He has consulted widely on environmental and human rights issues.
Sharanjeet Parmar
In residence January - May 2019.
Sharanjeet Parmar is an international human rights lawyer and President of Glasshouse Initiatives, a development consulting firm. Ms Parmar has over 15 years of experience working in a dozen countries across Africa and Asia on gender, justice and security issues. Previously, she was affiliated with Harvard Law School, first as a Lecturer and Clinical Instructor and later as a Visiting Fellow in the Human Rights Programme. For three years, she served as an Assistant Trial Attorney with the Office of the Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone. She has worked on projects for multiple organisations, including the International Center for Transitional Justice, the United Nations Development Programme, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers UK.
Ms Parmar is a recognised expert on transitional justice, anticorruption, conflict-related sexual violence and rule of law. She holds a Master of Laws with distinction in International Legal Studies from New York University School of Law, and an LL.B. from Dalhousie Law School. Co-editor of , she has authored numerous articles on international justice, children and armed conflict and gender-based violence.
Read her contribution to the CHLRP blog.
Lorena Poblete
In residence April - July 2018.
Vicki Prais
In residence February - May 2018.
Saeed Parto
In residence September to December 2018.
He has carried out academic and applied research, published, and lectured extensively on these topics to an audience that has included undergraduate and graduate students, operations laypersons, NGOs, donor organizations, and private and public sector decision makers. The two key questions that have guided this work over the last 20 or so years are:
- Why are policy outcomes often different from policy objectives?
- How can the gap between policy outcomes and policy objectives be minimized?
To answer these questions he focuses on the modes of governance and the formal and informal institutions through which governance is exercised, emphasizing the links between governance and policymaking at different jurisdictional and territorial scales. Utilizing this systemic perspective, he has trained students and professionals from diverse disciplines and professional practice areas including urban planning, environmental and natural resource management, regional economic development, and policy and government studies, introducing them to the rich institutionalist literatures in economics, human geography, innovation economics, political science, and sociology.
He is co-founder and Director of Research at Afghanistan Public Policy Research Organization (APPRO 鈥� ) based in Kabul, Afghanistan and APPRO-Europe ( based in Brussels, Belgium. He also acts as Director 鈥� Academic for Center for Good Governance, Gender Analysis, Applied Social Research, Public Administration, and Development (GRAD 鈥� ) with a mandate to strengthen state-civil society relations toward good governance in Afghanistan through cross-certified training of candidates from government, civil society organizations and businesses in partnerships with reputed European and North American academic institutions and professional associations.
Oren Perez
In residence in March - April 2015.
Oren Perez [charlesngwena [at] gmail.com (email)] has an LLB (Magna Cum Laude) from Tel Aviv University and LLM (1997), PhD (2001) from London School of Economics and Political Science. He primarily works in the fields of Environmental Regulation, Transnational Law, Legal Theory and E-democracy. He has won several prestigious grants including a Foreign and Commonwealth Office Scholarship (Chevening Scholarship) and a Marie Curie Fellowship (during his studies at LSE) and various research grants, including grants from the Israeli Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Science and the Israeli Science Foundation.
Among his most recent publications are How Law Changes the Environmental Mind: An Experimental Study of the Effect of Legal Norms on Moral Perceptions and Civic Enforcement, 36 Journal of Law & Society (May 2009) 501-535 (with Y. Feldman); "Private Environmental Governance as Ensemble Regulation: A Critical Exploration of Sustainability Indexes and the New Ensemble Politics," Theoretical Inquiries in Law: Vol. 12 : No. 2, Article 7; Whose Administrative Law is it Anyway? How Global Norms Reshape the Administrative State 46 CORNELL INT鈥橪 L.J. 455 (2013) (with Daphne Barak-Erez); 聽Courage, Regulatory Responsibility, and the Challenge of Higher-Order Reflexivity, Regulation and Governance Volume 8, Issue 2, pages 203鈥�221, June 2014.
Shivaun Quinlivan
Dr Shivaun Quinlivan [shivaun.quinlivan [at] nuigalway.ie (email)] is a graduate of NUI, Galway, King鈥檚 College London, The Honourable Society of King鈥檚 Inns and Trinity College Dublin.聽 She has been a lecturer at the School of Law, NUI Galway since September 2000 where she teaches primarily in the area of Constitutional Law and Disability Law and Policy.聽
Shivaun鈥檚 research interests focus on the rights of people with disabilities, with a particular focus on education and employment.聽 In that capacity she has worked with and for a range of statutory and other agencies in Ireland and Europe: including the Equality Authority, the National Council for Special Education, the Association of Higher Education Access and Disability, the Health Service Executive as well as working on a number of European Commission funded projects.聽聽
Shivaun was the first ever Director of the LLM in International and Comparative Disability Law and Policy and in that capacity she developed with colleagues the overall LLM and teaches a module on Inclusive Education Law and Policy.聽 She is a member of the management committee of the Centre for Disability Law Reform in NUI Galway.聽
Shivaun is currently editing a volume on the 鈥淭he Right to Inclusive Education in International Human Rights Law.鈥澛�
Fatemeh Sadeghi Givi
In residence September 2018 - August 2020.
In 2007, she was granted a post-doc fellowship by SEPHIS and became an ISIM research fellow in Leiden. From 2009 to 2010, she worked as a research member of the Faculty of Social and Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. Currently she is working as independent scholar, researcher, translator and lecturer in Iran.
She has published several books and academic articles in both English and Persian. Her book in English, The Sin of the Woman: The Interrelations of Religious Judgments in Zoroastrianism and Islam (2018) was published by Claus-Schwartz Verlag in Berlin. Her books in Persian include Gender in Ethical Doctrines: From 3rd to 9th Century Iran (2013), The Unveiling of the First Pahlavi: Rereading of a Modern Intervention (2013), Women, Power and Resistance in Post-revolutionary Iran (2012), Gender, Nationalism, and Modernity in the First Pahlavi (2006). Her translations from English into Persian include Leila Ahmad鈥檚 Women and Gender in Islam: The Historical Roots of a Modern Debate, Agnes Heller鈥檚 A Theory of Modernity, Asef Bayat鈥檚 Life and Politics, Reza Aslan's Zealot, and Betty Friedan鈥檚 Feminine Mystique.
Read her contributions to the CHRLP blog.
Ranabir Samaddar
In residence from October to December 2017
Ranabir Samaddar belongs to the critical school of thinking and is considered as one of the foremost theorists in the field of migration and forced migration studies. The much-acclaimed The Politics of Dialogue (2004) was a culmination of his long work on justice, rights, and peace.
His later writings, The Materiality of Politics (2007) and The Emergence of the Political Subject (2010), signaled a new turn in critical postcolonial thinking. His co-authored work on new town and new forms of accumulation Beyond Kolkata: Rajarhat and the Dystopia of Urban Imagination (2014) takes forward urban studies in the context of post-colonial capitalism.
He is currently the Distinguished Chair in Migration and Forced Migration Studies, Calcutta Research Group, India.
Ranabir Samaddar was recently featured on the Eurozine聽podcast:聽听(2021).
Maria Sapignoli 
In residence from January to June 2016.
Dr. Maria Sapignoli [sapignoli [at] eth.mpg.de (email)] is a Research Fellow in the Department of Law and Anthropology at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany. She has been visiting fellow and lecturer in several universities in Europe and North America, including the School of Advanced Study at the University of London and 91社区. 聽Since 2006, her exploration of rights claims and the production of knowledge has involved fieldwork at a variety of levels, from the state offices and courts of Botswana and Namibia to international organizations, including the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. She has recently expanded the scope of her work in southern Africa to include comparative ethnographic work on human rights advocacy and legal aid NGOs, focusing particularly on indigenous peoples鈥� rights related to conservation programs, resettlement, and extractive industries.
She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on indigenous peoples in southern Africa, most recently in Anthropological Forum (2015), and is the co-editor, with Robert Hitchcock, of Indigenit脿 in Africa: Articolazioni globali, regionali, nazionali e locali (Unicopli, in press) and with Ronald Niezen of Palaces of Hope: The Anthropology of the United Nations. Cambridge University Press (under review). 聽She is currently working on a monograph on activism聽 and legal identities in the Central Kalahari, Botswana.
Noam Schimmel
In residence in June-July 2014 and September-December 2014.
Noam Schimmel [noamschimmel [at] yahoo.com (email)] earned a PhD in Media and Communication from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in January, 2014. He has an MSc in Philosophy, Policy and Social Value from the LSE. His interdisciplinary doctoral research examined American Democratic presidential healthcare reform rhetoric, American healthcare reform policy and politics, and the human right to healthcare. Noam Schimmel was in residence September-December 2014, and remained as a visiting fellow until May 2015. Noam was awarded a Diplomacy and Diversity Fellowship by the Humanity in Action Foundation. The fellowship will take place in聽 June of 2015 and will examine human rights issues in the United States, France and Germany and how they impact national and international policy and diplomacy.
He served on the faculty of the School for International Training鈥檚 comparative human rights study abroad program from January 鈥� April of 2014, teaching courses on human rights and facilitating discussion and experiential learning in the three countries in which the program takes place in addition to the United States: Nepal, Jordan, and Chile.聽
He researches restorative justice post mass atrocity at the Center for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, with emphasis on restorative justice for survivors of the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi. He has published on a range of human rights topics including the rights of children, indigenous people, and genocide survivors as well as on development efforts to alleviate poverty and engender and sustain human security. His most recent articles have appeared in the Journal of Human Rights and Human Rights Review. He has also published in Development, Development in Practice, the International Journal of Children's Rights, the International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, and Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, amongst others.聽
Noam Schimmel has particular interests in the ethical dimensions of human rights law, the politics of human rights and humanitarian aid, and the role of rhetoric and communication in both advancing and limiting human rights. Schimmel was an O'Brien Fellow in Residence during the summer and fall of 2014 and a Visiting Fellow from January to May 2015. He is currently an Associate Fellow of the Centre.
Read his contributions to the CHRLP blog.
Faisal Siddiqi
In residence September to November 2016.
Mr. Faisal Siddiqi holds a BSC in Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA in Law and MA from the University of Cambridge.
Mr. Siddiqi is a practicing lawyer of the High Courts and Supreme Court of Pakistan. He is a former Advisor/Consultant to the Attorney General for Pakistan. He is also a Board Member of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), Karachi, and is a Founding Trustee of the Legal Aid Foundation for Victims of Rape and Sexual Assault.
He, and his law firm, were also actively involved in the legal and political movement (2007 to 2009) for the successful restoration of the deposed Pakistani Superior Court judges, unconstitutionally suspended and removed by General Pervez Musharraf.聽聽聽
He has a varied general litigation practice in constitutional, civil and criminal law and specializes in pro-bono human rights litigation. His well-known human rights cases include the Baldia Factory fire case (case seeking justice and compensation for the 255 deceased workers of a 2012 factory fire in Pakistan), numerous cases representing victims of rape and gang rape, cases involving maladministration and lack of governance, cases involving the right to electricity and education etc.
Olivia Smith聽
In residence January - May 2022
Dr. Olivia Smith is a Consultant on labour migration and human trafficking and the Executive Director for the Caribbean Anti Human Trafficking Foundation. She has worked with several regional and international institutions including the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) as Project Lead on Trafficking in Persons (Barbados) and with The British Institute of International and Comparative Law Institute (BIICL) as National Consultant on Human Trafficking in Guyana. At CARICOM Secretariat she served as Deputy Programme Manager, Free Movement and Labour. She was a Political Specialist at the US Embassy, Barbados, the Human Resources Development Expert for the European Union Delegation to Barbados, a Lecturer at the University of the West Indies in migration studies and served for ten years as an Immigration Officer, Government of Barbados.
Dr. Smith holds a PhD in Political Science and a Master of Business Administration among other qualifications. She is a Past Fellow of the University of Oxford in forced migration. At 91社区, Dr. Smith is affiliated with the held by Professor Fran莽ois Cr茅peau.
Andrew Stobo Sniderman
In residence January - April 2019
Andrew Stobo Sniderman is a lawyer and writer. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto's law school, Swarthmore College and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar. He has worked for Justice Edwin Cameron at South Africa鈥檚 Constitutional Court, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Zimbabwe, and Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP, an Indigenous rights law firm in Toronto.
He was recently the human rights policy advisor to Canada鈥檚 Minister of Foreign Affairs. His writing has been published in 惭补肠濒别补苍鈥檚, the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Montreal Gazette and London鈥檚 Sunday Times. He won the award for best print feature of 2011 from the Canadian Association of Journalists for his profile of Canada鈥檚 Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
In April 2018, he made his first oral before the Supreme Court of Canada, in a case about the constitutionality of for criminal offenses.
Esmeralda M.A. Thornhill
Professor Thornhill (, esmeralda.thornhill [at] dal.ca (email)) was in residence from October 13 to November 22, 2012. She was our first ever O'Brien Fellow in Residence.
I worked on a two-fold research-writing project that consists of refining for publication both a study on the Fundamentals of Racism and a Compendium of 'Race' and Law in Canada. These two projects are the result of my theoretical conclusions, culled and cultivated over the years. They (each) probe a number of areas and provide me with a wealth of findings that I am open to sharing with members of the academic and non-academic communities across disciplines. Driven by my own philosophy and praxis, I would also be keen to engage with diverse sectors of the para-public and general public under topics such as:
- Human Rights and the Challenge of 'Race'
- Understanding the "Material Reality" of Racism
- 'Race' and Law in Canada
- 'Race' and Canadian Immigration
Professor Thornhill gave a talk at the Faculty on November 9, 2012, entitled 鈥溾�橰ace鈥� Literacy and the Legal Profession: An Ethical Imperative for Cap, Bar, and Bench.鈥� Read more in the Faculty's Focus online magazine's November 2012 edition: .
Dzodzi Tsikata
In residence February - May 2014.
Dzodzi Tsikata [dzodzit [at] yahoo.co.uk (email)] is Associate Professor at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana. Her research is in the areas of informal labour relations and the conditions of informal workers, particularly domestic workers; gender and development policies and practices; large scale commercial land deals and the livelihoods of smallholders.
In the last five years, she has focused on two areas: promoting decent work for domestic workers and exploring the livelihood impacts of large scale transnational land deals in Ghana. These two areas are united by a common concern with widespread violations of constitutional and human rights guarantees to non-discrimination and several human rights, including the right to food, home and work, which are guaranteed by Ghana鈥檚 1992 Constitution and several African and international human rights instruments ratified by Ghana. Her publications, which have appeared in the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal, Feminist Africa, Journal of Agrarian Change and Development, among others, reflect these interests. She was coordinator of the first edition of the Ghana Social Development Outlook 2013, an ISSER Publication on the state of social development in Ghana.
Dzodzi is a member of the 91社区's Labour Law and Development Research Laboratory, and the Agrarian South Network hosted by the African Institute of Agrarian Studies in Harare, Zimbabwe. She serves on the International Advisory Board of Journal of Peasant Studies and is on the editorial board of Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy. She is also Vice President of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), a member of the UN Committee for Development Policy (CDP), and serves on the scientific committee of the Archie Mafeje Research Institute (AMRI) at the University of South Africa.
During her close to four months stay at the Centre, she will be writing up some of the findings of a joint study with Professor Adelle Blackett and others. This study, which is under a research project, titled 鈥淓valuating Regulatory Innovation: Labour Law and Development Research Observatory on the Implementation of Decent Work for Domestic Workers鈥� examines four regulatory innovations in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. The study aims to identify innovations for supporting domestic workers that can be replicated in other countries.
Laurens van Apeldoorn
In residence August to December 2017.
Laurens van Apeldoorn is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and a member of the Centre for Political Philosophy at Leiden University, the Netherlands.聽His research is broadly focused on the nature and prospects of the sovereign state and his recent contemporary research concerns international taxation in relation to global justice.
He was a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Amsterdam where he continues to hold an affiliate position and has also held visiting appointments at the University of Toronto, the University of Montreal, King鈥檚 College London, and the University of Leuven.聽
While at the Centre for Human Rights & Legal Pluralism, he will work on a research project on tax jurisdiction and human rights.
Johann van der Westhuizen
In residence March 2015.
Justice Johann van der Westhuizen is a Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. In addition to his extensive academic experience as a professor at the University of Pretoria鈥檚 Faculty of Law, Justice van der Westhuizen served as a member of the Independent Panel of Recognised Constitutional Experts during the drafting of South Africa's Constitution, which advised the Constitutional Assembly, and of the Technical Refinement Team, responsible for the final drafting and editing.
In 1999 he was appointed by President Nelson Mandela as a judge in the Transvaal Provincial Division of the High Court (now the North Gauteng High Court) in Pretoria. He joined the Constitutional Court of South Africa - the country's apex court - on 1 February 2004.
Constitutional Court judgments written by Justice Van der Westhuizen have dealt with matters including constitutional amendments, provincial boundaries and powers, fair trial issues, equality, the development of African customary law, the right of access to adequate housing and other socio-economic rights, asset forfeiture and search and seizure procedures, the right to privacy and the contractual and delictual liability of private security companies, freedom of expression, and land claims.
S. Laurel Weldon
In residence from August 2015 to January 2016.
S. Laurel Weldon [weldons [at] purdue.edu (email)] is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Purdue University in Indiana, USA. She is founding Director of the Center for Research on Diversity and Inclusion and has served as Interim Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs as well as Acting Provost. Her work focuses on social movements, institutions and social policy. In particular, she examines the role of social movements in influencing public policy and is an expert on policies on violence against women.
Weldon is the author of more than two-dozen articles and book chapters as well as two books ((When Protest Makes Policy: How Social Movements Represent Disadvantaged Groups, U Michigan 2011) (which won the Victoria Schuck Award) and Protest, Policy and the Problem of Violence Against Women (University of Pittsburgh 2002)).
She is also co-editor of the first ever Oxford Handbook on Politics and Gender and founding co-editor of the journal Politics, Groups and Identities. She has served on the editorial board of Politics & Gender, Women, Politics and Policy, and she is a past President of the Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA), and a past member of the Executive Council for APSA, the national association's governing body.聽She is currently President-elect of the Women鈥檚 Caucus of the American Political Science Association.
Timothy Yerima
In residence April - June 2018.
He holds an LLB, University of Maiduguri, an LLM, from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, a Ph.D. in Law, from University of Jos, and a BL from the Nigerian Law School, Lagos. Currently, he is the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Nigerian Law Journal, a publication of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT) and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Law and Diplomacy, a Publication of the International Research Institute and Development, Nigeria.
Destaw Andargie Yigzaw
In residence from October 2014 to June 2015.
Dr. Destaw Yigzaw [destawats [at] gmail.com (email)] received his LLD from Kyushu University. His LLM in International Business and Economic Law is also from Kyushu University. He also holds an LLM in Comparative Constitutional Law from Central European University. His LLB degree (with distinction) was obtained from Addis Ababa University. Yigzaw was a full time faculty at the School of Law and International Studies of Unity University in Ethiopia, where he taught human rights law and jurisprudence, and business law for several years. He was also a part time lecturer of business law at the Commercial College of Addis Ababa University.
His research and teaching interests lie in the fields of international human rights, international trade law and public international law. He has several articles published or under publication in various law journals. Having served as the head of the human rights monitoring and research department of the former Ethiopian Human Rights Council, Yigzaw has extensive experience in human rights practice as well.聽
O'Brien Graduate Fellows
For their bios, please refer to our Former Graduate Students page.
Associate Fellows
Futsum Tesfatsion Abbay - 2013-2014
Futsum has the unique distinction of being the only visually impaired academic in the country. He received a USAID scholarship in 1999 that allowed him to pursue a LL.M degree at 91社区. Since obtaining his LL.M. in 2002, Futsum has been teaching at the Faculty of Law of the University of Asmara.
He has committed his life to promoting the rights of persons with disabilities, particularly the rights of the visually impaired. In spite of numerous legal and political challenges, Futsum remains committed to carrying his advocacy work forward. He worked for the CHRLP as a Associate Research Fellow for 2013-2014.
We regret to announce that Dr Abbay in September 2019 after a courageous fight with cancer.
Malado Agne (2020-2021)
Malado Agne est enseignante 脿 l鈥橧nstitut des Droits de l鈥橦omme et de la Paix (IDHP) de l鈥橴niversit茅 Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar. Docteure en droit de l鈥橴niversit茅 Le Havre-Normandie, elle a consacr茅 sa th猫se 脿 l鈥櫭﹖ude du statut juridique de l鈥檌slam en France. Elle a enseign茅 le droit dans plusieurs universit茅s, en France et au S茅n茅gal. Elle a 茅galement travaill茅 dans le domaine de la justice.
Ses recherches portent sur les relations entre 脡tat et religion et sur les sources africaines du droit. Elle est affili茅e au Centre Universitaire Rouennais d鈥橢tudes Juridiques (CUREJ).
Elle poursuit actuellement un projet de recherche intitul茅 芦 Le S茅n茅gal dans le contexte de la r茅gulation internationale des migrations : aspects juridiques et politiques de la r茅ception dans l'ordre 茅tatique de sources exog猫nes. 禄
Pierre-Luc Bouchard (August 2020-July 2021)
A member of the Quebec Bar, Pierre-Luc Bouchard manages the Legal Aid Clinic of the Refugee Centre in Montreal. Over his career, Pierre-Luc Bouchard has represented several asylum seekers and refugees in their immigration procedures before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. He believes in social justice and helps people in difficult situations to establish themselves in Canada. He is also co-president of Alternatives, an organisation that works in international cooperation, and he is also a board member of the Milton Park Community.
脡loge C. Butera
As an Honorary Witness to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 脡loge bears witness to the harm inflicted by Canada鈥檚 residential school system on generations of aboriginal Canadians. During his fellowship with the Centre, 脡loge is focused on the legacy of Canada鈥檚 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was set to conclude its work in the fall of 2015.
As a survivor of the 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda, 脡loge has spoken to dozens of audiences across Canada about his experience during the genocide and the role that an informed citizenry can play in preventing future mass atrocities and genocides. As an Associate Fellow, he works on recommendations to improve the United Nations' capacity for the prevention of genocide and mass atrocity crimes.
Adam Etinson - 2011-2012
During the 2011-2012 academic year, Etinson was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Research in Ethics at the University of Montreal (CR脡UM), as well as a Course Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at 91社区.
Although he works mainly in the philosophy of human rights, he also has research interests in related areas of moral and political philosophy, including theories of liberalism, toleration, cosmopolitanism, and moral epistemology.
Mulry Mond茅lice - Associate Fellow for 2018
A guest lecturer of the Fondation Ren茅 Cassin at the Haitian 脡cole de la magistrature, his research interests include humanitarian assistance, the rule of law standards in international relations, the roles of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) in international cooperation and social justice, the international system of human rights. In particular, he has published 芦聽L鈥檌nternationalisation du ro虃le des institutions nationales dans la promotion de l鈥橢虂tat de droit sur la base des Principes de Paris聽禄, in M茅langes en l鈥檋onneur du Professeur Emmanuel Decaux, Pedone, 2017, 芦聽La coordination des m茅canismes internationaux des droits de la personne...禄, RQDI, 2013, 芦聽L鈥檃ction am茅ricaine et europ茅enne en Ha茂ti, in Lo茂c Grard (dir.), L鈥橴nion europ茅enne et les Am茅riques, Pedone, 2015, 芦 L鈥檃ction humanitaire de l鈥橴nion europ茅enne dans le cadre du conflit syrien聽禄, 脡tudes internationales, 2016, 芦聽l鈥橝ccord Cariforum-UE et la migration dans la Cara茂be聽禄 (脿 para卯tre).
Professor Mond茅lice holds four masters degrees in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Public Law, Private Law and Didactique du fran莽ais from Universit茅 Panth茅on-Assas and Universit茅 des Antilles and a bachelor in philosophy from the Universit茅 d鈥櫭塼at d鈥橦a茂ti. Dr Mond茅lice has given lectures in Canada, France-Martinique and Haiti where his academic excellence and leadership in the community have been recognized. His LL.D thesis, Le droit international et l鈥櫭塼at de droit聽: enjeux et d茅fis de l鈥檃ction internationale 脿 travers l鈥檈xemple d鈥橦a茂ti (cotutelle Universit茅s Panth茅on Assas et Laval) will be published soon. A Haitian lawyer, he is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Jean Monnet Chair (Universit茅 Laval), of the Soci茅t茅 qu茅b茅coise de droit international and of the Centre de la francophonie des Am茅riques.
Abdourahmane Seck - 2020-2021
Dr Abdourahmane Seck est en poste 脿 la Facult茅 des civilisations, des religions, des arts et de la communication de l'Universit茅 Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis, au S茅n茅gal, o霉 il enseigne au Centre d'茅tude des religions qu鈥檌l a dirig茅 entre 2012 et 2014. Il a une formation multidisciplinaire englobant la philosophie, l'anthropologie et l'histoire moderne et contemporaine de l'Afrique.
Dr Seck est l鈥檃uteur de nombreux travaux autour de la dynamique des liens sociaux, politiques et symboliques en Afrique, avec un accent particulier dans les domaines de la religion, des migrations et des historiographies d茅coloniales.
Il vient de co-fonder le Collectif d茅colonial : (Gaec-Africa) et travaille sur un projet de recherche intitul茅 "L鈥橝frique peut-elle peser dans le d茅bat migration et droit international?"
Noam Schimmel
Noam Schimmel earned a PhD in Media and Communication from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in January, 2014. He has an MSc in Philosophy, Policy and Social Value from the LSE. His interdisciplinary doctoral research examined American Democratic presidential healthcare reform rhetoric, American healthcare reform policy and politics, and the human right to healthcare. Noam Schimmel was in residence September-December 2014, and remained as a visiting fellow until May 2015. Noam was awarded a Diplomacy and Diversity Fellowship by the Humanity in Action Foundation. The fellowship will take place in聽 June of 2015 and will examine human rights issues in the United States, France and Germany and how they impact national and international policy and diplomacy.
He served on the faculty of the School for International Training鈥檚 comparative human rights study abroad program from January 鈥� April of 2014, teaching courses on human rights and facilitating discussion and experiential learning in the three countries in which the program takes place in addition to the United States: Nepal, Jordan, and Chile.聽
He researches restorative justice post mass atrocity at the Center for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, with emphasis on restorative justice for survivors of the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi. He has published on a range of human rights topics including the rights of children, indigenous people, and genocide survivors as well as on development efforts to alleviate poverty and engender and sustain human security. His most recent articles have appeared in the Journal of Human Rights and Human Rights Review. He has also published in Development, Development in Practice, the International Journal of Children's Rights, the International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, and Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, amongst others.聽
Noam Schimmel has particular interests in the ethical dimensions of human rights law, the politics of human rights and humanitarian aid, and the role of rhetoric and communication in both advancing and limiting human rights. Schimmel was an O'Brien Fellow in Residence during the summer and fall of 2014 and a Visiting Fellow from January to May 2015.
Gr茅goire Webber - 2010-2011
Gr茅goire Webber is a Lecturer in Law at the LSE. He is a graduate of 91社区 with bachelors of civil law and common law and of the University of Oxford with a doctorate in law. Dr Webber clerked for Justice Andr茅 Rochon of the Quebec Court of Appeal and Justice Ian Binnie of the Supreme Court of Canada. While at Oxford, he held a Trudeau Scholarship and tutored in comparative human rights and convened the Human Rights Discussion Group.
Prior to joining the LSE, Dr Webber was senior policy advisor with the Privy Council Office (the Canadian equivalent to the Cabinet Office), where he advised the Government of Canada on matters of constitutional policy with a focus on electoral and parliamentary reform. Dr Webber is co-founder and Executive Director of the Supreme Court Advocacy Institute, which provides free advocacy advice to counsel appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada. He is a qualified barrister and solicitor with the Law Society of Upper Canada.
Visiting Fellows and Researchers
Rouba Al-Salem - 2018-2019
Rouba holds a PhD in Law from Montreal University's Faculty of Law (2016), where she researched the role of judicial review in a situation of prolonged occupation. She also obtained a Master of Arts in Middle East Politics from Exeter University and a Master of Law in Public International Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
In the past, Rouba Al-Salem has worked in and on human rights issues as they relate to the Middle East region, including for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; the International Organization for Migration, the Ford Foundation as well as for local and regional human rights organizations. She has also conducted research and evaluation based consultancies for the UNDP-Bahrain and the International Center for Transitional Justice (New York) amongst others. From 2017-2018, she was a postdoctoral Steinberg Fellow in International Migration Law and Policy at the Faculty of Law, 91社区 university.
Mar铆a Bel茅n Cardona Rubert (July-August 2018)
Mar铆a Bel茅n Cardona Rubert is a Professor of Labor and Social Security Law (Faculty of Law, University of Valencia) and a founding member of the Human Rights Institute of the University of Valencia. She is the Director of the research group INCLUSIVE (Public Instruments of Social Protection and Inclusion Policies). She is the former Director of the Employment Department of the University of Valencia and the first President of the APEP (Spanish Professionals Association of Privacy). She is the author of many books, handbooks and articles published by prestigious publishing houses: Aranzadi, Dyckinson, Bomarzo, Lex Nova, La Ley, Thomson-Civitas, Tirant lo Blanch, and Ministerio de trabajo, among others. She also currently supervises 3 PhD theses, two of them with the European Label.
Bel茅n鈥檚 research interests mostly lie in the fields of human rights in the employment contract framework, gender, social and labor policies, employment and vulnerable work, right to privacy, data protection and ICT. Currently she leads and collaborates in different working groups related to such subjects.
Bel茅n currently coordinates a research project granted by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, entitled 芦 Fundamental Rights before the change in labour relationships in the digital era禄, as part of a national coordinated project with the universities of Seville, Vigo and San Sebastian. She previously directed other research projects granted by the Spanish Ministry of Economy: 芦Employment and Social Exclusion: Minimum Income Schemes and Other Instruments of Employment Policy 禄, and 芦 Public instruments of social protection in the management of labour change 禄, this last as part of an integrated national coordinated project (Seville, Vigo and San Sebastian).
Pierre Bosset
Pierre Bosset is Professor of Public Law at the Universit茅 du Qu茅bec 脿 Montr茅al (UQAM). A graduate of the University of Montreal, he holds postgraduate degrees in International Human Rights Law (Essex) and in International Relations (Cambridge). In 1985, Pr. Bosset joined the staff of the Qu茅bec Human Rights Commission as legal adviser, then as Head of Research. There, he authored several policy papers on discrimination and human rights issues, including economic, social and cultural rights and the relationship between law and religion.
In 2007, Pr. Bosset joined UQAM, where he teaches human rights law, constitutional law and international law. One of his long-standing research interests is how law deals with cultural and religious diversity, notably through concepts such as la茂cit茅 and reasonable accommodation. His current research focuses on cultural rights.
He was at the CHRLP for 2014-2015.
Dia Dabby - January 2018 - January 2019
Dia Dabby is a visiting fellow at the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. She holds a Doctorate in Civil Law from the Faculty of Law at 91社区 (2016), where her dissertation explored the place of religion in public schools in Canada. She also holds degrees from Universit茅 de Montr茅al (LL.B, LL.M.) and 91社区 (B.A.). She has been a member of the Qu茅bec Bar since 2008.
Dia鈥檚 teaching and research interests focus on comparative constitutional law, religious diversity, education law, governance and legal methodology.
Her current research seeks to examine transnational religious practices and their place in public institutions.
Reza Eslami - June 2019 - May 2020
His area of research and teaching include civil and political rights, public liberties, rights of women and minorities, citizenship and democracy education, peace-building, and development. Reza has written and published extensively on human rights topics both in English and Persian. His books in English includes Human Rights Activism in Theory and Practice and Social and Economic Rights of Migrant Workers. His books in Persian includes Textbook on Civil and Political Rights for the Empowerment of Civil Society; Human Rights Education; Freedom of Assembly; and Privatization and the Development of Human Rights.
Reza has also published many articles in books and academic journals. His latest English articles include "Protecting the Rights of Minorities and National Security" in 2018 in India and "Peace Education in Iran: Challenges and Prospects" in 2014 in the Journal of Peacebuilding & Development. He has written more than 60 articles in Persian. His new books, namely, the Rights of Women in Rural Areas; the Right to the City; and International Development Law will be published in the Fall 2019 and 2020. Reza also organizes workshops on human rights topics for professionals such as journalists, lawyers and judges and travels often to attend conferences in the US, Europe, and the Middle east. He is also active in social media. His Telegram channel (dr_rezaeslami) for human rights advocacy is well known in Iranian academia.
Christophe Golay - 2013
Christophe has been the Coordinator of the Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights since 2008. He has lectured in many Universities, at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and at the Center for Education and Research in Humanitarian Action in Geneva. His main teaching areas are related to ESCR, the right to food, access to justice for victims of human rights violations, human rights and development, and the work of the UN Special Procedures on ESCR. He has published extensively on these topics, including The Fight for the Right to Food. Lessons Learned (2011) and Droit 脿 l鈥檃limentation et acc猫s 脿 la justice (2011).
From 2001 to 2008, Christophe was Legal Adviser to the first UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food. He undertook missions with the United Nations in many countries, including Brazil, Guatemala, Bolivia, Cuba, Niger, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, India and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Since 2011, he is coordinating a research project funded by the Swiss Network in International Studies on the impact of land grab on the right to food in Cambodia and Laos.
Hanna Haile - September 2018 - August 2019
She is also involved in a UNRISD project on the human rights implications of the financialization of transnational business on rights and livelihoods, using the local impacts of the activities of copper mining companies on communities living on the Copperbelt of Zambia as a field study. Prior to joining the 91社区 Center for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, she worked for the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Cornell University, the University of Asmara and the High Court of Asmara. She holds a J.S.D. and an LL.M. from Cornell University and an LL.B. from the University of Asmara.
Yavar聽Hameed - 2014
Yavar聽Hameed practices as a lawyer in the area of administrative law and general civil litigation in Ontario with a focus on the defense of human rights against state and corporate action.聽Since 2001,聽Yavar聽has been actively involved in advising clients in the context of unsolicited CSIS interviews and national security matters.聽He regularly provides advice to individuals and community-based organizations responding to racial profiling concerns, anti-poverty struggles, police brutality and suppression of political dissent. He successfully repatriated Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Canadian citizen who was arbitrarily detained in Sudan and blocked by Canadian officials from returning to Canada for six years.聽
He currently acts as counsel for immigration security certificate detainee Mohamed Zeki Mahjoub. He also acts as counsel for Deepan Budlakoti, a man born in Canada whose citizenship was stripped away by the Canadian government.
He teaches a course in Carleton University's Department of Law and Legal Studies entitled "State, Security and Dissent," which explores the limits imposed upon civil resistance by the state's construction of security in times of peace and war. Along with Jeffrey Monaghan, he is a contributor to the 2012 UBC Press publication,聽Brokering Access: Power, Politics and Freedom of Information Process in Canada. He is an occasional contributor to the Editorial Board of Voices-Voix. Currently he is researching the problem of structural barriers created by legal training and professional regulation for lawyers in Canada and its impact on the practice of social justice law. He will be visiting the CHRLP Sep-Dec 2014.
Pia H眉sch - April 2022
Pia is short term visiting researcher at the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism in April 2022. As a doctoral researcher at the University of Glasgow, Pia focuses on the regulation of low-intensity cyber operations in international law and the principles of sovereignty and non-intervention in particular. Other areas of interest include general public international law, artificial intelligence, humanitarian law, and the relationship of law and technology. As a Graduate Teaching Assistant, Pia teaches Public International Law and also works at the . Pia holds an LLM in International Law and Security (with distinction) from the University of Glasgow and an LLB in European Law from Maastricht University. Her research stay is funded by the for strengthening the institutional partnership between the University of Glasgow and 91社区.
Macarena Iribarne - 2011-2012
Macarena Iribarne has worked at the Carlos III de Madrid University since March 2008. Her responsibilities are teaching and research in Jurisprudence, Human Rights (with special emphasis on the rights of women) and Feminist Theory.
She has a "Cum Laude" European Ph. D. in Human Rights from Carlos III de Madrid University. Her thesis, entitled: "Flora Trist谩n y la Tradici贸n del Feminismo Socialista" (Flora Trist谩n and the Socialist Feminism Tradition) was awarded the Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado of Carlos III de Madrid University.
She is a member of the Grupo de Investigaci贸n sobre el Derecho y la Justicia (Research Group on Law and Justice) and has participated in several research projects in the field of Human Rights. She is currently developing a research project on the enforcement of human rights in private spaces (Drittwirkung) in order to guarantee the effectiveness of women's human rights.
Sofie Johannesson - 2011-2012
Sofie is currently doing an internship at 91社区鈥檚 Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and plans to continue her studies at Lund University, Sweden, at the Institute of Human Rights.
Previously, she was involved in an international relation project on corruption and equality between Ukraine, Poland, Moldova and Denmark. Also, she worked as a tutor in Guatemala, teaching English and math and helping orphans to get an education and improve their quality of life. 聽Recently she has been engaged in several NGOs with a focus on asylum seekers, women's and children's rights.
Philipp Kastner - Winter/Spring 2019
Philipp Kastner (philipp.kastner [at] uwa.edu.au (email)) is a Senior Lecturer at the Law School of the University of Western Australia. He holds degrees from 91社区, Canada (LLM'08, DCL'14) and the University of Innsbruck, Austria (Dr. iur. and Mag. iur). He researches and teaches in the areas of the resolution of armed conflicts and transitional justice, international criminal law, public international law and legal pluralism.
His publications include Legal Normativity in the Resolution of Internal Armed Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and International Criminal Justice in bello? (Martinus Nijhoff, 2012). He is also the editor of International Criminal Law in Context (Routledge, 2018).
Tetyana Krupiy - September 2016 - September 2017
Tanya's current聽research project focuses on determining under what circumstances corporation managers, corporate shareholders and Ministry of Defence officials聽may be held accountable when a lethal autonomous weapons system malfunctions and as a result triggers an international crime.
Previously, she worked on issues concerning the protection聽of vulnerable individuals.
Marie-Eve Loiselle - 2018-2019
Previously, Marie-Eve worked on issues related to the UN Security Council as a Research Officer on the ARC linkage project Strengthening the rule of law through the United Nations Security Council, a collaborative research project between the Australian National University (ANU) and the Australian Civil-Military Centre. In 2014, she was an Australian Endeavour Executive Fellow with the New York-based NGO Security Council Report. Marie-Eve has also worked at international organisations (ILO, NATO) on issues related to international law and human rights.
She is an affiliate of the ANU Centre for Law,聽Arts聽& the Humanities, an聽executive member of the Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand (ACSANZ), and a member of the Quebec Bar.
Genevi猫ve Renard聽Painter - September 2016 鈥� August 2017
Genevi猫ve Renard聽Painter is a post-doctoral fellow at 91社区鈥檚 Faculty of Law, supported by the Fonds de recherche du Qu茅bec 鈥� Soci茅t茅 et culture. She holds a PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from the University of California Berkeley and degrees in common and civil law from 91社区. Admitted to practice law in Quebec, she has worked in aboriginal, constitutional, and human rights law. Her teaching and research interests focus on Indigeneity, legal history, feminist legal theory, international law, and constitutional law.
Genevi猫ve鈥檚 dissertation and book project explores the transformation of a hard political question into a problem of fundamental聽human rights. Starting from a Canadian law about Indigenous marriage, the dissertation tracks the gradual invention of a conflict between the equality rights of Indigenous women and the sovereignty of Indigenous nations. When this invented conflict moved from the political arena to litigation, the courts wrote an official version of history, and the law became a language for taming rival Indigenous sovereignties and declaring Canadian state sovereignty to be complete. Genevi猫ve鈥檚& post-doctoral project moves to the 19th century and to the role of competing understandings of temporality in the development of laws about belonging in Canada. She is currently researching the relationship between law, time, and language in a selection of 19th century Canadian legal processes about race, gender, sexuality, and land.
Thun Saray - 2016-2017
ADHOC is also a pioneer in opening the political space for civil society organizations in Cambodia, enabling new NGOs to emerge and flourish after the Khmer Rouge and communist regimes. He plays an integral role in Cambodian civil society. Indeed, Thun Saray is founder and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC, a coalition of Cambodian Human Rights NGOs), the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL, a coalition of Cambodian electoral monitoring NGOs), and a former member of the Board of many other NGOs.
Every year, he coordinates and acts as an editor of many thematic reports on human rights published by his organization. Thun Saray has twice been a political prisoner in Cambodia (1975-1976; 1990-1991), including once under the Khmer Rouge regime. For more than 20 years, Thun Saray has been a tireless advocate for rights and civil liberties in Cambodia.
Marina Sharpe 鈥� September 2017-August 2018
Marina received her doctorate in law from the University of Oxford, where she was a Trudeau Scholar. Her thesis, supervised by Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill, was about refugee protection in Africa. Marina is called to the bars of England & Wales (Inner Temple) and New York, and spent time in private legal practice at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York and London. Prior to this, she worked as a legal advisor with the Refugee Law Project of Makerere University in Kampala, and later returned to Uganda as legal officer of the International Refugee Rights Initiative. Marina has undertaken consultancy and advisory work for organizations including Amnesty International, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and UNHCR. She has taught at the Universities of London, Oxford and Sherbrooke and has guest lectured widely, including at Georgetown, the University of Tripoli and Yale.
Marina鈥檚 scholarly work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals and edited collections, as well as by UNHCR. In addition to her doctorate, Marina holds common and civil law degrees from 91社区, an MSc in development studies from the LSE and a BA in economics and international development studies from 91社区. See her 听补苍诲听聽pages. She Jason M. Pobjoy's "The Child in International Refugee Law" in the Yale Journal of International Law.
Iyiola Solanke - 2014
Iyiola Solanke is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law at the University of Leeds, a Visiting Professor at Wake Forest University Law School and an Associate Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. Prior to this she was a Jean Monnet Fellow at the University of Michigan Law School and a Research Fellow at the European Institute, London School of Economics.
At the School of Law, she leads the LLM module on Alternative Dispute Resolution and also teaches EU Law and Discrimination Law. Her research interests also fall in the fields of EU law, equality law and diversity in judicial institutions, and she conducts empirical legal research in these areas. She writes on anti-discrimination law theory and concepts; intersectionality; independence and diversity in judicial institutions; comparative social action and legal change.
With Matrix Chambers, she organizes an international forum investigating black experiences of policing in the EU and works with Inner and Middle Temples to host events in Leeds for the Temple Women's Forum which aims to support and inspire women in all branches of the legal profession. In 2015, she will organise with the British Academy a conference celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the first British Race Relations Act 1965.
Publications include Making Anti-Racial Discrimination Law: A Comparative history of Social Action and Anti-racial Discrimination Law (Routledge-Cavendish 2009), The Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies (co-editor, Volume 14, 2011-12) and articles on internsectionality in the Modern Law Review and the Industrial Law Journal, as well as bibliographic entries (section on anti-discrimination laws in the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism, forthcoming, 2014). Iyiola also writes regularly on EU migration and citizenship at .
Aurore Schwab - 2013-2014
She is a PhD Candidate in the Department of History of Religions at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, where she received her MA. She is conducting research supervised by Professor Francesca Prescendi, historian of religion, University of Geneva, and Professor Isabelle Schulte-Tenckhoff, anthropologist, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. She is analyzing how the United Nations addresses the question of honour killings in terms of religion, tradition, and culture, with an emphasis on the role of Special Rapporteurs, the Commission on the Status of Women, and the CEDAW.
She is the author of 鈥淟e crime d鈥檋onneur: entre mythe et r茅alit茅鈥� in: Sacrifices humains: dossiers, discours, comparaisons, Biblioth猫que des Hautes Etudes, Brepols, Paris, 2013. Moreover, she collaborated on the book edition Victimes au f茅minin, Georg, Gen猫ve, 2011. Since 2007, she has been an editorial board member of Asdiwal, Revue genevoise d鈥橝nthropologie et d鈥橦istoire des religions.
Cassandra Steer - September 2016 - September 2017
She holds a B.A. (Philosophy) from the University of New South Wales, undergraduate and LLM degrees in Dutch Law and International Law from the University of Amsterdam, and a PhD in International Criminal Law. She has interned at the International Criminal Court under Judge Navi Pillay in 2004, and been a Visiting Researcher at universities in Argentina, Canada, Germany and the USA, where she was also a Fulbright Scholar.
Currently Cassandra Steer is the member for Canada on the International Law Association Space Law Committee, the Secretary of the IAF Space Security Committee, and a member of the International Institute of Space Law, Women in Aerospace, the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies, the NATO Association of Canada, and the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War.
Benedict Wray - 2011-2012
Benedict Wray graduated in Law from the universities of King鈥檚 College London and Paris 1 Panth茅on Sorbonne.
After becoming a barrister of the Middle Temple he won a PhD scholarship to attend the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. His research focuses on the legal regulation of transnational corporate harm, with particular emphasis on normative conflict and the role of justice and human rights.
He is the co-author of 鈥楥orporations and Social Environmental Justice: The Role of Private International Law鈥� (with Claire Staath, EUI WP LAW 2012/02), and 鈥楩alse Extraterritoriality? Municipal and Multinational Jurisdiction over Transnational Corporations鈥� (with Rosa Raffaelli, forthcoming, Human Rights and International Legal Discourse, 2012). In addition to his research interests, he is currently the editor-in-chief of the online, EUI-based, peer-reviewed journal, the European Journal of Legal Studies ().
Banting Postdoctoral Fellows
Jean-Baptiste Jeang猫ne Vilmer - 2011-2012
Jean-Baptiste holds degrees in three different disciplines: philosophy (BA, MA, PhD), law (LLB, LLM), and political science (PhD). He has studied at the Sorbonne, the Universit茅 de Montr茅al, Oxford University, 91社区, Yale University, the Universiteit van Amsterdam, and the 脡cole des Hautes 脡tudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris). His doctoral thesis, Au nom de l'humanit茅 ? Histoire, droit, 茅thique et politique de l'intervention militaire justifi茅e par des raisons humanitaires (2009), has received three awards in Canada and France.
He has taught at the Universit茅 de Montr茅al and Sciences Po Paris. Before coming to 91社区, he was a Lecturer in international relations at the Department of War Studies, King鈥檚 College London. He has published a dozen of books on topics including reparations to victims before the International Criminal Court (PUF, 2009), the dilemma of peace and justice and the relations between the International Criminal Court and the Security Council (Presses de Sciences Po, 2011), humanitarian intervention (PUF, 2012, prefaced by Hubert V茅drine) and the ethics of international relations (PUF, 2012, prefaced by Stanley Hoffmann). A former Attach茅 to the French embassy in Turkmenistan, he is also the author of two books on this central asian dictatorship.
He now holds a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, under which he is conducting research on the ethical and legal consequences of the changing nature of war in the 21st century, and in particular on autonomous military robots.
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