Joining the IAHRN
Applications to join the network are welcomed from all those with an academic affiliation who are carrying out research into the IAHRS (or in an area of direct, demonstrable relevance to this project) at the doctoral level and above. To apply, please send an email with your name, institution, CV, and details of how your research ties into any area of IAHRN activity, to our network facilitator Peter Low. Please also mention in your email if any existing member of the network is supporting the application.
Applicants who possess exceptional qualifications in any of the various international human rights mechanisms and who have a track record of participating in previous network initiatives, may also apply to become an associate members. The process for this is the same as that detailed above.
Current members of the network include:
Prof. Jean Allain – Queen’s University, Belfast, UK
Jean Allain received his doctorate in international law from the Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI), University of Geneva. As a master’s student, he was a Fellow of the Organization of American States spending the academic year 1993-1994 at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in San José, Costa Rica. Since then, Prof Allain has continuously taught the inter-American human rights system at the postgraduate level, and published in the area. In February 2016, Prof Allain appeared before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as an Expert Witness, providing testimony and a written legal opinion in the Trabalhadores da Fazenda Brasil Verde case.
Dr Bruno Boti Bernardi – Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados, Brazil
Bruno Boti Bernardi holds a BA degree in International Relations from the University of Sao Paulo and a Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Political Science from the same university. He has conducted extensive fieldwork research in Mexico (2008, 2014), Peru (2012), Colombia (2012) and Brazil (2014) as grantee of the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). His research interests lie in human rights policies in Latin America, with focus on the Inter-American Human Rights System, transitional justice, international norms, judiciary branch, transnational NGOs and compliance with human rights standards. Currently, he has been working as IR Professor at the Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados (UFGD).
Heloisa Camara – Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil / Kings College London
Heloisa Fernandes Câmara holds a Law degree from the Federal University of Paraná (Universidade Federal do Paraná – UFPR) in Curitiba, Brazil. She received her Master of Laws in Public Law from the same university, where she studied the relation between state of exception and rule of law. She is currently a PhD candidate at the UFPR Graduate School of Law. Heloisa focuses her research on the rule of law throughout the Brazilian military dictatorship and the role the national Supreme Federal Court played at that time. She also coordinates a research group on the Inter-American System of Human Rights and its influence in the Brazilian judiciary. Currently, she also holds the post of visiting research fellow at the Brazil Institute at King’s College London.
Prof. Dr Laura Clérico – University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
Laura Clérico is a lawyer (University of Buenos Aires – UBA) and Magister Legum (LLM) and Juris Doctor from the University of Kiel. She is a Research Associate of CONICET (National Council of Scientific and Technical Research, Argentina) Regular and Associate Professor of Constitutional Law at the UBA. Laura is currently Visiting Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law, Human Rights and Constitutional Law at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. Her research interests include: constitutional law, equality and social rights.
Dr Jorge Contesse – Rutgers School of Law, Newark
Jorge Contesse is Assistant Professor at Rutgers School of Law, Newark. He received his LL.M. and J.S.D. from Yale Law School where he was a Fulbright Scholar and an editor of the Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal. Previously he was a Crowley Fellow in International Human Rights at Fordham University School of Law, a visiting professor at the University of Miami School of Law, a visiting resource professor at the University of Texas School of Law, and an assistant professor at Diego Portales University School of Law in Santiago, Chile, from which he received his LL.B., and is currently an Adjunct Visiting Professor. Prior to joining the Rutgers’ faculty in 2013, Professor Contesse held an appointment as a Visiting Fellow at Yale Law’s Schell Center for International Human Rights. Professor Contesse co‐litigated the Atala v. Chile case and acted as expert witness in Norin Catriman and Others v. Chile. He has appeared before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on both thematic and case hearings. He served as a board member on the National Human Rights Institute in Santiago, Chile and has been a consultant to several international organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and the Ford Foundation.
Dr Silvia Dutrénit – Instituto Mora, Mexico
Silvia Dutrénit has a Ph.D. in Latin American Studies from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and a MA in Social Science from the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales. Dr Dutrénit specialises in the recent history of Latin America (especially the political history of authoritarianism, democratic transitions, and government decisions on historical human rights violations): a field in which she regularly publishes magazine articles and books. She is a teacher and lecturer at various Mexican and foreign institutions and is a member of the National System of Researchers of Mexico and Uruguay and the Mexican Academy of Sciences. Amongst her numerous publications are: La embajada indoblegable. Asilo mexicano en Montevideo durante la dictadura; and Tramitando el pasado. Violaciones de los derechos humanos y agendas gubernamentales en casos latinoamericanos México, coauthored with Gonzalo Varela.
Martha Liliana Gutiérrez Salazar – Universidad de Salamanca
Martha Liliana Gutiérrez Salazar is Ph.D Candidate in Political Science at the University of Salamanca (Spain) and Master in Latin American Studies at the same university. Currently, she is professor of political science at the Universidad Sergio Arboleda (Bogotá, Colombia) and research member at the “Red de Estudios sobre la Calidad de la Democracia en América Latina”. Her research interests lie in comparative politics in Latin America with focus on the judiciary branch, human rights, transitional justice and Central America. She has been involved in policy research and consultancy projects with the International IDEA, the Michelsen Institute and the Gothemburg University.
Dr Isabela Garbin – Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil
Isabela Garbin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economy at the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), where she also coordinates the Center for Research and Studies on Human Rights (NUPEDH). She received her PhD in 2014 from the International Relations Institute at the University of São Paulo (IRI-USP), defending the thesis “Promise is debt: compliance in the Inter-American Human Rights System”. Her main areas of research and intellectual production focus on the Inter-American Human Rights System and on Human Rights Education. Currently, she heads the research project entitled “Inter-American Human Rights: the gap between commitment and compliance,” funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) from Brazil, which seeks to define parameters to measure the compliance gap in the region in order to analyze effectiveness in the Inter-American Human Rights System.
Dr Yves Haeck – Ghent University, Belgium
Yves Haeck, Ph.D. and Law Degree from Ghent University, is a Professor at the Human Rights Centre and the Department of Constitutional Law of Ghent University. He teaches several courses, including: ‘European Human Rights Law’, ‘International Human Rights Law’, ‘Human Rights in Developing Countries’ and ‘International Moot Court Human Rights’. He is a former Associate Professor at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) of Utrecht University and a Visiting Professor at the University of Malta (Malta). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Inter-American & European Human Rights Journal, and has published widely on the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, with a comparative focus on the Inter-American System. He has co-authored the Handboek EVRM. Deel 1. Algemene beginselen (Manual on the European Convention on Human Rights), (Intersentia Publishers, 2004-5,2777p) and Procederen voor het Europees Hof voor de Rechten van de Mens (The Procedure before the European Court of Human Rights) (Intersentia Publishers, 2011, 467p). He is coediting Interim Measures in International Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, to be published in 2013). Currently, he is conducting research on interim measures in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.
Dr Patrick William Kelly – University of Wisconsin-Madison
Patrick William Kelly is an A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, having completed his Ph.D. in international history from the University of Chicago. He is currently completing a book manuscript, Latin America and the Making of Global Human Rights Politics, will be the first transnational history of human rights based on case studies in Brazil, Chile, the United States, and Argentina. It draws on archival research and oral interviews in nine countries in Latin America, Europe, the United States, and Australia to explore the place of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission’s investigations and reports in the 1970s within the broader global rise of human rights politics of that decade. In doing so, he analyzes the ways that leftist activists and bureaucrats, often working in a transnational network with exiles and activists across Europe and the Americas, began to lift the veil of sovereignty through on-the-ground investigative missions and public denunciations of internal state policies.
Dr Stefanie Lemke – Netherlands Institute of Human Rights
Stefanie Lemke is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM). With the Prins Claus Chair in Development and Equity (hosted by Professor Javier Couso, Chile), she focuses on the relationship between judicial independence and human rights in countries in transition, with an emphasis on Latin American countries. Previously, she served as a senior research fellow in the rule of law at University of Cologne, Germany (2006-2015). She has a background in law (with a strong focus on public international law and EU law) and studied in various legal systems. She pursued her Ph.D. studies at the University of Cologne, the University of London and the University of Oxford, UK. She also litigated high-profile cases concerning human rights violations in the Americas and the Middle East before the ICC and various UN human rights mechanisms with the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights e.V. (ECCHR), a Berlin based human rights NGO (International Crimes and Accountability programme), and practiced with the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (Department for Governance, the Rule of Law and Democracy). In position of lecturer, she taught public law and regional human rights systems at the University of Bonn, Germany, and at SIM. She also worked with several commercial and local law firms across the globe and published widely on legal empowerment and access to justice.
Caroline de Lima e Silva – University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Caroline de Lima e Silva is a Ph.D. student affiliated with the Autonomisation Group at iCourts, University of Copenhagen. She was granted a CAPES Scholarship (Ministry of Education in Brazil) to support her Ph.D. Her research project aims to assess the impact of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ jurisprudence on High Courts of Argentina, Brazil and Peru. Employing a socio-legal methodology, Caroline will investigate eventual similarities and differences in legal culture of these countries in order to verify the existence of patterns of behaviour. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo and LL.M from King’s College University in London. She will be conducting field work in Latin America during 2016.
Paola Limon – University of Essex, UK
Paola Limón holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law (University of Monterrey, Mexico) and an LLM in International Human Rights & Humanitarian Law (University of Essex, UK). She is currently a Senior Research Officer at the University of Essex, assisting with research for the Americas Team of the ESRC Human Rights Law Implementation Project. Previously, she has worked with the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), as a lawyer with the Program for Central America and Mexico, and as an intern and fellow with the Program for the Andean, North America and Caribbean Region. She has also worked at the Secretariat of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, as a consultant with the Protection Group and as an intern with the Court Group.
Dr Cristiane Lucena Carneiro – University of São Paulo, Brazil
Cristiane Lucena holds a Ph.D. in Politics (New York University). She is an Assistant Professor at the International Relations Institute, University of Sao Paulo, and has experience in the area of compliance, alternative dispute resolution, and human rights. Her current research investigates the impact of institutional complexity on compliance with international legal commitments, with a particular focus on the international human rights system and the Inter-American Human Rights regime (in collaboration with Simone Wegmann, University of Geneva). At the moment, she is also collaborating on a book project that offers a legal commentary on the Arms Trade Treaty, which was signed in New York in 2013 and is expected to enter into force sometime in 2015. She teaches courses in international relations, on human rights and development, and more recently, on international law and global governance. Cristiane has published on alternative dispute resolution in the WTO, international regime design, and economic sanctions and human rights.
Dr Cecília MacDowell Santos – University of San Francisco, USA
Cecília MacDowell Santos is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Latin American Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. She is also a permanent researcher of the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra. One of her research projects, entitled “Transnational Legal Activism: Brazilian NGOs and the Inter-American System of Human Rights,” examines the strategies and discourses of NGOs, as well as the responses by the Brazilian State to cases of gender-based violence, racial discrimination against women, violence against indigenous groups, and struggles over political memory and justice presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Building on research for this project, she published a number of journal articles and co-edited the books, Desarquivando a Ditadura: Memória e Justiça no Brasil (Hucitec Press, 2009), and Repressão e Memória Política no Contexto Ibero-Brasileiro: Estudos sobre Brasil, Guatemala, Moçambique, Peru e Portugal (Brazilian Ministry of Justice, 2010). Drawing on research conducted in Portugal on transnational legal mobilization and human rights, she edited the book, A Mobilização Transnacional do Direito: Portugal e o Tribunal Europeu dos Direitos Humanos (Almedina Press, 2012).
Ciara O’Connell – University of Sussex, UK
Ciara O’Connell is a PhD Candidate in Law Studies at the University of Sussex (UK), and holds a Master of Laws in International Human Rights Law from the Irish Centre for Human Rights. Her research focuses on strengthening women’s reproductive rights in the Inter-American System, with emphasis on the role of gender in the development and implementation of reparations. She has been a visiting scholar at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Spain) and the Centre for International Governance and Justice (Australian National University). Her publications include: ‘Litigating Reproductive Health Rights In The Inter- American System: What Does A Winning Case Look Like?’ (Harvard: Health and Human Rights, 2014); and ‘Women’s Reproductive Rights in the Inter-American System of Human Rights: Conclusions from the Field; and What a “Private Life” Means for Women’ (Intersentia: 35 Years of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 2015).
Dr Thomas Pegram – UCL Institute of Global Governance, UK
Tom Pegram (MPhil, DPhil Oxford) is Deputy Director of the UCL Institute of Global Governance and Lecturer in Global Governance at the Department of Political Science. He has held research fellowships at New York University and Harvard Law Schools. Tom also has extensive practical experience working with policy-makers and practitioners at the local and international level, including both governmental and non-governmental agencies. His current research and teaching interests lie at the boundaries of international and domestic politics, with expertise in international politics, comparative politics, human rights, international organizations and processes of democratization in fragile democracies. He specializes in the study of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) with a particular interest in their ability to promote and protect human rights as well as enhance political accountability in fragile and established democratic settings.
Dr Sabrina Ragone – Max-Planck-Institute, Germany
Sabrina Ragone is currently a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg (Germany). After her PhD in Law (University of Pisa and Carlos III University, Madrid), she held post doctoral positions in Public Law at the University of Bologna (2010) and at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2011) and later became a “García Pelayo” fellow at the Center for Political and Constitutional Studies of Madrid (2012-2014). She taught Comparative Public Law and Constitutional Law at the University of Bologna, the University of Jaén and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, as well as courses organized by Mexican, Colombian, Argentinean, Chilean and Moroccan universities and centres. She is currently a lecturer of comparative law at the Catholic University of Lille (France). She specializes in comparative public law and her research focuses on constitutional adjudication, Latin American constitutionalism, decentralization and protection of rights. Among her most recent publications are: S. Ragone (ed.), La aportación de la doctrina en la jurisprudencia constitucional española, Madrid, CEPC, 2015; S. Ragone (coord.), Sección monográfica “Encuentros y desencuentros entre el sistema interamericano de derechos humanos y los Estados de la OEA”, Revista General de Derecho Público Comparado, 2015.
Dr Pedro Salazar – Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Pedro Salazar currently teaches at the Faculty of Law of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and is a full-time researcher at the Institute for Legal Research. He is a leading analyst of the process of political transformation to democratic constitutionalism in Mexico. His research work focuses on political change and electoral studies in Mexico, exploring links between democracy and fundamental rights of access to public information and non-discrimination, and broader human rights issues. He has taught in various academic institutions such as the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (Mexico), the University of Siena and the University della Valle d’Aosta, Italy, and is a regular participant and contributor on political issues in a variety of Mexican media. He has authored and co-authored a large number of volumes, including: La democracia constitucional; Garantismo espurio. Dos versiones de un garantismo espurio en la jurisprudencia mexicana; La mecánica del cambio político en México; and El poder de la transparencia. Nueve derrotas a la opacidad.
Dr Lorena Sosa – Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, The Netherlands
Lorena Sosa is currently an assistant professor at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM). She conducts socio-legal research, and her interest lays at the core of international human rights law, intersectional discrimination and violence, with a special focus on gender and women. She has previously worked as a researcher and lecturer at the International Victimology Institute Tilburg (INTERVICT) and has participated in a number of European Union projects in the areas of violence against women (including domestic violence and stalking), violence against children and LGBT. Dr. Sosa holds a law degree from the National University of Cordoba (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba), Argentina, and an LLM (cum laude) in International and European Public Law, with specialization on Human Rights, from the University of Tilburg. She received her PhD (cum laude) from Tilburg Law School.
Marcelo D. Torelly – University of Brasilia
Marcelo Torelly holds a Law degree from Pontifical Catholic University-Porto Alegre (PUCRS), an MSc and is a PhD candidate at Brasília University Law School. He is the editor of “Revista Anistia Política e Justiça de Transição” and a member of the “Comissão de Altos Estudos” from Reveled Memories project, Brazilian National Archive. Marcello has been a visiting academic at the Faculty of Law and the Latin American Center, University of Oxford; a visiting researcher at the Institute for Global Law and Policy, Harvard Law School; the director of historical memory, Brazilian Ministry of Justice Amnesty Commission; and the director of the join program on Transitional Justice between the Brazilian Federal Government and the UNDP. He’s currently research focus on how transnational legal process at the IAHRS reshape domestic constitutional law in Latin America. Is the author of several articles and books in English, German, Portuguese and Spanish, including Justiça de Transição e Estado Constitucional de Direito (Forum, 2012).
Dr Enzamaria Tramontana – University of Palermo, Italy
Enzamaria Tramontana is Lecturer at the Law Department of the University of Palermo, where she teaches ‘International Law’ and ‘International Human Rights Law’. She received her PhD in International Law from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 2011 and, two years later, completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Palermo. Among her main research interests are the procedures and jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission, with a special (but not exclusive) focus on womens’ rights and gender mainstreaming, economic, social and cultural rights, and the rights of indigenous peoples. She is author of several articles on the Inter-American System, including: “La participación de las ONG en el Sistema Interamericano de Protección de los Derechos Humanos: avances, desafíos y perspectivas”, in von Bogdandy et al. (eds.), La Justicia Consticional y Su Internacionalización, Mexico D.F., 2010, pp. 533-556; “The Contribution of the Inter-American Human Rights Bodies to Evolving International Law on Indigenous Rights over Lands and Natural Resources”, in International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, 2010, pp. 241-263; and “Hacia la consolidación de la perspectiva de genero en el Sistema interamericano: avances y desafíos a la luz de la reciente jurisprudencia de la Corte de San Jose”, in Revista Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos, 2011, pp. 141-181.
Dr Gonzalo Varela – Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico
Gonzalo Varela is professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco in Mexico City. He holds a law degree from Universidad de la República in Uruguay, a Master’s in Sociology from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Mexico, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Dr Varela was coordinator of the Master’s programme in Education at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana between 2005 and 2007. He previously served as Associate Professor at the same institution. He has authored a number of publications on public policy in Mexico and elsewhere, and on Latin American political systems. Recent titles include: La educación superior en México. Planeación, evaluación y entorno; Facing the knowledge society: Mexico’s public universities and; Evaluating public higher education in Mexico.
Associate members of the network include:
Lucy Claridge – Minority Rights Group, UK
Lucy is Legal Director at Minority Rights Group International, where she manages the legal cases programme. Her work uses strategic litigation and advocacy to improve access to justice for minority and indigenous communities worldwide, with a particular focus on land rights, political participation and wider anti-discrimination issues. Casework includes the recent Ogiek land and conservation case against Kenya before the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Endorois decision before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Finci case before the European Court of Human Rights, and the first ever conviction against slave-owners under Mauritania’s anti-slavery law. Between 2004 and 2009, Lucy was Legal Officer and then Legal Director at Kurdish Human Rights Project, where she managed a vast caseload before the European Court of Human Rights concerning human rights violations within the Kurdish regions of Turkey, Iraq, Armenia and Azerbaijan. She has also spent several years in private practice, focusing on media litigation, including issues regarding freedom of expression, and has worked at Liberty and as Deputy Director of the London-based British Irish Rights Watch. Between 2009 and 2015, she was a trustee at the Twins and Multiple Births Association and she has recently been appointed a trustee at Anti-Slavery International. Lucy is a graduate of University College, Oxford (Law, BA/MA) and King’s College, London (International Peace and Security, MA).
Krešimir Kamber – European Court of Human Rights / University of Ghent
Krešimir Kamber graduated from the Rijeka University Faculty of Law (Croatia) where he also finished postgraduate studies in crime sciences and criminal law. At present, he is a PhD candidate at the Ghent University Faculty of Law working on a thesis in the field of human rights law and procedural criminal justice. He works as a lawyer in the case processing division in the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights. He has published several papers and gave lectures on various issues of human rights law and criminal justice.