GC Human Rights Preparedness
- Home
- Blog
- GC Human Rights Preparedness
- Meet the Team
GCHR Preparedness Menu
GC Human Rights Preparedness
Meet the Team
Our team reflects the multiregional and multi-layered nature of our network and includes:
- the editors: they lead the initiative, communicating with contributors and prospective contributors about matters such as the initiative’s scope and approach; coordinating the light-touch review process and completing light editing; publishing the submissions, and promoting them via the Global Campus website and social media channels.
- the reviewers: they provide light-touch reviews focused on relevance, fairness and accuracy.
- the advisors: they provide guidance, eg, they may recommend a specific blog or interview series, or propose a virtual roundtable to highlight a particular issue or foreground a dimension related to the Global Campus’ unique character.
- the regional correspondents: they are graduates of our regional master’s programmes and contribute with posts building the human rights-based approach to pandemics and/or other emergencies/crises in their respective regions.
Editors & Reviewers
Chiara Altafin, GC Headquarters, Lead Editor
Thérèse Murphy, Queen's University Belfast
Veronica Gomez, University of San Martin, Buenos Aires
Kalliope Agapiou-Josephides, University of Cyprus
Iryna Bakhcheva, Yerevan State University
Rocío Comas, University of San Martin, Buenos Aires
Primrose Kurasha, University of Pretoria
Mike Hayes, Mahidol University
Marija Ivanović, University of Sarajevo
Yousra Abourabi, International University of Rabat
Rosie Cowan, Queen’s University Belfast
Yousra Abourabi
International University of Rabat
Yousra Abourabi in assistant professor of political science and international relations at Sciences Po Rabat, International University of Rabat. She holds a Phd from Université Jean Moulin Lyon.
Her research is focused on Morocco's foreign policy and African governance in the areas of Climate Change, Gender, Migration and Security. She has published numerous papers as well as two books: "Maroc", De Boeck 2019, and "La politique africaine du Maroc. Identité de Rôle et Projection de Puissance", Brill 2020.
She is visiting professor at Sciences Po Grenoble and Saint Joseph University Beirut. She is also a member of the Political Affairs cluster of the Economic, Social and Cultural Cluster of the African Union, and former Fellow of the Käte Hamburger Center ‘Law as Culture’.
Iryna Bakhcheva
Yerevan State University
Iryna Bakhcheva (Ukraine) is a human rights professional with a strong background in international project management. She has 8+ years of experience at the intersection of economic development, human rights and migration. Her international career includes successful implementation of the humanitarian projects for refugees and IDPs, non-formal education initiatives for youth and adults as well as policy analyses and policy development projects and consultancies.
She holds an International Master's in Global Markets, Local from the University of Glasgow (UK), University of Göttingen (Germany), and University of Barcelona (Spain), a Master's in Human Rights and Democratisation in the Caucasus (CES) from the Yerevan State University (Armenia) and Tbilisi State University (Georgia), and a Bachelor in Finance and Credit (State Finance Management) from the Dnipro State Financial Academy (Ukraine).
Kalliope Agapiou-Josephides
GC Human Rights Prearedness Founding Editor
Kalliope Agapiou Josephides, PhD in Political Science, Paris I Panthéon - Sorbonne University, is a Jean Monnet Chair holder (2001) and Assistant Professor at the University of Cyprus. She sits on the Council of the Global Campus of Human Rights and is the European Master’s Director for the University of Cyprus.
She served as chair of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EU Agency) and Vice- President of the European Inter University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation. She is a founding member of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network, and a member of the scientific advisory board of the European Yearbook of Human Rights.
She has a great interest, and long experience, in the nexus of human rights and gender equality. She has participated in and led several national and international research projects. She served as lead author in the United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty and the European Parliament study on Women’s Rights During Democratic Transitions. She has served as academic convener/speaker at high-level international events and has taught/delivered lectures around the world.
Rocío Comas
University of San Martin, Buenos Aires
Rocío works as a Children's Rights Regional Officer in Latin America & the Caribbean mainly to ensure the mainstreaming of children’s rights within GC LATMA’s activities. She also supports the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty follow-up initiation process by organising activities related to children’s rights within the region.
Rocío is conducting a PhD at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, Germany as a fellow scholar for the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Prior to this, she obtained a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a Master’s in Human Rights and Democratization at the University of San Martin (Cohorte 2014-15).
Following her Masters, she published her thesis ‘Gender and the best interests of the Child in the Administration of Justice: Case Analysis in Argentina’. She also gained experience as a human rights consultant at the Regional Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Chile, working specifically on the promotion and protection of human rights through the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism.
She has published articles in the field of migration, children's rights, enforced disappearances, economic, social and cultural rights, the UN Agenda 2030, and the right to food.
Chiara Altafin
GC Human Rights Preparedness Lead Editor
Dr. Chiara Altafin is Research Manager at the Global Campus Headquarters in Venice, where she worked as senior researcher on the FP7 project FRAME 'Fostering Human Rights Among European (External and Internal) Policies', and as one of the lead researchers on the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, serving as lead author in one of its chapters. She leads the Global Study component of the project ACRiSL ‘Advancing Child Rights Strategic Litigation’. She has been a teaching fellow for the European Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation since September 2015.
She holds a PhD in International Law and an LLM in Comparative, European and International Laws, both from the European University Institute (EUI), and a Master’s in Rule of Law, Democracy and Human Rights from LUISS University. She graduated cum laude at the Law Department of Roma Tre University and has been admitted to the Italian Bar.
Dr. Altafin’s main research interests are: children’s rights; economic, social and cultural rights in times of crisis, including in contexts of armed conflict and occupation; business and human rights; social justice; environmental and climate justice; and governance.
Primrose Kurasha
University of Pretoria
Dr. Primrose E.R. Kurasha is an International Law expert who holds her professional certification from the International Court of Justice's Hague Academy of International Law. Her other professional certifications are from the University of Salzburg, Austria, the Pretoria Bar of Advocates and the Centre for Human Rights. She has also served as a board member.
She holds an LLD (Doctor of Laws) in Private International Law from the University of Pretoria, which is where she also completed her other degrees namely, a BA Law (majoring in International Relations), an LLB and an LLM in International Trade and Investment Law in Africa.
Dr. Kurasha's research and teaching is centred around the interaction of trans-national business and human rights, specifically with regard to the human right implications of establishing an independent international commercial court in South Africa for the resolution of cross-border/trans-national commercial disputes.
Veronica Gomez
University of San Martin, Buenos Aires
Professor Veronica Gomez is President of the Global Campus of Human Rights.
She is professor of law at the University of San Martin (UNSAM). She is director for education at Global Campus Latin America (LATMA) in Buenos Aires (2011-). She is responsible for various international human rights programmes with the participation of regional stakeholders. She holds a degree in international law (UBA) and an LLM (Nottingham).
Her field of expertise is in the area of international and regional protection of human rights, and genetics and human rights.
Her professional path includes her role as Principal Specialist at the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights of the Organisation of American States in Washington DC (1998-2009) and as a Senior Advisor on Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina (2010-2011).
Mike Hayes
Mahidol University
Dr Mike Hayes is a lecturer at the Institute for Human Rights and Peace Studies at Mahidol University's Salaya Campus. He is the programme chair of APMA, the Asia Pacific Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation.
He has been active in developing the capacity of lecturers to teach and research human rights at higher education institutions in Southeast Asia.
His research interests include migration, non-citizens and human rights advocacy.
Thérèse Murphy
GC Human Rights Prearedness Founding Editor
Thérèse Murphy is professor of law and director of the Health & Human Rights Unit at Queen’s University Belfast. She is also chairperson of the European Master's on Human Rights and Democratisation, and serves on the Council of the Global Campus of Human Rights. A former Fulbright fellow, she studied law at University College Dublin and the University of Cambridge, and was admitted to the bar at King’s Inns, Dublin.
Her field of expertise is human rights law and practice, with particular interests in health, science and technology, and human rights method.
She is a member of the editorial board of the Human Rights Law Review, associate editor of BMC International Health & Human Rights and co-editor of the Bloomsbury/Hart book series, Law and Health. She sits on the Moral & Ethical Advisory Group established by the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care.
Marija Ivanović
University of Sarajevo
Marija Ivanović works as Academic Tutor at the ERMA programme, where she assists the Academic Coordinator in the implementation and development of the academic side of the master’s programme. Likewise, she supports students throughout their studies and teaches academic writing.
Besides this, Marija held junior research positions at the Institute for Advanced Studies (iASK) where her chapter on memory and populism in Mostar was published in an edited book by Routledge; in the UN Economic Commission for Latin America & the Caribbean; and most recently she wrote a contribution for the Rosa Luxembourg Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
She holds MA degrees from Nationalism Studies (CEU); ERMA - Democracy and Human Rights in Southeast Europe (University of Sarajevo & University of Bologna); and Latin America Studies (Universidad Alberto Hurtado).
Rosie Cowan
Queen’s University Belfast
Rosie Cowan is the English language editor of the Global Campus-Human Rights Preparedness blog and mentors its regional correspondents.
Rosie has 20 years’ experience as a news and investigative journalist. A former Guardian Ireland correspondent, she documented the Northern Irish peace process and filed ground-breaking reports revealing security force collusion with loyalist paramilitaries and unmasking IRA double agent Freddie ‘Stakeknife’ Scappaticci. As the Guardian crime correspondent, she covered the 7/7 London bombings in 2005 and the erroneous police shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in their aftermath, plus numerous other major stories, including probes into the illegal drugs trade and gang killings. She was previously deputy Ireland editor and Irish political editor of leading UK news agency, the Press Association, and business editor of Northern Ireland’s largest daily newspaper, the Belfast Telegraph, where she started her journalism career as a graduate trainee.
Rosie has an MA (Hons) in English Literature from Edinburgh University and a Masters in Law (with distinction) from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) in 2018, where she is currently undertaking a PhD. Her doctoral thesis focuses on juror decision-making in rape trials and she is particularly interested in gender equality, criminal justice processes and the psychology of law.
GCHQ Support Team
Gaia Balbo, GC Headquarters
Stefania Saccarola, GC Headquarters
Gaia Balbo
GC Headquarters
Gaia joined the Global Campus in 2018. She is responsible for designing, implementing and monitoring digital marketing campaigns in collaboration with the IT and Web Marketing Officer. She is in charge of regularly updating the GC Human Rights Preparedness blog.
Gaia also assists in the uploading of content on the GC website. She collaborates with the Fundraising, PR and Communication Department by managing the Global Campus Instagram account.
Gaia holds a bachelor’s degree in Language, Civilisation and the Science of Language and a master’s degree in International Relations, both from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. She gained learning experience in Portugal and Brazil and work experience in Russia.
Stefania Saccarola
GC Headquarters
Stefania started working for GC Europe / EMA in 2001. She literally built the library from scratch and developed it through the years as a highly specialized research library. In parallel, she has continuously adopted new technology aimed at enhancing access and usability.
She is the main reference person for the Global Campus Open Knowledge Repository, institutional publications and copyright issues.
Stefania holds a MA in Librarianship and Cultural Heritage Preservation and worked as a library assistant at the University of Bologna and the National Library Marciana in Venice.
Advisory Board
Ayodele Atsenuwa, University of Lagos
Frans Viljoen, University of Pretoria
Karim Bitar, Saint Joseph University of Beirut
Ravi Prakash Vyas, Kathmandu School of Law
Amalinda Savirani, Universitas Gadjah Mada
Ashot Aleksanyan, Yerevan State University
Kristine Gevorgyan, Yerevan State University
Hans-Joachim Heintze, Ruhr University of Bochum
Orla Ní Cheallacháin, GC Headquarters
Carlos Joel Zelada Acuna, Universidad del Pacífico
Roberta Camineiro Baggio, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Anna Krasteva, New Bulgarian University
Asim Mujkić, University of Sarajevo
George Ulrich, GC Headquarters
Ayodele Atsenuwa
University of Lagos
Ayodele Atsenuwa is Professor of Law at the University of Lagos and a member of the network that delivers the Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa.
Her research interests are human rights, gender and the law, criminal law and criminal justice, and health law.
She is a member of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers and the African Consortium on Law and Religion. Her publications include ‘Promoting sexual and reproductive rights through legislative interventions: a case study of child rights legislation and early marriage in Nigeria’ in Ngwena and Durojaiye (eds), Strengthening Protection of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the African Region through Human Rights (Pretoria: PULP, 2014).
Frans Viljoen
University of Pretoria
Professor Frans Viljoen is director of the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria. He is the Programme Director of the Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa, and a vice-president of the Global Campus of Human Rights. He studied law at the University of Pretoria and Cambridge University.
His research area is international human rights law, with a focus on the African regional human rights system.
He is editor of the African Human Rights Law Journal, the African Human Rights Yearbook and Global Campus Human Rights Journal.
Karim Bitar
University of Rabat
Karim Emile Bitar is acting director of the Institute of Political Science at the Saint Joseph University of Beirut (USJ) and director of the Arab Master's in Democracy and Human Rights.
He is a professor of international relations at USJ, at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (ENS) and at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Paris.
He is an associate fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Switzerland, and the editor of L’ENA hors les murs, a monthly public affairs magazine. He is an alumnus of France’s Ecole Nationale d’Administration (Cyrano de Bergerac Cohort, 1997-1999).
Ravi Prakash Vyas
Kathmandu School of Law
Ravi Prakash Vyas is an assistant professor of international law and human rights at Kathmandu School of Law. He is also programme coordinator of the Asia Pacific Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation. Previously, he worked as a consultant (proceedings) at the National Human Rights Commission of India.
He is a qualified advocate eligible to practice in the Supreme Court of India. He holds a law degree from India and a master’s in human rights and democratisation from the University of Sydney.
He is executive director at the Asian Association of Law Professors and managing editor of Kathmandu School of Law Review.
Amalinda Savirani
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Amalinda Savirani is an associate professor at the Department of Politics and Government in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the Universitas Gadjah Mada. She has served as head of department since 2016.
Her research interests cover issues of social and political movement among marginal groups such as the urban poor, labour, and women’s political participation, and their linkages to political representative institutions.
She has been a visiting fellow at the Australian National University and the University of Melbourne.
Ashot Aleksanyan
Yerevan State University
Ashot Aleksanyan is a Doctor of Politics, Professor at the Chair of Theory and History of Political Science of Faculty of International Relations, as well as Lecturer and Expert of the Center for European Studies of Yerevan State University.
His main interests are civil society, social partnership, and political rights and freedoms.
He has been a DAAD-Visiting Scientist at the Institute of Political Science of Leibniz University of Hannover (2002, 2003, 2008, 2009), the Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science of Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich (2013) and the Institute for East European Studies of Free University of Berlin (2016), as well as the EU Erasmus Mundus «ALRAKIS» project Visiting Scientist at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2012) and the EU Erasmus Mundus «EMBER» project Visiting Scientist at the Institute of Political Science of the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena (2016-2019).
Kristine Gevorgyan
Yerevan State University
Kristine Gevorgyan is coordinator of the Global Campus Caucasus programme at the Centre for European Studies, Yerevan State University.
She holds a Master’s degree in Euroculture from Uppsala University, and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in English Philology from Yerevan State University.
Her research interests are cognitive linguistics, memory, linguistic rights and education. She is a member of the Erasmus+ Higher Education Reform Experts’ group (Armenia).
Hans-Joachim Heintze
Ruhr University of Bochum
Hans-Joachim Heintze is professor of international law at the Ruhr University of Bochum. He is vice-chair of the European Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation, and Bochum's director of the European Master’s programme Network on Humanitarian Action. He sits on the board of the European Master’s programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in South East Europe (Sarajevo).
He studied law and published a doctoral thesis on the law of state succession. He joined the Ruhr University in 1990 and teaches at the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict.
His research interests are human rights, international humanitarian law and disaster response law.
Orla Ní Cheallacháin
GC Headquarters
Dr Orla Ní Cheallacháin is the Programme Director of the European Master’s degree in Human Rights and Democratisation at the Global Campus of Human Rights, Venice.
She holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations from University College Dublin where she was a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholar, funded by the Irish Research Council. She also holds an MSc (Econ) in Terrorism and International Relations from Aberystwyth University, Wales and a BA in History and Italian from University College Cork, Ireland.
Her research interests include critical approaches to security (and political violence in particular), the role of gender in peace and conflict, critical discourse analysis, and political theory. Her PhD examined the role of the UK House of Commons in the normalisation of emergency counter-terrorism laws. She is also interested in how diverse ‘ways of knowing’ shape expertise and knowledge production.
Carlos Joel Zelada Acuna
Universidad del Pacífico
Carlos J. Zelada is chair of the Academic Department of Law at the Universidad del Pacífico where he teaches international and human rights law. He is a member of the scientific committee of LATMA, the Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation in Latin America and the Caribbean.
He is a graduate (Abogado) from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and holds a Master of Laws degree from Harvard University.
Professor Zelada’s research uses interdisciplinary materials from sociology, history and social theory to explore issues of development and structural discrimination.
Roberta Camineiro Baggio
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Roberta Camineiro Baggio is Professor at the Law School at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Brazil, and a professor within the Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Latin America and the Caribbean (LATMA), which is part of the Global Campus of Human Rights.
She graduated in law at the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU), has a master’s in law from the Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS), and a PhD in law from the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC).
Her research interests are constitutionalism in Latin America, and migration and refugees.
She is the coordinator of the Chair Sérgio Vieira de Mello (UNHCR) and the Clinical Law and Support Group for Immigrants and Refugees (GAIRE) at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.
Anna Krasteva
Policy and Citizens's Observatory: Migration, Digitalization, Climate
Anna Krasteva is professor and member of the Board of ERMA (University of Sarajevo and University of Bologna), and a doctor honoris causa of the University of Lille. She led the Global Campus project, ‘Securitization and its impact on human rights and human security’.
Her main fields of research and teaching are migration policies and politics, far-right populism and youth extremism, and civic mobilisations and citizenship.
She is editor-in-chief of Southeastern Europe, and a member of the editorial board of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. Her recent publications include the co-edited book, Citizens’ Activism and Solidarity Movements: Contending with Populism.
Asim Mujkić
University of Sarajevo
Asim Mujkić is a full professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Sarajevo, and co-director of ERMA, the European Regional Master’s Programme in Democracy and Human Rights in South East Europe.
He teaches philosophy, and ethics and the political elites.
George Ulrich
GC Headquarter
Professor George Ulrich is Academic Director of the Global Campus of Human Rights. Previously, from 2009-2016, he was Rector and Professor of Human Rights at the Riga Graduate School of Law. He studied philosophy at the University of Toronto, and social anthropology and history of ideas at Aarhus University.
His research interests include the history and philosophy of human rights, human rights diplomacy, human rights and development cooperation, health and human rights, international medical ethics, and ethics for human rights professionals.
A key focus of his teaching is to equip students to effectively engage with expressions of human rights scepticism.
Featuring our Alumni as Regional Correspondents
We are always delighted when our alumni contribute to Human Rights Preparedness. To increase opportunities to participate, we have a paid training scheme through which our alumni can apply to be appointed as regional correspondents. They can also build on their work for the blog to submit an article to the Global Campus Human Rights Journal.
We run competitions to select these alumni correspondents. Those selected--from each Global Campus region--then complete training with Rosie Cowan, a member of our editorial team.
The publications they prepare are incisive and informative, displaying the range and depth of skills and interests that characterise Global Campus alumni.
Johnson Mayamba Banziyanga
GC Africa alumnus
Johnson Mayamba is an Ugandan human rights journalist and media trainer. He is a 2021-2022 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at Arizona State University.
Johnson is an alumnus of the Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa (HRDA).
Jasmin Lilian Diab
GC Arab World alumna
Dr. Jasmin Lilian Diab is the Director of the Institute for Migration Studies, an Assistant Professor of Migration Studies, and the Coordinator of the Migration Studies Program at the Lebanese American University. She has served as a Visiting Professor at the UN-mandated University for Peace, and is a Global Fellow at Brown University's Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies.
Jasmin is an alumna of the Arab Master’s Programme in Democracy and Human Rights (ARMA).
Khadija Mohamed Embaby
GC Arab World alumna
Khadija Embaby is a PhD candidate at the Berlin Graduate School for Muslim Cultures and Societies. Her current research covers post Arab Spring politics, energy justice in the middle east and the anthropology of religion in Egypt.
Khadija is an alumna of the Arab Master’s Programme in Democracy and Human Rights (ARMA).
Visalaakshi Annamalai
GC Asia Pacific alumna
Visalaakshi Annamalai is a researcher in labour mobility, migration, gender, climate change and refugee issues in Asia-Pacific. She is pursuing her Master of Public Administration from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Previously she was a consultant for the International Organization for Migration. She also worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Labour Organization among others.
Visala is an alumna of the Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Asia Pacific (APMA).
Iryna Bakhcheva
GC Caucasus alumna
Iryna Bakhcheva (Ukraine) works in a developmental project. Her professional interests lie at the intersection of economic development, human rights and Eastern European studies.
Iryna is an alumna of the Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in the Caucasus (CES).
Maria Kol’tsova
GC Caucasus alumna
Maria Kol’tsova is a Russian journalist and communication specialist in the non-governmental sector. Her main interests include reporting on human rights issues, NGOs and post-Soviet studies.
Maria is an alumna of the Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in the Caucasus (CES).
Gema Ocaña Noriega
GC Europe alumna
Gema Ocaña Noriega is a PhD candidate at Queen´s University Belfast and member of the Health and Human Rights Unit where she is developing her PhD on Privatisation of Health Care and its Compatibility with International Human Rights Law. Gema is a member of the Global Health Law Groningen Research Centre and works as senior advisor in EU research affairs at the University of Groningen.
Gema is an alumna of the European Master’s Programme on Human Rights and Democratisation (EMA).
Ezequiel Fernandez
GC Latin America-Caribbean alumnus
Ezequiel Fernandez is an Argentinian anthropologist, journalist and university lecturer. Currently he is researching his PhD on human mobility and public policies with a perspective of social anthropology at the University of San Martin, in Argentina. In 2020, he was a finalist in the Gabriel García Márquez journalism awards and in 2021 he won the International Organization for Migration’s South American journalism award.
Ezequiel is an alumnus of the Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Latin American and the Caribbean (LATMA).
Ana Funa
GC South-East Europe alumna
Ana Funa graduated in Law from Bitola, North Macedonia. Her research interests cover execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, transitional justice, gender and minority rights.
Ana is an alumna of the European Regional Master’s Programme in Democracy and Human Rights in South-East Europe (ERMA).