ELAC - Key Persons
Afonso is originally from Portugal and graduated in Law from the Portuguese Catholic University (Porto Law School), in Philosophy (award Vitorino Sousa Alves) from the Portuguese Catholic University (Braga) and in Theology from the Pontificia Universita Gregariana in Rome. He subsequently undertook his theological studies at Heythrop College (University of London) in Contemporary Ethics. Afonso holds a Master's degree from the London School of Economics with the thesis entitled ‘US drone strikes in Pakistan during 2013'. In 2019, Afonso obtained a PhD from the University of Essex with a thesis entitled ‘The legitimacy and accountability for the development of autonomous weapon systems under international humanitarian law', under the supervision of Professors Noam Lubell and Wayne Martin. Between 2018-2020, Afonso worked as a visiting scholar at the Blavatnik School of Government under the supervision of Professor Dapo Akande.
He taught various legal subjects at the Porto Law School and at Essex Law School and currently also lectures at the Universidad de Deusto in Spain. His areas of interests are international law and the use of force; international humanitarian law and the challenges of new technologies of warfare for international law; and state responsibility for violations of international humanitarian law caused by artificial devices.
Afonso Seixas-Nunes is a Jesuit Priest, having been ordained in 2010. He is currently a Junior Research Fellow at Campion Hall, Oxford University.
Job Titles:
- Doctoral Fellow
- Visiting Fellow of Practice
Alexandra Martin is a Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Blavatnik School's Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict's Programme on International Peace and Security. She works with Federica D'Alessandra on a new research and stakeholder consultation project aimed at better understanding how new and emerging technologies (NETs) and the changing nature of threats to civilian security impact a value-based international security policy.
Alexandra has previously worked with globally renowned think-tanks like The German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington DC and GLOBSEC in Bratislava and Brussels. As Head of GLOBSEC Brussels Office she co-designed and led the NATO-Private Sector Dialogues with GLOBSEC, an initiative that explored how the private sector can contribute to addressing the most pressing technology-based security risks and contribute to increasing societal resilience across the NATO Alliance. This consultation eventually fed into the NATO Agenda 2030 reflection process and the new NATO Strategic Concept.
Prior to this, she was deployed to North Macedonia, as Political Officer with the OSCE Mission to Skopje, where she primarily followed the negotiation agreement between Skopje and Athens to resolve the long-standing name dispute. Between 2012 and 2014 she was deployed to Zugdidi, Georgia, as the youngest operations officer of an EU CSDP mission abroad, where she oversaw all monitoring and operational activities of the mission in the Western area of responsibility (AoR), in line with the Six-Point Ceasefire Agreement of 2008.
Alexandra is currently a Doctoral Fellow and a Junior Lecturer at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam. She holds a Master`s Degree in International Affairs, specialization Conflict Management from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Alexandra Martin is a Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Blavatnik School's Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict's Programme on International Peace and Security. She works with Federica D'Alessandra on a new research and ... Read more
Antonio Coco is a Visiting Scholar at the Blavatnik School of Government and a Junior Research Fellow at St Peter's College, Oxford. He joined the University of Oxford in 2017 as Departmental Lecturer in Law. In January 2020, he was appointed Lecturer in Law at the University of Essex.
Antonio is also a Visiting Lecturer at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, where he teaches a course on ‘Institutions of International Criminal Justice' and where he had been a Teaching Assistant prior to moving to Oxford. In addition, since September 2015, Antonio has been a member of the Journal of International Criminal Justice's Editorial Committee. The Journal, published by Oxford University Press, is one of the top law reviews in the field of international law.
From February 2016 to January 2017, he was a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School, thanks to the "Doc.Mobility" fellowship provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Previously, he worked as a legal assistant to the Special Rapporteur on Protection of Persons in the event of Disasters at the UN International Law Commission (2012), and at the Chambers of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (2010). Antonio is admitted to practice law in Italy, where he has worked as a defence counsel.
Antonio holds a Ph.D in Law from the University of Geneva (summa cum laude, 2019), an LL.M. in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from the Geneva Academy (summa cum laude, 2012) and a Master's Degree in Law from the University of Catania (summa cum laude, 2010).
Antonio Coco is a Visiting Scholar at the Blavatnik School of Government and a Junior Research Fellow at St Peter's College, Oxford. He joined the University of Oxford in 2017 as Departmental Lecturer in Law. In January 2020, he was ... Read more
Job Titles:
- Visiting Fellow of Practice
Brianna Rosen is a Visiting Fellow of Practice with our Programme on International Peace and Security, where she also previously served as Policy Engagement Manager from 2020 to 2021. She is also a Senior Fellow at Just ... Read more
Brianna Rosen is a Visiting Fellow of Practice with our Programme on International Peace and Security, where she also previously served as Policy Engagement Manager from 2020 to 2021. She is also a Senior Fellow at Just Security.
Previously, Brianna was a career civil servant with a decade of experience working on US national security and Middle East policy issues. During the Obama administration, she was assigned to the White House National Security Council and Office of the Vice President. Prior to government service, Brianna worked at several leading research institutes, including the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Middle East Institute, in Washington, DC.
Brianna obtained her DPhil (PhD) in Public Policy in 2022 at the University of Oxford, where she was a Clarendon Scholar. She received a Master of Public Policy with Distinction from Oxford, where she studied as a Public Service Scholar. She holds an MA in Political Science and Mathematics, summa cum laude, as well as a BA, from the University of Connecticut.
Job Titles:
- Officer
- Research Assistant
Caroline Turner, under the supervision of ELAC Deputy Director Federica D'Alessandra, is investigating how the military industrial complex affects threat perception. Specifically, she seeks to understand how the procurement and ... Read more
Caroline Turner, under the supervision of ELAC Deputy Director Federica D'Alessandra, is investigating how the military industrial complex affects threat perception. Specifically, she seeks to understand how the procurement and acquisition policies of defense assets potentially inflate threat perception and subsequently escalate security dilemmas between major powers including the US and China. This research was inspired by the 2022 NATO Strategic Concept, specifically how deterrence affects good governance and democracy.
Caroline is a nuclear submarine officer in the US Navy and is currently a Master of Public Policy (MPP) student at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Prior to joining the MPP Programme, Caroline attended the US Naval Academy where she graduated with distinction and commissioned, earning a degree in Operations Research.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Deputy Head
- Co - Editor - in - Chief of the Journal Global Responsibility to Protect
- Visiting Fellow
Cecilia Jacob is Associate Professor and Deputy Head in the Department of International Relations at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, The Australian National University. Her work focuses on the global governance of human protection, including civilian protection, and mass atrocity prevention. Cecilia has a geographic focus on armed conflict and political violence in South and Southeast Asia, and has conducted extensive overseas field research.
She is the author of Child Security in Asia: The Impact of Armed Conflict in Cambodia and Myanmar, (2014), and co-editor of Civilian Protection in the Twenty-First Century: Governance and Responsibility in a Fragmented World (2016) and Implementing the Responsibility to Protect: A Future Agenda (2019).
Cecilia is co-editor-in-chief of the journal Global Responsibility to Protect. She is co-chair of the Asia-Pacific Regional Grouping of GAAMAC (Global Action Against Mass Atrocity Crimes). She is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early-Career Research Fellow (2019-2022) and is currently completing a book on the international human protection order.
Prior to completing her PhD, Cecilia worked for NGOs in France, Thailand and Cambodia, and for the Advisory Group for the Australian government's aid program.
Cecilia Jacob is Associate Professor and Deputy Head in the Department of International Relations at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, The Australian National University. Her work focuses on the global governance of human ... Read more
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Fellow
- Fellow of Oxford Institute for Ethics
Cheyney Ryan has been a fellow of Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC) since 2010, and before that was a fellow of the Oxford Changing Character of War Program. He is director of ELAC's human rights programs, which have included workshops on humanitarian aid, nuclear weapons, and other issues. He is also cochair of the Oxford Consortium for Human Rights, which is conducted human rights workshops in Oxford, New York, Geneva, and other locations in recent years. He is a member of Merton College. For many years he taught at the University of Oregon as a professor of philosophy and professor of law, where he co-founded the Program in Conflict Resolution. He has been a Global Ethics Fellow and Senior Fellow, Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs, and Liberal Arts Fellow, Harvard Law School. He has also taught at Northwestern University and Boston University.
Dr Ryan's recent work has focused on pacifism, nonviolence, and the critique of just war theory. He is especially interested in questions of personal responsibility and war and has written widely on this topic. His most recent book is War, Sacrifice, and Personal Responsibility: The Chickenhawk Syndrome (Roman and Littlefield). Some of his recent articles include: "The Dilemma of the Cosmopolitan Soldier," in Post-Heroic Warfare, ed. by Sybelle Scheipers (Palgrave MacMillan), "The Pacifist Critique of Just War Theory", in Andrew Fiala, ed. The Routledge Handbook of Pacifism and Nonviolence, "Bearers of Hope: On the Paradox of Non-Violent Action", in The Ethics of Soft War, ed. by Michael Gross and Tami Meisels (Cambridge University Press), and "The Hard Hand of War", Law and Philosophy (2017). He received the Joseph J. Blau Prize from the Society for Advancement of American Philosophy for significant contributions to the history of American philosophy.
Dr Ryan has been named one of leading scholars "on the frontier of peace and conflict studies" by the Washington Post and has received numerous awards for human rights activism, including the Grassroots Award from the National Funding Exchange, the Annual Human Rights Award from the Oregon Human Rights Coalition, and the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the National Jewish Federation.
Cheyney Ryan has been a fellow of Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC) since 2010, and before that was a fellow of the Oxford Changing Character of War Program. He is director of ELAC's human rights programs, ... Read more
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant
- Master of Public Policy
Christiana Agustin is a Master of Public Policy (MPP) student at the Blavatnik School of Government. Prior to her MPP studies, Christiana worked as a policy advisor for the Minister of International Trade and Minister of Families, ... Read more
Christiana Agustin is a Master of Public Policy (MPP) student at the Blavatnik School of Government. Prior to her MPP studies, Christiana worked as a policy advisor for the Minister of International Trade and Minister of Families, Children, and Social Development. She helped develop Canada's Indo-Pacific Strategy and implement Canada's Early Learning and Child Care System. Christiana also worked at the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada as an outreach assistant.
Christiana is a graduate of the University of Toronto, where she specialized in International Development Studies.
Christiana will be working under the supervision of Deputy Director Federica D'Alessandra at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC). At ELAC, she will conduct research focusing on accountability for crimes of aggression and mass atrocities in Asia, including China.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Fellow
- Co - Director and Co - Founder, ELAC Co - Convenor, the Oxford Process
- Member of the Editorial Board of the American Journal of International Law
- Nuclear Weapons, Unclear Law? Deciphering the Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion of the International Court' ( 1997 ) 68 British Yearbook of International Law
- Professor
- Professor of Public International Law
Dapo Akande Dapo Akande is Professor of Public International Law, Fellow of Exeter College (since April 2018) and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC). From 2012 to 2017 he was Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations. He has held visiting professorships at Yale Law School (where he was also Robinna Foundation International Fellow), the University of Miami School of Law and the Catolica Global Law School, Lisbon. He was the 2015 Sir Ninian Stephen Visiting Scholar at the University of Melbourne Law School's Asia-Pacific Centre for Military Law. Before taking up his position in Oxford in 2004, he was Lecturer in Law at the University of Nottingham School of Law (1998-2000) and at the University of Durham (2000-2004). From 1994 to 1998, he taught international law (part-time) at the London School of Economics and at Christ's College and Wolfson College, University of Cambridge.
Dapo has published on varied areas of international law in the American Journal of International Law, the European Journal of International Law, the British Yearbook of International Law, the International & Comparative Law Quarterly, the Journal of International Criminal Justice amongst other journals. His article "The Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over Nationals of Non-Parties: Legal Basis and Limits" was awarded the 2003 Journal of International Criminal Justice Prize and his 2016 co-authored piece "The International Legal Framework Regulating the Use of Armed Drones" in the International Comparative Law Quarterly was selected for the ICLQ Annual Lecture 2017. He is one of the authors of Oppenheim's International Law: The United Nations (2017, OUP) and one of the editors of the Practitioners Guide to the Application of Human Rights Law in Armed Conflict (2016, OUP). He was a member of the International Group of Experts that prepared the Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations (2017, CUP) which was commissioned by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. He is also a member of the International Advisory Panel for the American Law Institute's project on the Restatement Fourth, The Foreign Relations Law of the United States.
Dapo is a member of the Editorial Board of the American Journal of International Law and previously served on the Editorial Boards of the European Journal of International Law and the African Journal of International and Comparative Law. He is also on the advisory boards of International Law Studies, the Israel Law Review, the Nigerian Yearbook of International Law, and the Ethiopian Yearbook of International Law. He is a Counsellor on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law and serves on the Board of Trustees of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law; the Executive Council of the British Branch of the International Law Association; the Advisory Board of the African Association of International Law; the Advisory Board of the International Centre for Transitional Justice; the Advisory Committee of International Lawyers for Africa; the World Economic Forum's Global Council on the Future of Human Rights; the Africa Group for Justice and Accountability (a group of 12 senior African experts on international criminal justice and human rights). He is founding editor of EJIL:Talk! the widely read scholarly blog of the European Journal of International Law.
He has acted as consultant, expert, or adviser on international law issues to United Nations bodies, the African Union Commission, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). He has provided advice to States and non-governmental organizations on matters of international law. In addition, he has assisted counsel, or provided expert opinions in cases before several international tribunals, including the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, international arbitral tribunals in mixed disputes, World Trade Organization and North American Free Trade Area Dispute Settlement panels. He has also acted as consultant/adviser in cases in national courts, including the UK Supreme Court. In 2017 he is acting as legal adviser to the UK Parliament's All Party Parliamentary Group on Drone's Inquiry into the ways in which the UK works with partners on the use of drones.
D. Akande and E. Gillard, ‘Oxford Guidance on the Law Relating to Humanitarian Relief Operations in Situations of Armed Conflict‘ (2016) Commissioned and Published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
D. Akande, ‘The Effect of Security Council Resolutions and Domestic Proceedings on State Obligations to Cooperate with the ICC‘ (2012) 10 Journal of International Criminal Justice 299
D. Akande, ‘ The Protective Principle ; The Active Nationality Principle ; The Passive Personality Principle ; The Territoriality Principle ' in Cassese, Akande, et al (ed), Oxford Companion to International Criminal Justice (OUP 2009)
D. Akande, ‘Are there Limits to the Powers of the Security Council? in Old Questions and New Challenges for the UN Security System‘ (2007) V Journal of International Law and Policy
Dapo Akande
Position - Co-Director and Co-Founder, ELAC | Co-Convenor, The Oxford Process
Dapo Akande Dapo Akande is Professor of Public International Law, Fellow of Exeter College (since April 2018) and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC). From 2012 to 2017 he was Co-Director ...
David Rodin is a leading authority on the ethics of war and conflict. He is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. His ... Read more
David Rodin is a leading authority on the ethics of war and conflict. He is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. His publications include War and Self-Defense (OUP 2002), which was awarded the American Philosophical Association Sharp Prize, articles in leading philosophy and law journals and a number of edited books. A Rhodes Scholar from New Zealand, David has a B.Phil. and D.Phil in philosophy from Oxford University. He was previously Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University. He was the inaugural Director of Research at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, and a founding member of the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War. David has a busy teaching and consulting schedule and is a regular lecturer at the UK Joint Services Command and Staff College where he provides ethics training for senior officers up to the rank of two-star General. He has also worked in the private sector as a Senior Associate with the Boston Consulting Group.
Job Titles:
- Visiting Fellow of Practice
Dr Orly Stern was a Visiting Fellow of Practice with the Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security at the Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. Her expertise spans international law (in particular international humanitarian law and international human rights law), armed conflict, gender and gender-based violence, human rights, and access to justice and security. Dr Stern conducts rigorous, in-depth field research in some of the world's most embattled environments and has led research projects and designed methodologies and research tools for various humanitarian organisations, research institutions and NGOs. She also works as a consultant to humanitarian organisations, NGOs and other development entities.
Dr Stern holds a PhD in law from the London School of Economics, for which she conducted a feminist critique of international humanitarian law (the laws of war). She holds an LL.M in international human rights law from Harvard Law School.
Job Titles:
- Junior Research Fellow in Law at St John 's College
- Research Fellow
Dr Priya Urs is a Junior Research Fellow in Law at St John's College, University of Oxford and a Research Fellow at ELAC. She holds a PhD in Law from University College London, a Master of Law from the University of Cambridge, and a Bachelor of Arts and Law from the National Law School of India University. She was previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at ELAC (2021-22).
Priya's research interests span across public international law and, in addition to general aspects, include international criminal law, the law on the use of force, and international dispute settlement. Priya also works with ELAC on the applicability of existing rules of international law to cyber operations and co-authored the open-access report The International Law Protections against Cyber Operations Targeting the Healthcare Sector.
Prior to her PhD, Priya spent three years as a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law in Heidelberg, Germany (2014-2017), where she designed and implemented institutional capacity-building projects in conflict and post-conflict states.
Dr Priya Urs is a Junior Research Fellow in Law at St John's College, University of Oxford and a Research Fellow at ELAC. She holds a PhD in Law from University College London, a Master of Law from the University of Cambridge, and a ... Read more
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Fellow
- Research Fellow
Talita Dias
Position - Research Fellow
Dr Talita Dias is the Senior Research Fellow on Chatham House's International Law Programme, as well as a Research Fellow with ELAC. Pior to that, she was the Shaw Foundation Junior Research Fellow in Law at Jesus College ...
Job Titles:
- Co - Convenor, the Oxford Process
- Professor
Duncan B. Hollis is Laura H. Carnell Professor of Law at Temple Law School and a co-convenor of The Oxford Process on International Law Protections in Cyberspace. His scholarship engages with issues of international law, interpretation, and cybersecurity, with a particular emphasis on treaties, norms, and other forms of international regulation. He is currently a non-resident Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an elected member of the American Law Institute, where he served as an Adviser on its project to draft a Fourth Restatement on the Foreign Relations Law of the United States. In 2016, he was elected by the General Assembly of the Organization of the American States to a four-year term on the OAS's Inter-American Juridical Committee. There, he has served as the Rapporteur on binding and non-binding agreements as well as the Rapporteur on improving the transparency of State views on international law's application to cyberspace. Hollis has held visiting academic appointments at Melbourne Law School, LUISS Università Guido Carli, and the University of Pennsylvania's Perry World House. For more than a decade he was a regular contributor to the international law blog, Opinio Juris.
Professor Hollis's books include The Oxford Guide to Treaties (OUP, 2nd ed., 2020), the first edition of which was awarded the 2013 American Society of International Law Certificate of Merit for high technical craftsmanship and utility to practising lawyers; International Law (with Allen Weiner), the 7th edition of one of the leading textbooks; and (with Jens Ohlin) Defending Democracies: Combatting Foreign Election Interference in a Digital Age (OUP, 2020). His more than 30 articles and book chapters have appeared in various publications, including the American Journal of International Law, Texas Law Review, Southern California Law Review, Harvard Journal of International Law, and Virginia Journal of International Law.
Duncan B. Hollis is Laura H. Carnell Professor of Law at Temple Law School and a co-convenor of The Oxford Process on International Law Protections in Cyberspace. His scholarship engages with issues of international law, ... Read more
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Fellow
- Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics
Emanuela-Chiara Gillard is a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict and an Associate Fellow in Chatham House's International Law Programme.
From 2007 to 2012 she was Chief of the Protection of Civilians Section in the Policy Development and Studies Branch of the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Section worked with the United Nations Security Council and other key stakeholders to promote and enhance the protection of civilians in armed conflict.
For seven years prior to joining OCHA, Emanuela was a legal adviser at the International Committee of the Red Cross. There she was responsible for providing advice to headquarters and field on legal issues relating to the protection of civilians in armed conflict, children, assistance, multinational forces, civil/military relations, occupation and private military/security companies.
Before joining the ICRC in 2000, Emanuela was a legal adviser at the United Nations Compensation Commission, in charge of government claims for losses arising from Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait. From 1995 to 1997 she was a research fellow at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge.
Emanuela holds a B.A. in Law and an LL.M. from the University of Cambridge. She is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.
Her research interests include international humanitarian law, with a particular focus on the protection of civilians and mechanisms for promoting compliance; the role of the Security Council in enhancing the protection of civilians; sanctions, counter-terrorism, and principled humanitarian action.
Emanuela-Chiara Gillard is a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict and an Associate Fellow in Chatham House's International Law Programme. From 2007 to 2012 she was Chief of the Protection ... Read more
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director
- Director
- Executive Director
- Deputy Director of the Institute for Ethics
- Deputy Director, ELAC Executive Director, Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security ( IPS )
Federica D'Alessandra is the Deputy Director of the Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict (ELAC), and founding Executive Director of the Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security at the Blavatnik School of Government. She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the School's Alfred Landecker Programme, an Academic Affiliate of the Oxford Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, and on the Steering Committee of the Oxford Network of Peace Studies. Prior to joining Oxford, Federica held various appointments at Harvard University, including at the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government, and at the Harvard Law School, where she focused on mass atrocity response and prevention, transitional justice, national security, and human rights. Her current research spans a variety of pressing, contemporary issues on which she has published widely, including: international aggression; judicial accountability for mass atrocities; new institutional developments in international justice; States' legal duties in mass atrocities situations; the role of new actors and new technologies in atrocity crimes documentation; and the UN accountability turn, among others.
Federica is often called upon to counsel governments, international organisations, and the private sector on international law and policy matters relating to her expertise. This includes actively participating in treaty negotiations and amendment, and regularly serving on expert panels tasked with standard-setting and the development of practical guidance and implementation tools. Her contributions have supported, for example, the aggression and starvation amendments to the Rome Statute; the UN Draft Articles on Crimes against Humanity; the International Criminal Court Guidelines for Civil Society Documentation; the Berkley Protocol on Open-Source Investigations; the UN Guidelines to facilitate the collection of information and evidence by military and other relevant criminal justice actors within a rule-of-law framework; the recommendations by the Group of Expert on Fact-Finding and Accountability; and Options for the Establishment of a Standing UN Investigative Mechanism, among others.
Federica is a leading figure in the international law and public policy space, currently serving as the inaugural Co-Chair of the International Bar Association (IBA) Government and Public Lawyers Committee, and Vice-Chair of its Rule of Law Forum, having previously served as Co-Chair of the IBA Human Rights Law and War Crimes Committees. She also serves on the board of a number of institutes and organisations, including the Simon Skjodt Center's Ferencz International Justice Initiative at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the IBA Section on Public and Professional Interest, and the IBA Human Rights Institute.
She has received a number of awards and recognitions, including the William Reece Jr Award by LexisNexis and the International Bar Association in recognition of her work to improve the civil society's capacity to document atrocities and engage with international accountability mechanisms. She has also been recognised by Forbes as one of '30 Under 30' leaders with ‘the likelihood of changing the field of law and policy over the next half-century' (2019); among the ‘Most Influential European Thinkers' (Forbes Italy, 2019); and as one of 18 ‘Italians of the Year' by the Italian Journalistic Agency (AGI, 2018).
Federica is a graduate of Milan's Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Utrecht Universiteit, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She also studied at the Université Paris Sorbonne, and hold degrees in Law, Criminology, and Political Science.
Federica D'Alessandra
Position - Deputy Director, ELAC | Executive Director, Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security (IPS)
Federica D'Alessandra is the Deputy Director of the Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict (ELAC), and founding Executive Director of the Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security at the Blavatnik School of ...
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant
- Master of Public Policy
Florian Zarnetta is a Master of Public Policy candidate at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. He joins ELAC over the summer to support Deputy Director Federica D'Alessandra in her research. His work focuses on ... Read more
Florian Zarnetta is a Master of Public Policy candidate at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. He joins ELAC over the summer to support Deputy Director Federica D'Alessandra in her research. His work focuses on the prospects for international justice and accountability in a time of rising tensions between geopolitical powers. His further research interests include European foreign and security policy and the theory of international law.
Before coming to Oxford, Florian received a BA in Political Science and Law from the University of Tuebingen (Germany), where he specialised in international relations and international law. He is a Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Blavatnik School of Government Public Service Scholar.
Job Titles:
- Research and Policy Officer
Gwendolyn is a DPhil candidate in International Relations at the University of Oxford, where she received an MPhil in International Relations in 2022. Her doctoral research examines under what conditions the UN Security Council ... Read more
Gwendolyn is a DPhil candidate in International Relations at the University of Oxford, where she received an MPhil in International Relations in 2022. Her doctoral research examines under what conditions the UN Security Council intervenes in situations of mass atrocity. She is currently the Research and Policy Officer for the Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security (IPS), where she supports work on atrocity prevention strategy and policy. She has also previously interned with the United Nations Department of Peace Operations and the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.
Prior to coming to Oxford, Gwendolyn was a Fulbright Scholar in Morocco, where she served as a Business English instructor at the National School of Business and Management in Agadir. She was also a Davis Projects for Peace Fellow in Rwanda, where she implemented an education-based peacebuilding project at a youth village in Rwamagana. She has studied and worked in Rwanda over the course of three summers since 2015 with various nongovernmental and education organizations, and spent her junior year abroad studying Arabic in Rabat, Morocco and as a visiting student in PPE at Oxford.
Gwendolyn previously received a BA in Politics summa cum laude and with departmental honors from Bates College, where she was a Charles A Dana Scholar and a Phi Beta Kappa inductee. She speaks fluent French and intermediate Arabic.
Hannes was a Research and Project Assistant to Federica D'Alessandra, at the time Executive Director of the Programme on International Peace and Security at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC). He obtained a DPhil in public international law in 2022 under the supervision of Professor Dapo Akande. His research focused on penal proceedings conducted by non-state armed groups and was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Hannes holds law degrees from the University of Graz and University College London (UCL) where he was awarded the Georg Schwarzenberger Prize in International Law by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (University of London).
Before coming to Oxford, Hannes worked as a legal advisor on human rights, constitutional law and judicial affairs in the Austrian Parliament. He also clerked at the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem and was an intern at the United Nations Offices in Vienna and Geneva.
Hugo Slim specializes in the study of ethics, war and humanitarian aid and is leading ELAC's Red Cross funded research on the 21st century battlefield and humanitarian response. This is his second fellowship at ELAC where he ... Read more
Hugo Slim specializes in the study of ethics, war and humanitarian aid and is leading ELAC's Red Cross funded research on the 21 st century battlefield and humanitarian response. This is his second fellowship at ELAC where he previously led research on humanitarian ethics from 2012-2015 and was also part of the team working on the Individualisation of Warfare funded by the European Research Council.
Hugo's career has combined academia, frontline humanitarian operations and policymaking. From 2015 and 2020, he was Head of Policy and Humanitarian Diplomacy at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva, where he led humanitarian policymaking and diplomacy, and also coordinated the ICRC's delegation to the United Nations in New York.
Hugo did his BA in Theology at St John's College, Oxford. He then worked with Save the Children for five years and with the United Nations before joining Oxford Brookes University to co-lead their award-winning MSc in Development and Humanitarian Practice between 1994 and 2003. He received his PhD by Published Work from Oxford Brookes. He was then Chief Scholar at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva from 2003 and 2007 and has also been on the Boards of Oxfam GB and the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD).
Hugo has published 30 refereed journal papers and 17 book chapters in ethics, humanitarianism and war studies. His latest books are Humanitarian Ethics: A Guide to the Morality of Aid in War and Disasters in 2015, which thinks through the applied ethics of humanitarian action, and Killing Civilians: Method, Madness and Morality in War in 2007, which analyses the causes and ethics of civilian suffering in war.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Co - Director, ELAC Co - Convener, Ethics, Law and Nuclear Deterrence
Janina Dill is the John G. Winant Professor of U.S. Foreign Policy at the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) of the University of Oxford. She is also a Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict (ELAC).
Her research concerns international law and ethics in international relations, specifically in war. Janina Dill investigates how legal and moral imperatives interact with strategic thinking and technological developments to explain conduct in war and the development of armed conflict. She also works on IR theory, specifically constructivism and the intersection of explanatory IR theories with normative political theory.
Her first book, entitled Legitimate Targets? International Law, Social Construction and US Bombing, proposes a constructivist theory of international law and highlights tensions between a legal and a moral definition of a legitimate target of attack. It appeared with Cambridge University Press as part of the series Cambridge Studies in International Relations in 2015. The book was Runner-Up for the Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship of the Society of Legal Scholars in 2016, and it has received an Honourable Mention by the Theory Section of the International Studies Association.
Her second book (co-authored with Ziv Bohrer and Helen Duffy) proposes a moral division of labour between human rights and humanitarian law and examines under what empirical circumstances each body of law should prevail over the other. It is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press as part of the series Max Planck Trialogues on the Law of Peace and War.
Janina Dill
Position - Co-Director, ELAC | Co-Convener, Ethics, Law and Nuclear Deterrence
Janina Dill is the John G. Winant Professor of U.S. Foreign Policy at the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) of the University of Oxford. She is also a Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College and Co-Director of ...
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Professor of Moral Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy
Jeff McMahan is the White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, University of Oxford. He is also Professorial Fellow, Corpus Christi College. Read more
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Research Chair in Global Governance and Security at McGill University
Jennifer M. Welsh is the incoming Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security at McGill University (Montreal, Canada). She was previously Professor and Chair in International Relations at the European University Institute (Florence, Italy) and Professor in International Relations at the University of Oxford, where she co-founded the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. From 2013-2016, she served as the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, on the Responsibility to Protect.
Professor Welsh is the author, co-author, and editor of several books and articles on humanitarian intervention, the evolution of the notion of the ‘responsibility to protect' in international society, the UN Security Council, and Canadian foreign policy. Her most recent books include The Return of History: Conflict, Migration and Geopolitics in the 21st century (2016), which was based on her CBC Massey Lectures, and The Responsibility to Prevent: Overcoming the Challenges of Atrocity Prevention (2015). She was a former recipient of a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship and a Trudeau Fellowship, and from 2014-2019 has directed a five-year European Research Council-funded project called "The Individualisation of War: Reconfiguring the Ethics, Law and Politics of Armed Conflict". She is also a frequent media commentator on international affairs and Canadian foreign policy.
Professor Welsh sits on the editorial boards of the journals Global Responsibility to Protect, International Journal, and Ethics and International Affairs, and on the Advisory Boards of the Peace Research Institute in Frankfurt, The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, and the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation. She has a BA from the University of Saskatchewan (Canada), and a Masters and Doctorate from the University of Oxford (where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar).
Jennifer M. Welsh is the incoming Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security at McGill University (Montreal, Canada). She was previously Professor and Chair in International Relations at the European University ... Read more
Job Titles:
- Project Officer
- Project Officer for the Oxford Institute for Ethics
Katie Cooper is the Project Officer for the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC) where she is responsible for the overall administration of the interdisciplinary research programme. Katie is also the Senior Communications and Events Officer for the Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) Programme, responsible for the delivery of communications and events for the multi-country education research programme.
Katie previously worked at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University as an administrator for the Security Studies and International Affairs Department. Prior to that, Katie was a marketing coordinator for the EMEA region of URS (now AECOM).
Katie Cooper is the Project Officer for the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC) where she is responsible for the overall administration of the interdisciplinary research programme. Katie is also the Senior ... Read more
Job Titles:
- Visiting Fellow of Practice
Kirsty is a barrister at 9 Bedford Row, specialising in international criminal law and military law. Her academic background is in philosophy and anthropology, and she is an MPP candidate at the Blavatnik School of Government. Her previous cases include Kenyatta before the ICC, Case 004 before the ECCC, and a number of high profile UK military trials.
Kristoffer Lidén is a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict and a Senior Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) where he leads the Research Group on Law and Ethics. He is also Deputy Co-Director of the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies (NCHS). Holding a PhD in Philosophy and MA in Peace and Conflict Studies, his research explores the ethics of international affairs, with a focus on the fields of peacebuilding, humanitarian action, negotiation, security politics, and digital technology. For more information on Kristoffer's research, please see his PRIO profile page.
Kristoffer Lidén is a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict and a Senior Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) where he leads the Research Group on Law and Ethics. He is also ... Read more
Laila Ujayli is passionate about the intersection of narrative and policy, concentrating on using stories to reorient US security policy toward human needs. She holds an MSt in Film Aesthetics from the University of Oxford and is currently an MPP student at the Blavatnik School of Government, where she is a Rhodes Scholar. Laila is also an associate editor at Inkstick Media and a member of Foreign Policy for America's NextGen Foreign Policy Initiative. She previously worked on reimagining US security spending as a Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellow at Win Without War. She is also interested in the use of storytelling to engage the public on Middle East crises and her screenplays have placed in several competitions. She graduated from The Ohio State University in 2018 with a double BS with honors and research disinction in English and international relations.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Law at Temple Law School
Job Titles:
- Consultant for the International Criminal Court 's Office of the Prosecutor
- Visiting Fellow of Practice
Lindsay Freeman is a US-qualified lawyer specialised in international criminal, humanitarian and human rights law. She is the Director of Law and Policy for the Technology and Human Rights Program at the Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law, and serves on the Technology Advisory Board of the International Criminal Court.
Lindsay led the drafting of the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations and now leads the Human Rights Center's professional trainings in open source investigations. She has worked on complex international criminal prosecutions and investigations, and has published several articles on the use of new and emerging technologies in war crimes investigations and the use of digital evidence in the courtroom.
Lindsay has worked as a consultant for the International Criminal Court's Office of the Prosecutor, a trial lawyer at the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, and a law clerk in the US Attorney's Economic Crime and Securities Fraud Unit. She holds an Adv LLM in public international law from Leiden University, JD from University of San Francisco School of Law, and BA in Political Science from Middlebury College.
As a Visiting Fellow of Practice with the Blavatnik School's Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict's Programme on International Peace and Security, she is working with Federica D'Alessandra on a project aimed at improving the content moderation and preservation policies of technology companies regarding user-generated content that exposes international crimes and human rights violations. Under the auspices of the International Bar Association, and in partnership with the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center, this project will create a space for open discussion between stakeholders in order to develop guidance and best practices, as well as recommendations for governments, international organisations and technology companies. It is hoped that the final report will be the catalyst for serious reform within the tech sector, and even the public sector's dealing with tech companies.
Lindsay Freeman is a US-qualified lawyer specialised in international criminal, humanitarian and human rights law. She is the Director of Law and Policy for the Technology and Human Rights Program at the Human Rights Center, UC ... Read more
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant
- Master of Public Policy
Madeleine McGregor is a Master of Public Policy (MPP) candidate at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Madeleine is also a Bonavero Human Rights Fellow and Rhodes Scholar.
Madeleine is working with Deputy Director Federica D'Alessandra at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC) on projects concerning accountability mechanisms for atrocity crimes. This includes the Research Project "Mass Atrocities in the Digital Era: Preserving Social Media Evidence". Her key interests lie in international and human rights law, particularly ways to strengthen accountability and protections.
Prior to coming to Oxford, Madeleine worked in commercial disputes, including on international sanctions. She has also volunteered with the Aboriginal Legal Service, Kimberley Community Legal Service, and Refugee Advice and Casework Service. Madeleine holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons 1) and Bachelor of Economics from the Australian National University, as a Tuckwell Scholar, and is admitted as a Solicitor in the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
Madeleine McGregor is a Master of Public Policy (MPP) candidate at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Madeleine is also a Bonavero Human Rights Fellow and Rhodes Scholar. Madeleine is working with Deputy ... Read more
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Associate Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law
Miles Jackson is an Associate Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law and a Fellow of Jesus College. He holds MA and DPhil degrees from the University of Oxford, an LLM degree from Harvard Law School, and an LLB from the University of South Africa.
Nicholas is a DPhil candidate in International Relations at Nuffield College, Oxford. His core research interests are the causes, character and consequences of armed conflict and political violence, and the focus of his doctoral research is the termination and aftermath of secessionist armed conflicts in the Caucasus and the Balkans, for which he did field research in Abkhazia, Georgia, Kosovo and Serbia and archival research at the UN. His wider research interests include international security and conflict management, qualitative research methods - in particular field research in conflict-affected areas - and research ethics. He has studied and held visiting positions at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, the Caucasus Research Resource Centre (Tbilisi), Yale University, Central European University, the University of London, and the University of Bristol.
Nima Gerami was Fellow and Research Consultant working on the new Public Health and National Security after COVID-19 research project. In 2019-20, he was a Visiting Fellow with the Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security at the Blavatnik School of Government's Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. During the Visiting Fellowship, his research looked at ways to prevent nuclear proliferation in the Middle East in the aftermath of the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. He is an expert consultant at the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, DC.
From 2011 to 2018, Mr Gerami was a Research Fellow at NDU's Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction, where he covered Middle East security and policy issues in support of the US Department of Defense. He also lectured extensively at senior war colleges and military academies. From 2017 to 2018, he served as Director of the WMD Center's Program for Emerging Leaders, a network of national security professionals from across the US government focused on countering weapons of mass destruction. While at NDU, he was seconded to the US Department of State, where he supported the development of policy to prevent, deter, and respond to the use of chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq. Previously, he was an adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (2014) and a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (2007-2011).
Job Titles:
- Visiting Fellow of Practice
Nina Donaghy is an international television, radio and print news correspondent. She is a Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC), which is based at the School.
Nina will use her journalistic experience working for the BBC World Service, Reuters, ITN, Fox News Channel and other international broadcast outlets to help ELAC ‘bridge the gap' between the international atrocity prevention and accountability apparatus, current war crimes investigations and the global media.
Specifically, Nina is working with Federica D'Alessandra and Dapo Akande on atrocity prevention tools for journalists and on developing a more collaborative relationship between journalists, legal experts and policymakers. Her work will contribute to early warnings, prevention and accountability - supporting the Anchoring Accountability for Mass Atrocity and the Prevention in a Transatlantic Setting projects.
Nina holds three citizenships - United States, United Kingdom and Ireland.
She began her career as a London-based producer for ITN and Reuters, moving to the BBC World Service to cover South and Central Asia for The World Today. She relocated to Washington DC for several years to serve as Fox News Channel's reporter based at the US Department of State, covering the tenures of Secretaries Rice and Clinton. Fox then assigned her to Jerusalem to cover the wider Middle East during the Arab Spring. Most recently, she was based in New York covering the United Nations for various international news outlets, where she reported extensively on the accountability efforts of the IIIM, IIMM and UNITAD for Syria, Myanmar and Iraq.
Nina holds an MA in English Literature from St Hilda's College, Oxford and spent a year as a postgraduate Special Student at Harvard's John F Kennedy School of Government, specialising in press and public policy. Nina serves on the board of Cinemagic, an international NGO providing training for young people in the film and TV industry.
Job Titles:
- Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy
- Research Fellow
During the 2018-2019 academic year, Rebecca was a Postdoctoral Researcher on the ERC-funded Individualization of War (IOW) project. She was appointed as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, in the Blavatnik School of Government. In addition contributing to the ongoing work of the IOW project, Rebecca engaged in scholarship on war, international law, and the protection of war-affected populations.
Rebecca is a Canadian lawyer, with a Juris Doctor from the University of Toronto and an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development from SOAS. From 2014-2018 she carried out doctoral studies at the London School of Economics, with the support of scholarships from the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Rebecca's doctoral research project examined how international humanitarian actors engage with International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in their everyday practices. This project drew on original empirical material gathered through fieldwork in South Sudan and at global civil-military trainings. In 2016, Rebecca was a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Visiting Fellow on Professor Anne Orford's Civil War, Intervention, and International Law project at Melbourne Law School.
Previously, Rebecca was a practitioner in the field of humanitarian aid and human rights. From 2009-2011 she was based in Darfur, Sudan, as Country Director for the NGO War Child Canada. In this role she oversaw the organization's youth-focused programming in the areas of civilian protection, education, livelihoods, and peacebuilding. As a law student, Rebecca engaged in research and advocacy on the rights of female prisoners with mental health issues. As an Arthur C. Helton Fellow, she conducted life history interviews with detainees deemed to be ‘illegal foreigners' in South Africa.
Rebecca is an Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and has taught courses in criminal law, humanitarianism, and IHL at institutions such as the LSE, the University of Western Ontario, and SOAS. Rebecca's scholarship has been published in academic journals such as the National Journal of Constitutional Law, Criminal Law Quarterly, Citizenship Studies, Refuge, and the Canadian Graduate Journal of Sociology and Criminology. She also writes about IHL for the general public, contributing to forums such as International Law Grrrls Blog and The Conversation. Rebecca continues to engage with frontline practitioners, facilitating trainings in international law and humanitarian ethics for NATO soldiers, UN peacekeepers, and humanitarian aid workers.
Rhiannon was a Research Assistant and Consultant for ELAC and IPS' Atrocity Prevention Network between 2019 and 2021. She obtained her PhD from the University of New South Wales in 2021 and is now a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian National University. Rhiannon's research focus is on atrocity prevention in the digital age and contemporary political philosophy. Her doctoral thesis, supervised by Professor Toni Erskine, examines the ethics of ‘cyber-humanitarian interventions' - that is, the use of sophisticated cyberspace-operations, digital political advertising, and computational propaganda to protect vulnerable populations from mass atrocity crimes. In 2019, Rhiannon was awarded a Barbara Hale Fellowship by the Australian Federation of Graduate Women to be a visiting doctoral student at the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR), Oxford, for 2019-2020 (supported by Professor Cécile Fabre). Rhiannon was also awarded a fully funded Visiting Scholar position at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (2019), where she and her co-author conducted extensive fieldwork interviews with cyber experts from NATO member states. Her published work has appeared in international peer-reviewed journals including Ethics and International Affairs (forthcoming 2020), Terrorism and Political Violence (2019), and Genocide Studies and Prevention (2015)
Dr Ross James Gildea is a Visiting Scholar at the Blavatnik School of Government. He is affiliated to the Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security, at the Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict. At the Blavatnik School, Dr Gildea will be working with Federica D'Alessandra on several work streams. These include a project on Values and Multilateralism in Foreign Policy - with the support of the Alfred Landecker Programme - which examines the values which underpin multilateral cooperation in international politics. Dr Gildea will also contribute to ongoing research at ELAC on the relationship between advanced technologies and mass atrocity prevention and response.
Dr Gildea currently holds the position of Fulbright Scholar at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University. His research at Columbia covers several themes, including the concept of trauma in international relations, atrocity prevention, transnational movements and NGOs, and political psychology.
Prior to joining the School as a Visiting Scholar, Dr Gildea was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security. He holds a DPhil in International Relations (2021) from the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford. His dissertation was awarded the 2022 Bapsybanoo Marchioness of Winchester Prize, which is given for an outstanding thesis on international relations.
Dr Ross James Gildea is a Visiting Scholar at the Blavatnik School of Government. He is affiliated to the Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security, at the Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict. At the Blavatnik ... Read more
Ryan Xavier D'Souza was a visiting fellow with the Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security at the Blavatnik School of Government's Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict between 2019-2020. Prior to joining Oxford, he served with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia, working in the Rule of Law and Security Institutions section. During his assignment, he established a platform through which the UN mission could engage Somali women groups on security and justice reform issues.
Before deploying to Somalia, he led advocacy and policy at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect in New York. During his time with the Centre, he managed major campaigns at the UN on the Kigali Principles on the Protection of Civilians and UN Security Council veto restraint. He also supported efforts to establish an accountability mechanism to bring Da'esh to justice for crimes in northern Iraq against the Yazidis. His commentary and analysis have been disseminated on major outlets, including the New York Times, Association Press and Al Jazeera.
At ELAC, Ryan's research focussed on atrocity prevention, the protection of civilians, and UN Peacekeeping. In particular, he looked at the operational compatibility of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine and the Protection of Civilians agenda, and how to improve implementation of the doctrine by UN Peace Operations.
Ryan is a graduate of New York University and the University of Edinburgh. He has previously also worked for a UK parliamentarian and the British Council in London, UK, and as a teacher in Beirut, Lebanon.
Job Titles:
- Research Projects Manager
Sarah joined the Blavatnik School in March 2019 as part of the finance team, before moving to the role of Research Projects Manager (ELAC and Banklash) in August 2020.
She holds a Logistics degree from the University of South Africa and has previously worked in the financial industry in both Cape Town and South Africa, as well as in Bath, before joining the University.
Job Titles:
- Visiting Fellow of Practice
Sareta Ashraph is a barrister specialised in international criminal and humanitarian law. She is currently a Senior Legal Consultant on projects directed towards furthering accountability efforts for crimes committed in Syria and ... Read more
Sareta Ashraph is a barrister specialised in international criminal and humanitarian law. She is currently a Senior Legal Consultant on projects directed towards furthering accountability efforts for crimes committed in Syria and Iraq, and a Visiting Fellow with the Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict group at the Blavatnik School of Government. Until August 2019, Sareta was based in Iraq as the Senior Analyst on UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da'esh. In 2017, Sareta was part of the start-up team of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (Syria IIIM). From May 2012 to November 2016, she served as the Chief Legal Analyst on the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria. In 2011 to 2012, Sareta served as the Analyst on the Commission of Inquiry on Libya, examining allegations of violations of international law by pro-Qadhafi forces, anti-Qadhafi forces, and NATO. In 2010 and 2011, Sareta was the Legal Adviser to the ICC's Defence Office. From 2004 to 2009, Sareta was Defence Co-Counsel before the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Sareta is an associate member of Garden Court Chambers (London), and is called to the Bar of England and Wales, as well as the Bar of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
Job Titles:
- Associate Legal Officer at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
- Visiting Fellow of Practice
Shannon Raj Singh is an American attorney specialized in international criminal law. She is a Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, where she is researching the prevention of mass atrocities. Specifically, Shannon is working with Federica D'Alessandra, Executive Director of Oxford's International Peace and Security Program, to articulate the due diligence obligations of States from the moment they receive early warnings of mass atrocities, and to set forth policy prescriptions regarding the domestic implementation of preventive obligations under international law. Shannon's work builds upon her appointment as Special Rapporteur on the ILC Draft Articles for Crimes Against Humanity on behalf of the International Bar Association's War Crimes Committee, and her advocacy in support of the draft convention.
Shannon is also an Associate Legal Officer at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague, where she advises the five judges of the Appeals Chamber and the Office of the President on the world's first terrorism case before an international court. Shannon has previous experience working with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, South Africa's Institute for Justice & Reconciliation, and clerking for a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Previously, she was a litigator in San Francisco, where she focused her practice on international investigations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. She is licensed to practice in California, where she has appeared before both state and federal courts.
Stephen is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford, where he works under Professor Alexander Betts at the Refugee Studies Centre. His ethnographic research examines stereotype threat, criminality and the demonization of ... Read more
Job Titles:
- Senior Visiting Fellow of Practice
Stephen Rapp is Senior Visiting Fellow of Practice with the Blavatnik School's Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict's Programme on International Peace and Security. At the Blavatnik School, he is co-leading - with Federica ... Read more
Job Titles:
- Founder of Dosti Network
- Visiting Scholar
Summia Tora is the founder of Dosti Network, an organisation focused on providing Afghans access to resources and information to flee persecution and access global support networks. In August 2020 after the fall of the Afghan ... Read more
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Associate Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government
Tom Simpson is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow at Wadham College. He is an AHRC/BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinker for ... Read more
Tsvetelina is a DPhil candidate in public international law at Merton College. Her DPhil, supervised by Professor Dapo Akande, focuses on the regulation of accidents and mistakes under the law of armed conflict and international ... Read more