Program overview
McGill's Faculty of Law and the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism (CHRLP) proudly present the Queen Elizabeth Scholar in Climate Justice and Strategic Litigation Program, focusing on environmental sustainability, justice, and human rights. This program, for upper year law students and funded from 2025-2028, offers scholars unique opportunities to develop expertise at the intersection of environmental and human rights law through strategic litigation placements. Apply here! Register for our online information session on October 7, 2026 at 1 p.m.
About QES
The Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships program (QES) enables a dynamic community of young global leaders to create lasting impacts both at home and abroad through funded international education, research, and professional experiences. McGill University is proud to be among the beneficiary institutions offering opportunities for both outbound Canadian and inbound international scholars.
Administered jointly by the Rideau Hall Foundation (RHF) and Universities Canada, this prestigious initiative is coordinated at McGill through the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism (CHRLP). Supported by multi-year funding, scholars engage in environmental advocacy and litigation through hands-on work with dedicated professionals in the field.
QES Placements
The QES program for outbound scholars comprises two components. First, scholars complete a 12-week full-time summer placement (May-August) with CHRLP partner organizations across the world, gaining hands-on experience in environmental strategic litigation and climate justice advocacy. Past placements have included:
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Lawyers for Human Rights (Johannesburg, South Africa)
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Zimbabwe Environmental Law Organisation (Harare, Zimbabwe)
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Environmental Law Clinic at the Pontifical University of Peru (Lima, Peru)
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Centre for Strategic Litigation (Zanzibar, Tanzania)
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Center for litigation on Environment and Governance (Mombasa, Kenya)
Following the summer placement, scholars continue their engagement through legal research and drafting at McGill's Transnational Justice Clinic during a semester of the subsequent academic year.
Funding
QES scholars receive a $10,000 stipend to cover travel and living expenses during their placement period. Recipients must track and report all expenses to QES funders. While the stipend is designed to minimize financial barriers to participation, scholars may also explore additional funding through partner organizations and government grants.
Meet the Team
Nandini Ramanujam - Program Director
Romy Pavia - 2026-2027 Program coordinator
Romy is a second-year BCL/JD student at McGill University currently serving as a coordinator for the Queen Elizabeth Scholars Program. During her previous studies in human sciences, she conducted an anthropological field research project on Indigenous legal traditions. This experience shaped her interest in how law and culture intersect in the promotion of human rights. Committed to access to justice, she is involved within legal clinics and non-profit organizations for migrants.
Caroline Crossley - 2024-2025 Program coordinator, Adams-Burke Global Justice Fellow
Shona Moreau - Program advisor
Shona serves as an advisor for the Queen Elizabeth Scholars Program and is a member of the Management Board at the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism (CHRLP).
Leanna Katz, Yuri Romana-Rivas and Myrto Leivadarou (Co-Directors of the Transnational Legal Clinic)
McGill Current Graduate Students and Post-Doctoral Fellows
Yuri Romana-Rivas - Co-Director of the Transnational Legal Clinic
Yuri Alexander Romaña-Rivas (email, LinkedIn), an Afro-Colombian lawyer, is a current doctoral (Ph.D.) student in the Comparative Law concentration of the Doctor of Civil Law (DCL-Comparative Law) program at McGill's Faculty of Law and an O’Brien Fellow at the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. He is also a recipient of the 2022 National Scholarship Vanier awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Yuri also received the 2022 John Peters Humphrey Fellowship in International Human Rights or International Organization, awarded by the Canadian Council on International Law (CCIL).
Yuri holds a Master of Laws (LLM) in International Law and Legal Studies from American University, Washington College of Law in Washington DC, where he studied with a Fulbright Scholarship. He obtained his Law degree (LLB) at the “Diego Luis Córdoba” Technological University of Chocó (U.T.CH) in Colombia. At McGill University’s Faculty of Law, Yuri has worked as an instructor teaching a course on the Inter-American System of Human Rights and as a research assistant on a project about Black Legal Traditions.
Yuri has significant legal experience in International Human Rights Law and transitional justice mechanisms. Between 2018 and 2021, he worked as a specialized lawyer at the Chamber for Amnesty and Pardon of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in Colombia, a transitional justice tribunal established in 2018 as a result of the 2016-Peace Agreements between the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia- People's Army (Las FARC-EP) to investigate, prosecute and try the most serious crimes committed in the context of the more than 50-year armed conflict in Colombia. Previously, Yuri worked for more than five years as a Human Rights Specialist at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an autonomous international human rights body of the Organization of American States (OAS) based in Washington, D.C, where he worked within the Precautionary Measures Mechanism and the Individual Petitions and Cases System. Additionally, Yuri has researched and published on different human rights-related topics such as transitional justice, structural racism, and standards of due process guarantees under International Human Rights Law.
His doctoral research, under Professor René Provost's supervision, focuses on analyzing the interception and interaction between transitional justice and racial justice to address the underlying causes of the disproportionate impacts of armed conflicts on racialized communities.
Leanna Katz - Co-Director of the Transnational Legal Clinic
Leanna Katz was the Co-Director of the Transnational Justice Clinic and the first Adams-Burke Global Justice Fellow. She is a doctoral candidate at McGill's Faculty of Law working primarily in the area of labour law and the political economy. Her broader interests include labour and employment law, social welfare law, contract law, competition law, administrative law, and critical and feminist legal theory.
Leanna also holds an O'Brien Graduate Fellowship at the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. Previously, Leanna earned her LL.M. from Harvard Law School, J.D. from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, and a B.A.Sc. from McMaster University's Arts and Science Program. She clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal for British Columbia and practiced for three years as a litigator at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.
Myrto Leivadarou - Co-Director of the Transnational Legal Clinic
Myrto Leivadarou (email, LinkedIn, website) is Co-Director of the Transnational Justice Clinic and an Adams-Burke Global Justice Fellow. A doctoral candidate at McGill University’s Faculty of Law, she researches disaster litigation in the climate crisis. At McGill, she is a research assistant to Professor Sébastien Jodoin, Canada Research Chair in Human Rights, Health and the Environment. She serves as President of the Graduate Law Students Association (GLSA) and Editor-in-Chief of the GLSA Research Series (Vol. 5). Previously, she was Vice-President Academic (2024-2025), chaired the 2025 McGill Graduate Law Conference, “Anatomy of a Crisis,” and served on the organizing committee for the 2024 conference “Law and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World.”
Myrto holds an LL.M. from McGill University, an LL.M. from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and an LL.B. from Democritus University of Thrace. She is a licensed lawyer registered with the Athens Bar Association and has worked with KPMG Law (Munich), Calavros Law Firm (Athens), and the Scientific Service of the Hellenic Parliament (Athens). She is active in European human rights law and, since 2019, has coached the Democritus University of Thrace team for the Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition at the European Court of Human Rights. She has received several academic awards, including from the Athens Bar Association (2024) and the Hellenic Scholarships Foundation (2024).
Meet the 2026 QES Scholars Cohort
Outbound Scholars -
Jerod Miksza
Host Organization: Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), South Africa
Jerod Miksza is a third-year BCL/JD student at the McGill Faculty of Law. He previously obtained a BSc in Biochemistry, during which he did an internship at Environment and Climate Change Canada in the Ecological Assessment Division as a toxicologist. As a law student, he has pursued his interest in human rights by working with community organizations such as the Association for the Rights of Household and Farm Workers and Project Genesis, which provide access to justice for marginalized communities. He has also pursued his strong interest in environmental law as case comment editor for the McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law and through participating in the Willms & Shier Environmental Law Moot Competition.
As a 2026 Queen Elizabeth Scholar, he worked with the Lawyers for Human Rights in Johannesburg, South Africa where he assisted their strategic litigation department. Jerod hopes this experience will strengthen his global understanding of environmental rights and its intersectionality with other human rights.
Annica Dickens
Host Organization: Centre for Litigation on Environment and Governance (CLEG), Kenya
Annica is a third-year BCL/JD student at McGill. Prior to law school, she completed a BA in Political Studies and Philosophy at the Université de Saint-Boniface in Winnipeg. Annica was an active member of her hometown community, volunteering with various grassroots organizations and working for several years as the Literacy Coordinator at the John Howard Society of Manitoba, where she coordinated educational programming for individuals involved in the criminal justice system.
At McGill, Annica has pursued her interest in environmental and human rights law through a range of placements. She interned with the Earth Law Center in Durango, Colorado, through McGill’s International Human Rights Internship program, and with SNAP Québec through Pro Bono Students Canada. She also currently works as a Research Assistant examining security classification practices in Canadian corrections.
As a 2026 Queen Elizabeth Scholar, she worked with the Centre for Litigation on Environment and Governance (CLEG) in Mombasa, Kenya to contribute to litigation on environmental violations and land-rights issues faced by coastal communities.
Destinée Lalonde
Host Organization: Zimbabwe Environmental Law Organisation (ZELO), Harare
Destinée is a third-year BCL/JD student at McGill University with a minor concentration in Economics. She entered the program directly from Cégep, where she studied social sciences in Abitibi-Témiscamingue. Her interests center on human rights law, international law, and corporate law.
As a law student, she has pursued these interests through a range of experiences. During her first year of law school, she completed a human rights internship at the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse. She has also taken part in international law competitions, serving as co-chair of the Committee on Trade and Development at McGill's inaugural Model World Trade Organization. She later represented McGill at the International Legathon in Kazakhstan, where she mooted and presented on topics at the intersection of artificial intelligence and international law, helping her team earn bronze in the English-speaking league.
As a 2026 QES Scholar, she interned with the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Organisation in Harare, contributing to the research center of the African Institute of Environmental Law. Her work covered carbon and biodiversity credits, as well as a climate change moot litigation case on cyclone damages. She also had the opportunity to join workshops and presentations with environmental organizations, government representatives, NGOs, and local stakeholders, exploring community-informed approaches to environmental policy and law.
Andrew Chen
Host organization: Center for Strategic Litigation (CSL), Tanzania
Inbound Scholars -
Tania Tshabalala
Host Organization: Transnational Justice Clinic, Montréal
Tania Tshabalala is a South African LLB candidate interested in human rights, refugee and migrant rights, immigration law, and access to justice. She has experience supporting vulnerable and marginalised communities in the human rights and social justice sector. Tania holds a BSocSci from Monash University.
At Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) in South Africa, she began working with the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme, focusing on issues affecting refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants and assisting with matters concerning access to rights and legal protection. Her work later expanded into immigration detention, where she became involved in monitoring detention, supporting referrals, assisting with legal matters, and documenting concerns affecting people in detention.
She has also worked with the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), where she was involved in initiatives focused on mental health and supporting greater awareness of mental health issues. These experiences have strengthened her interest in understanding how legal and social systems can better protect people who are particularly vulnerable. She is currently based in Montreal for an eight-week research residency as a Queen Elizabeth Scholar at the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism (Faculty of law).
Nyeleti Baloyi
Host Organization: Transnational Justice Clinic, Montréal
Nyeleti Baloyi is an admitted Attorney of the High Court of South Africa and currently practices within the Penal Reform and Detention Monitoring Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights. Her legal practice focuses on gender rights, the decriminalisation of poverty, and advancing alternatives to detention, particularly in immigration matters.
She is pursuing an LLM in Multidisciplinary Human Rights at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. Her postgraduate research explores access to South Africa's asylum seeker system for individuals with limited literacy within an increasingly digitized administrative framework.
Nyeleti is currently based in Montreal for an eight-week research residency as a Queen Elizabeth Scholar at the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.
Meet the Inaugural 2025 QES Scholars Cohort
Outbound Scholars -
Tuviere Onookome-Okome
Host Organization: Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), South Africa
Tuviere Okome is a 2nd year BCL/JD candidate at McGill University Faculty of Law, where they serve as the President of the Black Law Students Association. An advocate for diversity and social justice, Tuviere leads initiatives aimed at creating a more inclusive legal community, including spearheading a project to introduce a Black application stream at McGill Law. Tuviere holds an MSc in Epidemiology from McGill, where they were awarded the Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship for academic excellence. They also hold a BA in Environmental Studies (First-class honors, Distinction) from McGill. Professionally, Tuviere has interned at the Jewish General Hospital, focusing on mental health law and patient rights, and at the HIV Legal Network, conducting research on harm reduction and drug policy. They have also worked on climate change legal research in Calabar, Nigeria, exploring how indigenous governance systems can inform future legal frameworks in the context of ecological collapse.
Tuviere’s research experience spans both legal and public health domains, including developing innovative tools for analyzing environmental and social equity in cities and conducting cancer epidemiology research through the Global Cancer Disparities Initiative. They are fluent in English and French, with strong skills in legal research, data analysis, and public speaking. Outside of academics and professional work, Tuviere is an avid marathon runner and an active community volunteer, organizing events that support access to justice and mentoring youth interested in law.
Benjamin Foster
Host Organization: Center for Strategic Litigation, Tanzania
Benjamin is a second-year BCL/JD student at the McGill Faculty of Law. Prior to studying law he received his BA in Linguistics with minors in History and Psychology from McGill University, during which time he served as President of the Society of Linguistics Students and as founding Editor-in-Chief of JournalLing, a new undergraduate linguistics research journal.
Motivated by a passion for climate justice, Ben is interested in the multidisciplinary field of climate change law. This year, he has worked as the Managing Editor of the McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law, where he has been active in promoting climate engagement on campus, and as a research assistant in human rights and environmental law.
Elina Qureshi
Host Organization: Pontifical Catholic University of Peru's (PUCP) Environmental Law Clinic, Peru
Elina Qureshi is a second-year BCL/JD student at McGill. She previously obtained a BA in International Development also from McGill University, then worked in the area of refugee resettlement before beginning law school. During law school, she has pursued her interests in human rights, strategic litigation, and access to justice through her work with the Association for the Rights of Household and Farm Workers through Pro Bono Students Canada, where she contributed to a constitutional class action, and with the Feminist Legal Collective at McGill, where she delivers public legal education workshops. In her previous internship at the Law Commission of Canada, she worked primarily on issues of constitutional, comparative, and international law. As a 2025 Queen Elizabeth Scholar, she will be working this summer with the Environmental Law Clinic at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, where she will contribute to their work on strategic climate litigation. Elina hopes that this experience will enrich her understandings of comparative human rights law.
Isabela Restrepo
Host Organization: Pontifical Catholic University of Peru's (PUCP) Environmental Law Clinic, Peru
Isabela is a second-year BCL/JD student at McGill with a background in international development and human rights. She currently works at an immigration and refugee law firm in Montréal, supporting claimants from South America. She previously interned at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, where she worked on a wide array of cases from across the continent. This experience deepened her interest in the Inter-American system and public international law, particularly in relation to climate justice. She is especially interested in the legal dimensions of climate-induced migration and the potential of international frameworks to protect vulnerable communities. As a 2025 Queen Elizabeth Scholar, she will be joining the Environmental Law Clinic at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú to contribute to legal work on environmental harm and governance. With Colombian roots, Isabela is committed to amplifying Global South perspectives and promoting more inclusive and equitable climate solutions.
Inbound Scholars -
Luis Alejandro Pebe Muñoz
Host Organization: Transnational Justice Clinic, Montréal
Luis Alejandro Pebe Muñoz is a Queen Elizabeth Scholars Program Fellow (2025) at the Transnational Justice Clinic of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism at McGill University, Canada. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) and completed complementary studies at Pompeu Fabra University in Spain. Professionally, he currently works as a consultant in the Human Rights area at Responde Consulting Firm and previously worked at the Institute of Democracy and Human Rights at PUCP (IDEHPUCP). He also serves as a research assistant for the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (GRIDEH) at PUCP and is part of teaching teams for International Law courses at the university's Faculty of Law. Additionally, he volunteers at the Environmental Law Clinic at the same institution. His main areas of specialization are Public International Law, International Human Rights Law, and Environmental and Climate Law.
Rocío Karla Mancha Villa
Host Organization: Transnational Justice Clinic, Montréal
Born in Huancavelica, Peru, Rocío Mancha Villa is a recent graduate of the Law School at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), with a focus on Environmental Law and Indigenous Rights. She is an alumna and current volunteer at the PUCP Environmental Law Clinic and has worked as a Legal Intern at the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law (SPDA). She currently works at an environmental legal consulting firm in Peru and is a member of the Peruvian Youth Collective Against Climate Change (JPCC). Her areas of interest focus on Indigenous Peoples' rights, climate change, and forest protection and governance.
