Associate Fellows
Adam Etinson
In the summer of 2011, Adam Etinson finished a DPhil degree in Philosophy at the University of Oxford. His thesis, entitled “Human Rights and the Problem of Ethnocentrism”, defended an epistemological interpretation of the problem of ethnocentrism, and outlined two limited respects in which ethnocentrism can be avoided in moral argument. It was supervised by Professors Jeremy Waldron, John Tasioulas, and Roger Crisp.
During the 2011-2012 academic year, Etinson was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Research in Ethics at the University of Montreal (CRÉUM), as well as a Course Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at McGill University.
Although he works mainly in the philosophy of human rights, he also has research interests in related areas of moral and political philosophy, including theories of liberalism, toleration, cosmopolitanism, and moral epistemology.
Grégoire Webber
Grégoire Webber is a Lecturer in Law at the LSE. He is a graduate of McGill University with bachelors of civil law and common law and of the University of Oxford with a doctorate in law. Dr Webber clerked for Justice André Rochon of the Quebec Court of Appeal and Justice Ian Binnie of the Supreme Court of Canada. While at Oxford, he held a Trudeau Scholarship and tutored in comparative human rights and convened the Human Rights Discussion Group.
Prior to joining the LSE, Dr Webber was senior policy advisor with the Privy Council Office (the Canadian equivalent to the Cabinet Office), where he advised the Government of Canada on matters of constitutional policy with a focus on electoral and parliamentary reform. Dr Webber is co-founder and Executive Director of the Supreme Court Advocacy Institute, which provides free advocacy advice to counsel appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada. He is a qualified barrister and solicitor with the Law Society of Upper Canada.
Visiting Fellows 2013
Béatrice Vizkelety
Béatrice Vizkelety, B.A, B.C.L., LL.M., is a human rights lawyer with extensive experience in litigation and as Director of the Legal Department and Secretary of the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse du Québec. She is presently a Visiting Fellow at the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.
Member of the Quebec Bar since 1975, she specializes in Discrimination Law and Equality and has frequently appeared before courts and tribunals. She acted on behalf of the Commission before the Supreme Court of Canada in Bergevin on the issue of religious discrimination and the duty of reasonable accommodation, in City of Montreal regarding the definition of «handicap» and «disability» under human rights legislation, and more recently in Via Rail confirming the rights of persons with disabilities to independent access to transportation.
Béatrice was also lead counsel in Gaz Métropolitain inc., a case recently upheld by the Quebec Court of Appeal involving systemic discrimination against women seeking access to jobs in a male-dominated workplace. She has been a frequent speaker on human rights and equality both nationally and internationally. Her publications include Proving Discrimination in Canada (1987) and current research involves systemic discrimination and public interest litigation.
Visiting Fellows 2011-2012
Benedict Wray
Benedict Wray graduated in Law from the universities of King’s College London and Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne.
After becoming a barrister of the Middle Temple he won a PhD scholarship to attend the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. His research focuses on the legal regulation of transnational corporate harm, with particular emphasis on normative conflict and the role of justice and human rights.
He is the co-author of ‘Corporations and Social Environmental Justice: The Role of Private International Law’ (with Claire Staath, EUI WP LAW 2012/02), and ‘False Extraterritoriality? Municipal and Multinational Jurisdiction over Transnational Corporations’ (with Rosa Raffaelli, forthcoming, Human Rights and International Legal Discourse, 2012). In addition to his research interests, he is currently the editor-in-chief of the online, EUI-based, peer-reviewed journal, the European Journal of Legal Studies (www.ejls.eu).
Macarena Iribarne
Macarena Iribarne has worked at the Carlos III de Madrid University since March 2008. Her responsibilities are teaching and research in Jurisprudence, Human Rights (with special emphasis on the rights of women) and Feminist Theory.
She has a "Cum Laude" European Ph. D. in Human Rights from Carlos III de Madrid University. Her thesis, entitled: "Flora Tristán y la Tradición del Feminismo Socialista" (Flora Tristán and the Socialist Feminism Tradition) was awarded the Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado of Carlos III de Madrid University.
She is a member of the Grupo de Investigación sobre el Derecho y la Justicia (Research Group on Law and Justice) and has participated in several research projects in the field of Human Rights. She is currently developing a research project on the enforcement of human rights in private spaces (Drittwirkung) in order to guarantee the effectiveness of women's human rights.
Sofie Johannesson
Sofie Amalie Johannessen is from Denmark and doing her B.A in Anthropology at Copenhagen University.
Sofie is currently doing an internship at McGill’s Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and plans to continue her studies at Lund University, Sweden, at the Institute of Human Rights.
Previously, she was involved in an international relation project on corruption and equality between Ukraine, Poland, Moldova and Denmark. Also, she worked as a tutor in Guatemala, teaching English and math and helping orphans to get an education and improve their quality of life. Recently she has been engaged in several NGOs with a focus on asylum seekers, women's and children's rights.
Banting Postdoctoral Fellows
Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer
Jean-Baptiste conducts interdisciplinary research on the theory and ethics of international relations and on international public law. In particular, he studies the ethics and laws of war, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law.
Jean-Baptiste holds degrees in three different disciplines: philosophy (BA, MA, PhD), law (LLB, LLM), and political science (PhD). He has studied at the Sorbonne, the Université de Montréal, Oxford University, McGill University, Yale University, the Universiteit van Amsterdam, and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris). His doctoral thesis, Au nom de l'humanité ? Histoire, droit, éthique et politique de l'intervention militaire justifiée par des raisons humanitaires (2009), has received three awards in Canada and France.
He has taught at the Université de Montréal and Sciences Po Paris. Before coming to McGill, he was a Lecturer in international relations at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. He has published a dozen of books on topics including reparations to victims before the International Criminal Court (PUF, 2009), the dilemma of peace and justice and the relations between the International Criminal Court and the Security Council (Presses de Sciences Po, 2011), humanitarian intervention (PUF, 2012, prefaced by Hubert Védrine) and the ethics of international relations (PUF, 2012, prefaced by Stanley Hoffmann). A former Attaché to the French embassy in Turkmenistan, he is also the author of two books on this central asian dictatorship.
He now holds a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, under which he is conducting research on the ethical and legal consequences of the changing nature of war in the 21st century, and in particular on autonomous military robots.
Personal website: www.jbjv.com
O'Brien Fellows in Residence
Justice Anthony Francis Tissa Fernando, Court of Appeal, Seychelles
Anthony Francis Tissa Fernando is a Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of the Seychelles, the final appellate court of that republic. Prior to his appointment to the bench in January 2009, he was the Attorney General of the Seychelles from January 1999 to December 2008.
He began his career as a State Counsel in the Attorney General’s Department of Sri Lanka in November 1979. In February 1991, he joined the Attorney General’s Department of the Seychelles as a Senior State Counsel and was subsequently promoted to the post of Principal State Counsel of Seychelles in October 1992, a post equivalent to Solicitor General and the Director of Public Prosecutions of another commonwealth jurisdiction. He has Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and was admitted as an Attorney-at-Law by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in February 1979.
Anthony Francis Tissa Fernando is also a lecturer in Criminal Law at the University of Seychelles for the LL.B. programme conducted by the University of London and a lecturer for the Young Leaders Programme (YLP) conducted by the University of Seychelles on the Seychelles Constitution, with special emphasis on the Fundamental Human Rights Charter enshrined and entrenched therein. He has also lectured in Constitutional and Public Law, the Law of Contracts and Mercantile Law at the Open University of Sri Lanka and in Criminal Law at the Sri Lanka Law College.
Justice Fernando will be in residence at the Centre from January to late March 2013. He is the second O'Brien Fellow in Residence to be welcomed at McGill.
Professor Esmeralda M.A. Thornhill, Dalhousie Law School
I worked on a two-fold research-writing project that consists of refining for publication both a study on the Fundamentals of Racism and a Compendium of 'Race' and Law in Canada. These two projects are the result of my theoretical conclusions, culled and cultivated over the years. They (each) probe a number of areas and provide me with a wealth of findings that I am open to sharing with mem
bers of the academic and non-academic communities across disciplines. Driven by my own philosophy and praxis, I would also be keen to engage with diverse sectors of the para-public and general public
under topics such as:
- Human Rights and the Challenge of 'Race'
- Understanding the "Material Reality" of Racism
- 'Race' and Law in Canada
- 'Race' and Canadian Immigration
Professor Thornhill (bio) was in residence at the Centre from October 13 to November 22, 2012. She was our first ever O'Brien Fellow in Residence.
Professor Thornhill gave a talk at the Faculty on November 9, 2012, entitled “’Race’ Literacy and the Legal Profession: An Ethical Imperative for Cap, Bar, and Bench.” Read more in the Faculty's Focus online magazine's November 2012 edition: Call to Cap, Bar and Bench.
O'Brien Graduate Fellows
- Futsum Tesfatsion Abbay (See Bio on Graduate Students page)
- Marika Giles Samson (See Bio on Graduate Students page)
- Katherine Glover (See Bio on Graduate Students page)
- Jing Guan (See Bio on Graduate Students page)
- Claris Harbon (See Bio on Graduate Students page)
- John Hursh (See Bio on Graduate Students page)
- Bethany Hastie (See Bio on Graduate Students page)
- Róisín Hennessy (See Bio on Graduate Students page)
- Sabaa Khan (See Bio on Graduate Students page)
- Amar T. Khoday (See Bio on Graduate Students page)
See our page on O’Brien Fellowships for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism for more information on the fellowships themselves, including on how to apply for one.
Aisenstadt Fellows
Thanks to a generous gift from the Nussia & André Aisenstadt Foundation the CHRLP now hosts Nussia & André Aisenstadt Student Research Fellows.
Aisenstadt Fellows provides assistance to the CHRLP to further its mandate as a centre for research and action on human rights and legal pluralism.
Fellows are involved in current Centre projects such as the compilation and editing of publications, the development of clinical legal education programs, on-going research projects, and the planning of seminar series and conferences for the forthcoming academic year.
Stéphanie Hachez, 2012 Aisenstadt Fellow
Stéphanie Hachez graduated from the University of Montreal in 2012 with a degree in law.
Her interests are public international law and immigration law. She has been published in International Legal Perspectives.
Stéphanie also holds an International Baccalaureate degree in Natural Sciences from André-Laurendeau College.
Audrey Mocle, 2012 Aisenstadt Fellow
Audrey Mocle is a first-year LLB/BCL candidate from Toronto, Ontario. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a focus in the Social Context of Business from the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill and a Master's in Human Rights from the London School of Economics.
Audrey is also a Senior Editor for the McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy.
Her research interests include the impact of corporations on human rights and environmental protection.
Benjamin Prud'homme, 2012 Aisenstadt Fellow
Benjamin Prud'homme is a Master's student at the Faculty of Law at Université de Montréal, from which he obtained his LL.B. in 2011. He also received a scholarship to study at Oxford university, where he attended international law seminars.
Benjamin co-founded and co-presides Projet Rafiki, a non-profit organization working in Tanzania which focuses on critical approaches to international cooperation. He was the recipient of a Forces Avenir award in 2011 and was selected to be a part of the International francophone finals of the Jean Pictet Competition in international humanitarian law.
His current work focuses on interdisciplinarity, legal pluralism, epistemology and pedagogy in Law faculties. Benjamin's published work ranges from many subjects including human rights and pluralism, honour killings, law and pedagogy, interdisciplinarity and international cooperation.
Rouba Al-Salem, 2011 Aisenstadt Fellow
Rouba Al-Salem is a PhD student at the Faculty of Law, University of Montreal. She has an undergraduate degree in International Relations (American University in Cairo), and holds a Master of Arts in Middle East Politics (Exeter University ), along with a Master of Law in Public International Law (London School of Economics and Political Science).
Her professional experience is focused in the area of human rights legal research, advocacy, and training. In the past, she was involved in various local and international non governmental organizations working either in, or on the Middle East, (such as Al-Haq, the Ford Foundation, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights).
Her Phd thesis relates to the Israeli High Court of Justice and the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
Myriam Dumont Robillard, 2011 Aisenstadt Fellow
After obtaining a bachelor degree in International Studies (Distinction, 2004) and her LLB (Distinction, 2009), Myriam Dumont Robillard is now pursuing a LLM at University of Montreal. She is also a member of the Quebec Bar since 2010.
Myriam's involvement in community work with caregivers in Montreal lead her to research on the regulation of domestic workers in both Canadian and International perspectives. As an Aisenstadt Fellow, she currently works at the Centre on the Equality and Community Initiative, a new project seeking to develop a framework to address systemic inequalities faced by community-based organisations in our society.
Besides the relation between community work and the law, Myriam's other areas of research and interest include labour law and the ILO, feminist legal theory, international humanitarian law as well as migration and refugee law.
Sara Ross, 2011 Aisenstadt Fellow
Sara Ross completed her BCL/LLB program with a major concentration in Commercial Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at McGill University. She served as Editor-in-Chief for Volume 56 of the McGill Law Journal and Book Review Editor for the McGill International Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy. Her two prior degrees are a BA in French and Spanish language, literature, and culture from the University of Alberta, and an Honour's BA in anthropology and archaeology from McGill University.
Following graduation Sara started clerking for the Federal Court of Canada under Justice Luc Martineau. Her current areas of research interest include Latin America, cultural heritage issues, and the use of alternative dispute resolution to resolve intercultural conflicts.
Rahtlyn Fellows
Nicholas Caivano, 2012-2013 Rathlyn Fellow
Nicholas Caivano is a BCL/LLB candidate at the Faculty of Law at McGill and also holds an Aisenstadt Fellowship at the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.
He has worked at Human Rights Watch in New York where he researched and advised UN and multilateral bodies on human rights, health law, and public international law issues. Nicholas currently serves as a law clerk at the Québec Superior Court and as an editor for the McGill Law Journal. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance from McGill where he studied on a Millennium Scholarship.
Junior Research Fellow 2010-2011
Melissa Martins Casagrande
Melissa Martins Casagrande is a Junior Fellow at the CHRLP for the 2010-2011 year. She holds a Bachelors’ of Law degree and a Masters’ degree in Public Law and Policy from the Universidade Federal do Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil. Her doctoral thesis, undertaken at the Faculty of Law, McGill University, in affiliation with the CHRLP, analysed the legal discourse regarding the implementation of the rights of indigenous and other socio-ethnic distinct peoples in Brazil.
Her current research addresses the rights of indigenous peoples and other peoples akin to them in the global and Latin American contexts; and the perception, implementation and actualization of international law at local level. Other teaching and research interests include constitutional law; international humanitarian law; legal pluralism; non-formal education, and, the intersections between women’s rights and international criminal law; and, between popular culture and human rights education.
Melissa works as a consultant for values-based youth organisations projects and initiatives on human rights and responsible citizenship; and for the development and evaluation of institutional governance mechanisms in non-for-profit organisations.
