Members
Professor Olga Martin-Ortega
Olga is Professor of International Law at the School of Law, University of Greenwich. She leads the BHRE Research Group. She has been researching business and human rights for over ten years. She has also undertaken extensive research in the areas of post-conflict reconstruction, transitional justice and international criminal law.
Prior to joining the University of Greenwich Olga was Senior Research Fellow and member of the Management Team of the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict at the University of East London. She has a PhD in International Law from the University of Jaen and a Law degree from the University of Sevilla (Spain).
Olga is a member of the Board of Trustees of Electronics Watch and a member of the Board of Directors of the London Universities Purchasing Consortium. She is a founding member and acted as the first coordinator of the European Society of International Law Interest Group on Business and Human Rights. She is a founding member and member of the Advisory Board of the Business, Conflict and Human Rights network.
Professor Steven Haines
Steven is Professor of Public International Law in the University of Greenwich. His research today is focused principally on Ocean Governance and the maintenance of safe and secure seas (although he continues to work in the fields of International Humanitarian Law and the law relating to international security). Prior to taking up his current post in Greenwich, he spent four years in Geneva, on the Management Board of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. He also taught as adjunct faculty at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. From 2003 to 2008 he was at Royal Holloway, University of London, as founding Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations; he was appointed to a Chair in 2006. He has a strong record of pro bono work within international civil society organizations. In Geneva he worked with Geneva Call, the NGO that encourages compliance with International Humanitarian Law by armed non-state actors. Since 2011, he has acted as Legal and Military consultant to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, drafting International Guidelines on the Military Use of Schools in Conflict Zones (the core of the Safe Schools Declaration) that are now endorsed by almost 90 states globally. He joined Save the Children International’s Civil-Military Advisory Board in 2017, becoming its Chair in 2018. With a specialist legal interest in the Law of Armed Conflict Applicable at Sea, he was one of the peer reviewers for the International Committee of the Red Cross’s new Commentary on the Second Geneva Convention published in 2017.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA), was elected a Fellow of the Nautical Institute (FNI) in 1995 and a Member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (Sanremo, Italy) in 2010. Most recently (2019), he was elected as President/Chair of the UK Group of the International Society for Military Law and the Laws of War.
Steven is also a Member of the Board of Trustees of Human Rights at Sea and he leads on our work on the topic.
Dr. Jing Bian
Bian teaches in School of Law, Greenwich University. She has published widely on the comparative financial regulation aspect. Her co-edited book Regulations and Applications of Ethics in Business Practice has just been published. Her book “China’s Securities Market- Towards Efficient Regulation” was published in January 2014 by Routledge (London). Her edited 4 volume book titled “Financial Regulation in China”, which covers the entire Chinese financial system since 1949 will be published in 2019 by Routledge (London).
Bian has a track record with research and practical projects for international institutions as well as international transactions. She frequently speaks at academic conferences and industry summits. She has solid practical and commercial experiences. Previously, she held a number of roles in financial institutions; for instance, COO of an innovative finance firm for defence system, and the Head of the Chinese Market for a leading Fintech company located in the City of London; also, she was a civil servant in the justice department, China.
Louise Hewitt
Louise Hewitt is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Greenwich. Louise is currently undertaking her PhD in international law. The thesis is examining the extent to which United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 has formed the foundation for a developing legal framework for the prevention and suppression of acts of terrorism. At the BHRE she is working on our financial crimes and post-conflict reconstruction project. She co-founded (with Director Kristian Humble) the Innocence Project London, a pro-bono clinic dedicated to investigating wrongful convictions. The Innocence Project London (IPL) is the only UK member of the international Innocence Network based in New York. She is also currently carrying out research funded by the Peter Harris Trust, centred on promoting access to justice for disabled witnesses of disability hate crime (the Disabled Witness Project). Louise is also researching into the impact of student’s case work on the IPL.
Dr. Aysem Diker Vanberg
Aysem is Senior Lecturer in Law at the School of Law & Criminology specialising in EU Competition Law and IT Law. She worked previously at Anglia Ruskin University as a Senior Lecturer and at the University of Essex as an Associate Lecturer and Research Associate. Before moving to the UK, Aysem qualified as a lawyer in Turkey and worked as a lead In-house counsel for multinational companies including MAN Nutzfahzeuge AG and Cimpor Cimentos de Portugal. She has an LLM in European and International Law from the University of Bremen and an LLB from the University of Ankara, Turkey and a PhD in Competition Law from the University of Essex. Aysem’s doctoral thesis entitled "An analysis of the application of Article 102 Treaty on the Functioning of European Union to platform-based businesses: Google as a case study" draws on Competition Law, Commercial Law, EU Law, economics and IT Law in order to assess the suitability of EU competition law to digital platforms such as Google and Facebook. At the BHRE she researches on the intersection between human rights and technology.
Dr Özgür H. Çɪnar
Ozgur is a senior lecturer at the University of Greenwich, School of Law and Criminology and co-Director of the LLM on Business, Human Rights and the Environment. Previously, he was a post-doc fellow at the University of Oxford between 2012-2016. He completed his PhD at the School of Law, University of Essex on the subject of conscientious objection to military service and the case of Turkey. Moreover, he is a lawyer and works as a legal expert for the Council of Europe. His main research interests are business, human rights and the environment, the right to conscientious objection, freedom of thought, conscience and religion and freedom of expression. He has numerous publications, including the following books: The Right to Conscientious Objection to Military Service and Turkey`s Obligations Under International Human Rights Law (Palgrave Macmillan, Pivot, 2014); Conscientious Objection to Military Service in International Human Rights Law and Turkey (Istanbul Bilgi University Publishing, 2014 in Turkish); Conscientious Objection to Military Service in International Human Rights Law (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and The Effects of the European Court of Human Rights Decisions’ on the Turkish Legal System (Human Rights Association, 2005 in Turkish).
Associate Members
Seema Joshi
Seema has 20 years of professional experience working globally in law, policy and human rights. As Programme Director, she currently leads Amnesty International’s Global Thematic Issues work, which seeks to advance transnational and multi-country approaches for pursuing justice in six human rights areas. As an expert, she has also led the organisation’s global work on corporate accountability for nine years. In these role, she has engaged in high level strategy development, conducted and overseen in-depth investigations, campaigning and advocacy. Prior to Amnesty, Seema worked as the Ending Impunity Legal Advisor for the niche NGO, Global Witness. She also worked for the United Nations in Bangkok, where she oversaw the implementation of a 12-country environmental government programme for Asia Pacific. Seema is a Canadian lawyer, called to the Alberta Bar in 1999, where she practiced litigation. She holds an LL.M from the London School of Economics, as well as a JD and BA in politics from the University of Manitoba, in Canada. Seema will lead our work on corporate crimes and corporate accountability.
Dr. Johanna Hoekstra
Johanna is Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, University of Essex where she is a member of the Essex Business & Human Rights Project. Prior to that she was a Lecturer in Law at the School of Law, University of Greenwich. She has a M.Sc. in European Public Policy from Birkbeck College and a LLM in International law from the University of Bordeaux. She completed her PhD at the University of Essex on the legal authority of non-state rules in international commercial contracts. Her research interests include international commercial law, private international law, the relationship between law and policy, and business and human rights.
Dr. Opi Outhwaite
Opi is a Senior Lecturer in Law at St. Mary’s University Twickenham London. Her research focuses on governance and natural resources including accountability of multinational corporations and public and private governance for health, agriculture and the environment.Opi has published widely in her research areas as well as undertaking numerous outreach and dissemination activities. She has a track record of providing research and consultancy for governmental and non- governmental bodies including as a member of the Electronics Watch Advisory Group and for the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and equivalent bodies in Tanzania and Belize.
Opi is Managing Editor of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law journal ('e-journal') and participates in several networks for international environmental law and business and human rights.
Dr. Daniel Aguirre
Daniel is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Roehampton. Before joining Roehampton Daniel was a senior lecturer at the University of Greenwich and prior to that an international legal advisor for the International Commission of Jurists based in Yangon, Myanmar, working on business and human rights, the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law and access to remedy for violations of human rights. He has experience working with non-governmental organisations and universities in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Daniel’s research interests include investment law, business and human rights, transitional justice and human rights in developing states and South East Asia.
Dr. Claire Methven O'Brien
Claire is Strategic Adviser on Human Rights and Business at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, where she provides expert advice to multinational corporations, international financial institutions, governments, international, regional, and civil society organisations, including in the area of procurement and supply chain management. She is the funder of the International Learning Lab on Procurement and Human Rights and a Member of the Sustainable Public Procurement Group of UN Environment's 10-Year Framework for Programmes on Sustainable Production and Consumption. In 2016 she was the winner of Ireland's Procurement Leader Award 2016. Clear has provided technical support and training on human rights to International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management, the International Purchasing and Supply Education and Research Association, and the International Standards Organisation ISO20400 Program Committee and works with the BHRE on its public procurement and human rights projects. Claire has a PhD in Law from the European University Institute, Florence and other degrees from the University of Cambridge, City University and LSE. She has been called to the London Bar.
Dr. Nadia Bernaz
Nadia is an Associate Professor of Law and Governance at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Her main area of research is business and human rights. She looks at how corporations and businesspeople can be held accountable for their human rights impact through international, domestic and transnational processes. Nadia has a PhD in international law from Aix-Marseille University in France. Prior to joining Wageningen, she held positions at Middlesex University (London), the Irish Centre for Human Rights (National University of Ireland Galway) and Aix-Marseille University. She is the author of Business and Human Rights, History, Law and Policy. Bridging the Accountability Gap, and runs the blog “Rights as Usual.” Nadia works with the BHRE on its transitional justice and business and human rights research.
Dr. Rosa Ana Alija Fernandez
Rosana is a Lecturer in International Law and International Protection of Human Rights at the University of Barcelona (Spain). She specialises on international criminal law, human rights and transitional justice. She has extensive experience teaching and training on international labour law.
She has been visiting professor at the University of Puerto Rico and visiting researcher at the University of Uppsala and at the Research Centre in Latin-American Criminal and Procedural Law (Forschungsstelle für lateinamerikanisches Straf- und Strafprozessrecht) of the University of Göttingen. She has collaborated with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in training Rwandan lawyers on universal jurisdiction and with international research teams and networks in the field of transitional justice. She is also a member of the research group on Public International Law at the University of Barcelona.
Rosana is involved with the BHRE on its work on business’ responsibilities in post-conflict justice. She leads the Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP) project on the topic.
Dr. Maria Eugenia Hernandez
Maria Eugenia has a PhD in International Law from the University of Valencia and a Law Degree from the University of Oviedo (Spain). During her PhD studies, she was a visiting researcher at University of Exeter Law School for a period of six months.
Her research focus is on modern slavery in the garment supply chain and corporate human rights due diligence.
Dr. Hernandez worked as a lawyer in Spain for over 17 years in different fields such as criminal, tort and labour law. She is currently assisting a local organisation which works to rebuild human trafficking survivor´s lives.
Dr. Ruth Abril Stoffes
Ruth is Associate Professor of Law at the University CEU Cardenal Herrera. She holds a PhD, Master in European Union and Master in Gender Equality. She specialises in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, and her research interest include the protection of women and girls in armed conflicts. Ruth advices several international organisations including NATO, EU and United Nations. She has been visiting professor at several universities including Antwerp, Lyon, Oxford, East London and Greenwich. Within the framework of the BHRE she participates in research relating to human trafficking and modern slavery of women and girls.
Dr. Farid Mohammed Rashid
Farid studied his BA in law (2004), at Aleppo University, Syria. He completed his LLM in International Law and Criminal Justice in 2010 at the University of East London, UK. In addition, he was awarded his PhD in December 2016 for a thesis which focused on the role and powers of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, titled ‘The Role of the Prosecutor in the International Criminal Court: Discretion, Legitimacy, and the Politics of Justice’. The external examiner characterized the thesis as “timely intervention” on the topic. He also became a member of the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict during his PhD. In early 2017, he was also engaged in a research project as a Research Assistant at the University of East London. The project implements and evaluates the impact of a series of writing techniques that foregrounds the use of speaking-writing connection to support student’s development of academic voice and identities. He is currently seeking to publish a new article focusing on the discretionary power of the ICC Prosecutor and its relation to the politics of justice. At the BHRE Farid develops research on environmental related crimes and international criminal accountability.
Dr. Veronica Torres
Veronica recently obtained her PhD at the University of Greenwich. Her dissertation is entitled: A Human Right to Land for Local Communities: A Proposal in the Context of Transnational Corporations’ Control of Land Use.
She has a law degree from Universidad del Norte (Colombia) and a LL.M degree in International Law from American University WCL (USA). Her work focuses on multinational corporations, human rights and the right to land. She has published on business and human rights and teaches several online courses on the matter. Before she joined Greenwich she was a lecturer in international law in the Universidad del Norte.
Research Assistant
Fatimazahra Dehbi
Fatimazahra is a Research Assistant at BHRE. She graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Law at the University of Greenwich in July 2019. Before joining as a Research Assistant she was an intern at BHRE, analysing the modern slavery statements of various local authorities in the UK during the 2017-18 financial year. Her interest in human rights led her to volunteer as President of the University of Greenwich Amnesty International Society. She is particularly interested in women’s' rights, business and human rights and freedom of expression, on which she produced work in her final year, focusing on the impact of censorship on expression. Fatimazahra has previously worked pro-bono as a Caseworker on the Innocence Project London investigating wrongful convictions. She is currently study her LLM in International Human Rights at the University of Essex.
BHRE Internships
Greenwich students are given the opportunity to join our team and participate in our projects. Our current interns have joined us after completing their Degree:
Lucrezia Corradi
Lucrezia graduated in 2019 in Politics and International Relations in London, at the University of Greenwich and joined the BHRE in October 2019 under the Greenwich Work Experience Scheme. Her previous internships include the Senate of the Italian Republic and the NewOil S.r.l. international enterprise. Her previous work as Assistant Manager at Abercrombie and Fitch fuelled her interest on sustainable supply chains and participation of large companies in schemes such as the UN Global Compact. At BHRE, Lucrezia works in the Modern Slavery in Public Supply Chains project.
Lucrezia is very interested in Human rights, International Law and generally on peace and security all over the world, as a matter of fact, her dream is to work for the United Nations.
Ashley Paul
Ashely has recently completed a law degree at the University of Greenwich and will be graduating in July 2019. He is currently an intern with BHRE analysing modern slavery statements from various universities in the UK during the 2017-18 financial year. Whilst studying in he third-year, Ashley took part in a pro bono placement once a week and represented the University as a student ambassador. He has also developed an interest in business and human rights and produced work on the need for international corporate accountability to prevent human rights violations. He intends to study for his legal practice course in September 2020.
Our past interns have gone on to do very exciting work. We are grateful for their work during their time at BHRE.
Marisol Bernal Corredor
Marisol was an intern at BHRE during 2018 while she was doing here LL.M in International and Commercial Law at University of Greenwich. She has a Law degree from Universidad del Rosario (Colombia). She previously worked at the Colombian Consulate in Aruba (Kingdom of the Netherlands) as Diplomatic Mission Assistant as well as the second head of the Consulate being in charge of the Consular Functions. She is interested in business and human rights and her research for dissertation is on strategic litigation for corporate legal accountability in the fishing industry. Marisol is currently a Responsible Procurement Officer at the London Universities Purchasing Consortium.
Anna Gorna
Anna was an Intern at the BHRE under the Greenwich Work Experience programme after she completed her Law Degree in 2018. During her time at BHRE she was a Project Manager on the joint LUPC- BHRE Modern Slavery Project.
She previously worked as an Intern at the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) where her work focused on the efforts of Commonwealth countries in ending Modern Slavery.
Anna currently consults with us on modern slavery related work while she prepares to be a Barrister.
Patrycja Krupinska
Patrycja was an Intern at the BHRE Greenwich Work Experience Programme after she graduated from the LLB at the University of Greenwich. She was also Project Manager on the LUPC-BHRE Modern Slavery Project. Whilst studying the LLB, Patrycja participated in the Harvard World Model United Nations conferences representing highly influential countries in formal debates on human rights topics such as the refugee crisis and negotiated resolutions with fellow member states of similar position on the topic debated.
