Members

Meet our UPRAN scholars below! If you are a researcher working on the UPR and wish to join our growing list of members, please contact us here.

Dr Louisa Ashley is Head of Law (Postgraduate) at Leeds Law School, Leeds Beckett University. She is a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales (non-practising) with a professional background in legal practice and in devised theatre. Louisa was awarded her PhD by the University of Leeds in 2018, titled ‘A Critical Appraisal of Human Rights Monitoring through the Lens of Global Governance Theory: The Universal Periodic Review in relation to Yemen as a State in Crisis’. Her published work includes analysis of state and civil society practice in relation to the UPR and evaluation of the application of international human rights norms in the context of war, both military and economic. Louisa has recently been developing collaborative research with academics in Colombia funded through Leeds Beckett’s Global Challenges Research Fund allocation and as part of a staff exchange funded by Erasmus Plus.

Dr Frederick Cowell is a Senior Lecturer in Law and Acting Assistant Dean at the School of Law, Birkbeck College University of London. His main areas of research interest focus on the structure and enforcement of international human rights law. Later this year his book Defensive Relativism: Understanding the State Practice of Cultural Relativism in International Human Rights Law is set to be published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. He is currently working on a project looking at the theory of treaty withdrawal due out in a monograph next year. His interest in Universal Periodic Review began when advising NGOs on international law and helping with the training of civil society groups participating in the UPR.

Dr Elvira Domínguez-Redondo is Associate Professor of International Law at Middlesex University, London (UK). She has held visiting positions at Columbia University (NY, USA) and University Alcalá de Henares (Spain). Dr Domínguez-Redondo has held academic positions at the Transitional Justice Institute (University of Ulster, UK); the Irish Centre for Human Rights (NUI) and University Carlos II de Madrid (Spain). She has worked as a consultant with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (Geneva, Switzerland). Dr Domínguez-Redondo is the author three monographs, In Defence of Politicisation of Human Rights: The United Nations Special Procedures (OUP,2020);  Minority Rights in Asia (OUP, 2005, co-authored with Prof. J Castellino); and Public Special Proceduares of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (Tirant Lo Blanch, 2005).  She has also edited three books and authored a wide range of publications on international law and human rights.

Dr Pilar Elizalde is a Departmental Lecturer in Law and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government (BSG) at the University of Oxford. She obtained her PhD in International Relations at the LSE, holds an MA Theory and Practice of Human Rights (with Distinction) from the University of Essex and a BA International Relations from Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina). Her research and teaching focus on human rights, international criminal justice, and global politics, specifically human rights foreign policy and the development of human rights norms in international institutions. Her book manuscript Reviewing Human Rights explores the promotion, contestation, and politicisation of norms in the Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council. Pilar has fifteen years’ experience working in the human rights field, both in academia and in public sector, international, and non-governmental organisations in Latin America.

Kazuo Fukuda is a Ph.D. candidate at Indiana University’s Center for Constitutional Democracy, Maurer School of Law. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program at the Maurer School of Law, Kaz worked for the United Nations Development Programme in Montenegro and Lao PDR for more than six years. In Lao PDR, Kaz oversaw the rule of law portfolio and was involved extensively in different stages of the UPR process for nearly five years.

Dr Eduard Jordaan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political and International Studies at Rhodes University. His articles have appeared in journals such as African Affairs, Global Governance, Human Rights Quarterly, International Studies Review, Journal of Human Rights Practice and Review of International Studies. Dr Jordaan is the author of South Africa and the UN Human Rights Council: The Fate of the Liberal Order (Routledge, 2019). He has also written about South Africa and Botswana’s records at the UPR. He is interested in the actions of African states at the UPR, as well as the language states use when making recommendations.

Dr Habil Eszter Kirs Ph.D.is an associate professor at the Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary. She was a legal officer of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee between 2013 and 2021, where she contributed to international and domestic advocacy, and transnational projects on hate crimes, human rights trainings, commemorative human rights education and the operation of National Human Rights Institutions. She has contributed to the development of online training programs run by the Council of Europe on hate crimes and transitional justice. Since 2003, she has been lecturing on international law and human rights at various academic institutions. From 2010 to 2015, she worked for a defense team at the ICTY. She was a Fulbright visiting researcher at the Columbia Law School in 2009-2010 and a visiting lecturer at the University of Minnesota Law School in 2019. She has published academic papers and two monographs in the fields of transitional justice and human rights. Currently, she is working on qualitative research on youth resistance movements in repressive regimes.

Michael Lane is a Midlands4Cities (UKRI) funded PhD Researcher based at Birmingham City University’s School of Law. His research investigates the United Kingdom’s engagement with the UPR. Informed by the theory of domestic mobilisation, Michael’s research aims to unveil the barriers to implementation by examining the role of domestic actors. He is particularly interested in parliamentary involvement in the UPR, and how to enhance their engagement with the process. Michael is currently in the final year of his PhD and plans to remain in academia following submission.

Dr Amy Maguire is an Associate Professor in international law and human rights at Newcastle Law School, Australia. She is also the founding co-Director of the Centre for Law and Social Justice at the University of Newcastle. Amy’s research spans multiple areas in human rights and international law, including human rights institutions, self-determination, climate change and human rights, refugees and displaced peoples, and the death penalty. She is currently leading a research project on Australia’s first ever membership term on the UN Human Rights Council (2018-2020), with a focus on evaluating its human rights performance and analysing the influence of interactions between Australia, other member states and non-state actors at the HRC. Amy is a prominent commentator in her fields of expertise, including as an author for The Conversation.

Dr Fiona McGaughey is Associate Professor in international human rights law at the University of Western Australia and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.  Fiona has published widely on human rights topics and she previously worked in the not-for-profit sector in Ireland and Australia in research and policy roles related to human rights and equality.  Her PhD compared the role of NGOs in UN human rights treaty body State reporting with the role of NGOs in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).  She expanded this to an overarching examination of the NGO role across UN human rights bodies and processes and her book on NGOs and the UN Human Rights System was published by Routledge in 2021. Going forward, she would like to continue to monitor the relationship between treaty bodies and the UPR.  She is also interested in examining the extent to which the UPR is used to further critical contemporary global issues such as climate change, COVID-19 (and related government restrictions), and modern slavery.

Dr Edward McMahon is Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science, Middlebury College and Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Community Development and Applied Economics and the Department of Political Science at the University of Vermont. Ned’s research on the UPR has focused on trends in recommendations made over the life of the Review.  Relatedly, he has co-developed and directed the action coding mechanism in the database housed by UPR Info.  He is also a member of the UPR Info Board of Directors. 

Dr Kathryn McNeilly is a Senior Lecturer and the Director of Research at the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast. Her research focuses on international human rights law and legal theory. Kathryn has undertaken a number of pieces of work related to the Universal Periodic Review. In 2013, she co-authored an examination of the UK’s experience of the mechanism’s first cycle (with Leanne Cochrane). In 2020, Kathryn was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to undertake a project exploring aspects of time in international human rights law monitoring. The Universal Periodic Review was the case study engaged in this project. Kathryn is co-editor of The Times and Temporalities of International Human Rights Law (Hart, 2022) and author of Human Rights and Radical Social Transformation (Routledge, 2017). This latter work was one of two books shortlisted for the Hart-SLSA Early Career Prize in 2018. Kathryn is an Editorial Board member of leading international journals Human Rights Law Review and Feminist Legal Studies as well as a member of the Peer Review College for the AHRC and the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships.

Dr Joel E. Oestreich is Professor of Politics and Global Studies at Drexel University. He is the author or editor of three books, most recently “Development and Human Rights: Rhetoric and Reality in India,” from Oxford University Press. He has written extensively on the rights-based approach to development, United Nations agencies, and international bureaucracies. He has also been a visiting scholar at universities in India and Benin, and is the past Chair of the International Organization Section of the International Studies Association. His current research focuses on how UN development agencies integrate UPR recommendations into their planning and project implementation.

Maria Eduarda Oliveira is a PhD student at Birmingham City University and a funded researcher by the Midlands4Cities, whose research focuses on the Universal Periodic Review and Portugal in the fight against human trafficking and sexual exploitation. By looking at the influence of UPR recommendations in legal and policy changes when it comes to the fight against human trafficking in Portugal, Maria contributes to the study of the positive role of the Universal Periodic Review in influencing changes at the national level. She is currently in her first year of study. 

Professor Sangeeta Shah is Professor of International Law and Human Rights and Co-Director of the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham. Sangeeta researches in all areas of human rights law – both international and domestic. Her work on UPR looks at broad issues relating to what recommendations can tell us about state’s perceptions of international human rights law and the work of the UN in terms of human rights practice. She sits on the editorial boards of the Human Rights Law Review and the Modern Law Review.

Sandesh Sivakumaran is Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge; Co-Deputy Director of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law; and Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. He is a general international lawyer with a particular focus on international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law. His publications include International Human Rights Law (OUP, 4ed, 2022), co-edited with Daniel Moeckli and Sangeeta Shah; Cases and Materials on International Law (Sweet and Maxwell, 9ed, 2020) with David Harris; Oppenheim’s International Law: United Nations (OUP, 2017) with Dame Rosalyn Higgins, Philippa Webb, Dapo Akande and James Sloan; and The Law of Non-International Armed Conflict (OUP, 2012).

Dr Rhona Smith is Professor of International Human Rights at the University of Newcastle, UK, and recently served the UN Human Rights Council for six year as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia (2015-2021). She has taught and researched on international human rights for some thirty years with a focus on institutional monitoring. She has also worked on human rights education and capacity building, particularly in academic and justice sectors. Much of that work was undertaken in China and South East Asia, though she has also worked in the Pacific region, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In various countries, she has contributed to workshops on UPR and on capacity building for stakeholders involved in, or wishing to contribute to the UPR process.

Dr Tomiwa Ilori is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Human Rights (Centre), Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria. He also works as a Project Coordinator in the Expression, Information and Digital Rights unit of the Centre. His LLD research focused on a rights-respecting approach to preventing online harm, protecting online expression, and ensuring effective platform governance in Nigeria and South Africa. Tomiwa’s research currently focuses on communication surveillance law, data protection, platform governance, digital policy and rights, African Union law, and the international human rights system. He has also published widely on these research areas. He is currently co-editing a book on communication surveillance law and human rights in Africa. With respect to the UPR, he is interested in how it can be leveraged for digital rights policy and advocacy in African countries and in the past, he has written short articles on the status of digital rights at the UPR in Namibia, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Lebanon

Rosa Freedman is the inaugural Professor of Law, Conflict and Global Development at the University of Reading. She received her LLB, LLM and PhD from the University of London, and is a non-practising barrister and member of the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn. Freedman’s research focuses on the UN and human rights. She has published extensively on UN human rights bodies and systems, and on UN peacekeeping and accountability for human rights abuses. Her published work includes three monographs, two co-edited collections, and articles in American Journal of International Law, European Journal of International Law, Leiden Journal of International Law and Human Rights Quarterly, amongst others She is a visiting fellow at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. Freedman is a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Civil Society Advisory Board on prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, is a Specialist Adviser on safeguarding to the UK government International Development Committee, and sits on the UK FCDO Steering Committee and Women, Peace and Security Steering Group.

Rebecca Yemo is a PhD candidate in the global governance and human security program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her research interests include compliance with international human rights law and the role of the UN in advancing human rights, especially through human rights monitoring mechanisms. Her dissertation explores the impact of the Universal Periodic Review on advancing women’s rights in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rebecca works as a graduate research assistant at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is also an Adam Smith Fellow, a fellowship awarded by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She has worked with Non-Governmental Organizations in the USA and Ghana that address women’s rights, migrant rights, and digital rights.  In 2021, she was awarded a  Civic Action Project (CAP) Fellowship and worked with the Massachusetts Business Roundtable. Rebecca earned a MA in Global Governance and Human Security from the University of Massachusetts Boston, a Master of International Studies from North Carolina State University, and a BA in Linguistics and Spanish from the University of Ghana. 

Kazuo (Kaz) Fukuda is an Associate Professor at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan. Prior to pursuing an academic career, Kaz worked for the United Nations Development Programme in Lao PDR in charge of the rule of law portfolio and was involved extensively in the UPR process for nearly five years. He is the author of Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review as a Forum of Fighting for Borderline Recommendations? Lessons Learned from the Ground (Northwestern Journal of Human Rights Vol. 20, No. 2, 2022). He received his Ph.D. in Law and Democracy from the Maurer School of Law, Indiana University in the United States.

Thomas Conzelmann is a Professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS), Maastricht University. His research focuses on the politics and institutions of global governance, in particular whether non-binding instruments such as peer reviews and voluntary self-regulation hold potential in solving global problems. In addition, he is looking at the question of whether and why specific international organisations or actors are holding authority in global affairs and at the role of private actors in global governance. He is the coauthor of Fears of peers? Explaining peer and public shaming in global governance. Cooperation and Conflict https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0010836718816729

Jean-Marie Kamatali is Professor and Ella A. Ernest H. Fisher Chair of Law at The Claude W. Pettit College of Law, Ohio Northern University. He also serves at the Director of the Center for Democratic Governance and Rule of Law. Professor Kamatali studied at University of Graz (Austria), University of Notre Dame (USA), and University of Rwanda. Professor Kamatali is the founder and director of the Human Rights Database and Analysis (HRDA project), accessible at https://www.hrdaproject.org/ . HRDA Project uses Universal Periodic Review (UPR) reports to develop a comprehensive database equipped with advanced search capabilities. This resource empowers users to access and scrutinize reliable human rights data using various parameters. Formerly, Professor Kamatali served as Dean of the Law School at the University of Rwanda. His extensive teaching career has spanned across multiple institutions, including the University of Notre Dame Law School, Indiana University (South Bend and Indianapolis), Kent State University, and Leuven University. His published works are centered around themes such as accountability for genocide and crimes against humanity, the rule of law, human rights, ADR in civil law countries, and the US First Amendment. Professor Kamatali is a regular consultant for the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and Responsibility to Protect, USAID and the US Department of Justice (DOJ). He has also provided consulting services to the World Bank, UNICEF, the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center, among others. Moreover, he has delivered presentations and lectures at various universities, including University of Harvard Law School, the Pepperdine University Rick J. Caruso School of Law, Washington College of Law, American University, Northwestern University Law School, and in several countries, including New Zealand, Austria, Norway, Bosnia, Costa Rica, South Africa, DRC, Kenya, and Egypt, among others.