Our Team

Abdi Yussuf Abdullahi is Somalia’s Project Coordinator. For the past 7 years he has been working with INGOs and NGOs in the areas of protection, post-conflict stabilization, good governance, and in countering violent extremism leading implementation, coordination and stakeholder engagement with communities transitioning from crisis within East Africa. He joined LAW towards the end of 2023 as Somalia project coordinator. Before Law, Abdi worked with Chemonics international Inc., AECOM international, care Kenya, Safeway service international group and Somali women development center on different capacities.    

Ghiwa Haidar Ahmad is Lebanon’s Communications Coordinator. She is a communication professional with a master’s degree in Communication and Multimedia Journalism and over seven years of hands-on experience. She has held roles such as Communication Manager for media platforms, University Instructor at LAU, and Senior Communication Officer in NGOs. Ghiwa’s extensive background extends to journalism, where she has worked as a journalist and reporter across various media outlets and television stations. Her career path has strengthened her commitment to human rights and law, inspiring her to advocate for social justice through impactful storytelling and media engagement. 

Nadine Ayoub, Finance Coordinator at Legal Action Worldwide in Beirut, Lebanon, brings extensive financial management expertise across the Middle East to the international NGO sector. With previous experience as Finance Manager at Citron Trading LLC in Dubai, UAE, Nadine optimized cash flow and led strategic financial initiatives. Her tenure at International Federation of Red Cross and Norwegian Red Cross demonstrated her commitment to humanitarian causes, managing financial operations across the MENA region. 
Armed with a bachelor’s in business administration and certifications including CertIFR and Certified Non-profit Accounting Professional, Nadine ensures compliance and effective financial stewardship through meticulous transaction processing, budget management, and grant coordination. Through her adept financial reporting skills, Nadine facilitates transparent communication crucial for organizational decision-making and donor relations. Her expertise enables effective resource allocation and strategic planning, driving positive change within the international humanitarian landscape.

currently chairs Research Initiatives Bangladesh and previously had a distinguished UN career. Highlights include his role as UNHCR Regional Director for Central Asia, South West Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East.

Khaleda Jahan Bina works as Programme Officer for the Rohingya Crisis Programme . With seven years of exemplary service in the humanitarian sector, Khaleda Jahan Bina has emerged as a distinguished professional in protection work. Her career is marked by a relentless dedication to safeguarding the rights and well-being of vulnerable populations in the most challenging environments. Khalada has completed her MBA from Cox’s Bazar International University, Bangladesh. She was a GBV Outreach Associate at Relief International before joining LAW. There, she oversaw all community leadership strategy initiatives under the SASA! Together methodology and provided women and girls with the tools they needed to mitigate risks. Besides that, she was a Psychological Support Officer at Good Neighbors Bangladesh, where she handled individual protection cases, age-appropriate case management for GBV survivors, and direct PSS assistance. 

is an eminent London solicitor with many decades experience working on human rights actions. He is the founder of human rights firm, Bindmans LLP, and represented Amnesty International in the Pinochet cases in the late 1990s.

Having spent 20 years as a Partner at Allen & Overy based in Asia, Simon converted from Big Law to New Law and founded Lexical Labs, which utilizes technology to negotiate contracts. He loved negotiating deals but was frustrated by inefficiencies and wasted time and efforts. Simon is passionate about changing this. He aims to let machines handle the heavy lifting of repetitive tasks, thus liberating individuals to generate ideas, make informed judgments, and inspire others. His dedication also extends to aiding victims of conflict and violence who seek legal remedies and other forms of support during their recovery from war crimes and other trauma. with me a short bio that we can post on our website.

Afroja Bulbul Tumpa currently serves as a Casework Consultant at LAW. Before that she served LAW as a Programme officer for almost two years. Afroja started her career at BRAC HCMP as a center officer within a community-based protection project for one year. At BRAC her role was to support monitoring, evaluation, and reporting systems, while ensuring safety and implementing safeguarding standards. Lead volunteers in research activities, prioritizing safety and endorsing a secure working environment.  

Samer Chleiwit is a Legal Information Officer at LAW, where he provided legal information and assistance to the survivors of the Beirut blast. He is currently working on access to justice project for several communities such as stateless, migrants and gender-based violence. He holds a bachelor’s degree in law from the Lebanese University and has completed a master’s degree in international Organizations. Samer is an active human rights advocate. Additionally, he has obtained a Project Management certificate from the University of California, Irvine. 

Ayesha Siddika Chowdhury works as Programme Officer for the Rohingya Crisis Programme. She is a Bangladeshi lawyer, and a humanitarian worker based in Bangladesh. Ms. Chowdhury had her education from Internation Islamic University Chittagong (LL.M. and LL.B.) and later enrolled by Bangladesh Bar Council in 2018. She has been working for five years in the humanitarian response particularly in Rohingya refugee context in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. 
She has worked with BLAST (Bangladesh Legal Aid & Services Trust) which is a prominent national legal organization, for almost five years. She has had her focus on Legal Protection, SRHR, Gender Approach, and Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA). Ms. Chowdhury also worked on implementation of community legal services related activities which include legal representation, mediation, legal advice/counselling, legal awareness sessions and so on. She also worked on training facilitation. She conducted various trainings on National and International Legal Framework for Rohingya Refugees, Gender-based-Violence, PSEA and on other relevant Policies. 

Camille Delbourgo is LAW’s acting South Sudan Programme Manager. Camille has experience practicing law as an national lawyer in France and in international criminal law and universal jurisdiction with the Office of the Co-Prosecutor of the ECCC in Cambodia and the Swiss association Civitas Maxima. She then went on to work a Legal Advisor with the IFRC in Central African Republic, and as a Special Assistant with MONUSCO in the Kasai Region and in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most recently, Camille was a Human Rights Officer at the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in the OHCHR in Geneva, focusing on Europe, Africa and the MENA regions.

George Demetriou is LAW’s Grant Finance Manager.
George has been working in the NGO community for the past twenty years all of which within finance and strategic management. He spent ten years in relief and development within the Middle East and Eastern Europe region on behalf of World Vision International. George has been based in Geneva since 2013, partly with World Vision as well as an independent consultant, focusing on finance, policy, strategic partnership and collaboration within the humanitarian sector.  George joined the LAW team in 2022.

Emilie Dromzée is currently the Grants and Partnerships Manager for LAW.
She has nearly 20 years of experience in the non-profit and philanthropic sector, with a focus on human rights and international justice programme, network development and capacity building programme.  She has specialized expertise in European advocacy and has conducted human rights investigations in North Africa and the Middle East.
Emilie holds a Masters in European law.
She was previously working for TRIAL International building effective partnerships with donors sharing TRIAL’s vision of a world without impunity.
Before moving to Geneva, she was Programme Director for Ariadne, a leading network of European Funders for Social Change and Human Rights, where she managed the network’s core operations, supports the membership and helps to grow participation in Ariadne. Emilie started her career based in Brussels where she worked on human rights and democracy in the Middle East and North Africa and relations between the EU and Arab countries for Euromed Rights.

Terry is LAW’s programme manager for the Middle East, where he leads legal teams promoting access to justice for marginalized populations in Lebanon and survivor-led accountability for international crimes and human rights violations in Syria. He is also LAW’s technical lead on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) against men, boys and LGBTQI+ youth. Prior to working at LAW, Terry worked on projects documenting the links between detention and male-perpetrated sexual violence in Afghanistan, Colombia, the Central African Republic, Sri Lanka and Syria. Terry obtained his Master of Laws from Harvard Law School in 2019, where he was awarded the Satter Human Rights Fellowship.

teaches human rights and public international law at Oxford University. He is acclaimed for his writings on migration and asylum issues, having served as a Legal Adviser in the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from 1976-1988.

is an experienced disputes lawyer at Hausfeld in London. She has a formidable track record in representing communities affected by human rights violations committed by major corporates across various industry sectors.

Hussein is Lebanon’s HR and Logistics Coordinator. He is a highly skilled computer and communication engineer with an MBA in HR. With 7 years of experience in international and non-governmental organizations(I/NGOs), including 5 years dedicated to HR, he has proven track record in planning and implementing innovative HR systems. His focus on creativity, adherence to emerging HR and leadership trends, and commitment to enhancing employee wellbeing are central to his work. Hussein excels in strategic HR planning, driving the implementation of new HR concepts and studies that benefit both the organization and its employees, aiming to achieve maximum efficiency and productivity. 

Dayane Jammal is Legal Information Officer in Lebanon. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the Lebanese University- Branch 2 along with a Master’s Degree in nternational Organizations from the same university. Her role is to provide legal information and assistance to survivors from GBV and SGBV. Dayane joined LAW in February 2023.

Aaron Kearney is an international human rights lawyer with nearly a decade of experience working on human rights and international humanitarian law issues. Aaron has spent most of his career documenting and investigating human rights abuses and advocating to international justice mechanisms for crimes committed in Syria and Palestine, particularly crimes concerning business and human rights and sexual and gender-based violence. Aaron also has experience providing legal support at the domestic level, having worked with immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in the United States. Aaron has published numerous investigative legal reports and articles on civilians in conflict and post-conflict areas while supporting grassroots non-profit operations in conflict-impacted regions.
 
Aaron is licensed to practice law in New York state. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, with honors in a concentration in international law. Aaron is also passionate about storytelling and advocacy, holding an undergraduate degree in journalism with a concentration in film journalism from Loyola University Chicago. Aaron is currently based in Beirut, Lebanon.

Angeliki Kourtesi is the legal advisor for the South Sudan programme (and the aid workers project) since April 2022. She is a Greek lawyer with a master’s degree in human rights and humanitarian law and is a member of the Athens Bar Association.  She has worked as a lawyer in Greece and specialized in refugee law.  Her experience includes working on Refugee Status Determination (RSD), as well as joining UNHCR in 2016 working on the refugee protection across Greece, Burundi and Costa Rica. Through her field and managerial experience, she has focused on access to rights and legal procedures for the refugee population, SGBV and child protection case management. She has also been part of the coordination and implementation of a NORCAP/NRC capacity building project for the Ministry of Asylum and Migration in Greece. 

Ishita Kumar is LAW’s acting Bangladesh Programme Manager, is an India-qualified lawyer, holding LL.M. in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice from SOAS, London. Her experience lies mainly in the field of international refugee law and localizing international human rights norms for the forcibly displaced in the South Asian context. She was formerly based at Migration & Asylum Project, a refugee law centre based in New Delhi. She provided legal aid to asylum-seekers mainly from Afghanistan, Burma, DRC and specialized in working along with survivors of torture and SGBV. She implemented projects aimed at realizing refugees’ socio-economic rights and their access to justice, along with being involved in the strategic litigation efforts for rights of the Rohingya refugees in India.

Nick Leddy is LAW’s Head of Litigation, joining LAW in August 2022. Nick is an experienced litigator in both domestic and international courts. Prior to joining LAW, Nick was a Trial Lawyer for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, where he investigated and prosecuted war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia. He worked across all stages of proceedings, including preliminary examinations, investigations, and trials. Previously, Nick served as a prosecutor in New York City at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. In that capacity, Nick investigated and prosecuted hundreds of cases, including corruption, police violence, and sexual and gender-based violence. He also served for ten years as a member of the Editorial Committee of the Journal of International Criminal Justice (Oxford UP). Nick is passionate about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He was a member of the Diversity Committee of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, and later co-founded the ICC’s first LGBTIQ+ staff network, the ICC-Q. Nick also served on both the Racial Diversity and LGBTIQ+ Committees of the Interagency Diversity and Inclusion Network in The Hague. Nick is a member of the New York Bar.

Nillasi Liyanage is a Legal Advisor working on LAW’s Sri Lanka Programme which mainly focuses on providing legal and other essential service to victim-survivors of Sexual and Gender Based Violence and child abuse. Nillasi is an Attorney-at-law and holds an LLB (Hons.) from the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, and an LLM (Hons.) in International Human Rights (UK). Formerly she was the Legal Advisor on Detention for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Sri Lanka. Prior to that she worked closely with the Families of the Missing in Sri Lanka as a Protection Field Officer of the ICRC in Colombo. She also worked as a Legal Research Officer to a Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. 

heads the civil department of leading human rights firm, Hickman & Rose. He is particularly renowned for his work on actions against the police and his longstanding expertise in Universal Jurisdiction.

has more than two decades of experience in the United Nations, government, public policy organizations, and non-profit sector. As Chief of Staff and Executive Director of the Kofi Annan Foundation, she provided political support to Kofi Annan in his mediation roles in Kenya and Syria and established several initiatives promoting electoral integrity and peace processes. Her extensive experience has given her a broad perspective on international relations and the development sector.

is Senior Advisor to the Executive Director at LAW. Dennis has more than three decades of international humanitarian experience during which he held several senior positions across the United Nations before becoming Center for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), Senior Humanitarian Adviser in 2007. Dennis has an Honours degree in law from Auckland University and practiced as a lawyer in the UK and Kenya before joining the UN.

Jibril is Somalia’s legal officer. He is a nationally licensed lawyer who has been deeply and practically involved in national laws and procedures and managed several protection projects as the role of protection officer. Jibril holds a double degree in law and Sharea, MS Monitoring and Evaluation, and pursuing Master of Public policy analysis.

Antonia Mulvey is the Founder and Executive Director of Legal Action Worldwide (LAW). Antonia, a British lawyer, is an international human rights law, international criminal law and refugee law, with over 20 years of professional experience. Prior to founding LAW, Antonia practiced criminal and refugee law at one of the UK’s top human rights law firms. Antonia then headed the Rule of Law and Access to Justice programmes for the UN and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Sudan, Somalia, and the occupied Palestinian territory. Throughout her career, she has advised governments on judicial and legislative reform matters. Additionally, she has been instrumental in community-driven initiative, such as supporting the founding of the first Women Lawyers Association in Somalia, as well as the first law faculty in Puntland, Somalia. Her efforts in the occupied Palestinian territory successfully halted the forcible displacement of over 20,000 Palestinians from their homes.

In addition to her work with LAW, Antonia has held  various academic positions and engagements, a former  Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics and a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University Law School, New York. Antonia is a SGBV expert for UN Women, the Justice Rapid Response Unit and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative. In 2017, she was appointed as an SGBV investigator for the UN International Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar.

Antonia Mulvey obtained her Bachelor’s degree from Sussex University, and her Master’s degree from the University of London. She is married with four children. Her twitter is @AntoniaMulvey.

As a Legal Advisor at Legal Action Lebanon and an attorney at law registered with the Tripoli Bar Association, Ghada is dedicated to advocating for human rights and justice. Since joining Legal Action’s team in 2019, she has provided legal counseling and representation for marginalized and vulnerable groups. In addition to her role as a legal advisor, she is also an investigator specializing in PSEA and strategic litigation. Ghada’s work focuses on ensuring that the voices of the underserved are heard, and their rights protected. With a strong background in human rights law, she strives to make a meaningful impact in the fight for equality and justice.

Kate Norton is LAW’s Operations Director. She obtained her LLB with French from the University of Birmingham. She started her career practising as a solicitor in the UK for 7 years, specialising in property law, before taking a Masters in 2004 and switching to the humanitarian field. Before joining LAW, Kate has extensive experience working as a country director for NRC and DRC, as well as PROCAP for UNHCR in conflict settings across the world and has worked in Lebanon, South Sudan, CAR, Syria, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and Burundi amongst other countries.

Aditi works as Legal Coordinator at LAW’s Rohingya Crisis Programme. She is a lawyer with background in criminal justice research and litigation. She holds an LL.M. from the University of California at Berkeley, School of Law (USA), with specialisations in International Law and Public Interest & Social Justice alongside a B.A.LL.B.(H.) from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Amity Law School (India). As a Legal Coordinator with the Rohingya Crisis Programme, Aditi supports the ongoing legal initiatives; capacity building for the network of Survivor Advocates, and high-level and grass-roots advocacy to ensure that the international justice and accountability discourse for the Rohingya is informed by the needs and perspectives of the community.  
She has extensive experience in both domestic and international criminal law, as well as international human rights law having worked with organisations like the Criminal Justice & Police Accountability Project, Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights, International Bar Association and Global Rights Compliance. 

is a high-profile barrister with extensive experience in human rights and criminal law. Over an illustrious career, he has represented many accused of high profile IRA bombings, the families of the Bloody Sunday victims and more recently, the families of the victims of the Hillsborough Disaster.

Séverine Roméro is LAW’s accounting officer in Geneva. Severine holds a Swiss accounting diploma and two master’s degrees in social policy management and political Sciences. She is deeply committed to human rights and justice and is an active feminist since university. Her journey is atypical. Following an initial career phase in France, focusing on public sector financial control and grant management, she shifted her focus to administrative and accounting roles upon relocating to Switzerland 15 years ago.
Before joining LAW, Severine served in Finance at organizations including the World Young Women Christian Association (World YWCA), Humanitarian Dialogue Center, and Women International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

Roza is Sri Lanka’s Programme Manager. She is a human rights lawyer from Kazakhstan who holds a degree in International Economic relations and in Law and LL.M in International and European Protection of Human Rights from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She was one of the 100 students in the world, who was awarded a scholarship from the Dutch government to pursue her LL.M studies. Roza has 20 years of legal experience, including experience of working as a legal advisor to judges at the UN international criminal tribunals in the Netherlands and Sierra Leone. She also managed human rights projects in Central Asia for various international NGOs, such as ABA/ROLI and ICNL. These projects focused on providing pro bono legal services for victims of human rights abuses and supporting civil society members. Roza also served as an UN expert to assess justice sector needs in Timor Leste. Roza is fond of music, theatre, literature and art and loves doing yoga, swimming and hiking in nature. Roza is a dedicated human rights lawyer, who wants to have an impact and contribute to making the world a better and safer place for everyone. 

Samara Sarkis, Legal Information Officer under “Equality Through Legal Action” project. Samara provides legal information and legal assistance to migrant domestic workers, stateless people, GBV and LQBTQI community members. Samara has many years of experience in the Humanitarian 
Field, she has a bachelor’s degree in Law from the Lebanese University, and have participated in several human rights and international law trainings.

Ivy is an international human rights lawyer based in LAW’s Nairobi office. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) from Strathmore University and is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. Prior to joining LAW, Ivy worked on the promotion of access to justice for refugee/migrant populations and universal jurisdiction avenues in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Ivy has also worked at Equality Now where her work focused on the promotion of legal equality through the implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa “Maputo Protocol”. As a legal coordinator, Ivy supports the South Sudan programme related to capacity building, transformative justice and accountability for sexual and gender-based crimes/conflict related sexual violence.  

Georges is a Legal Advisor at LAW. He is an attorney at law registered with the Beirut Bar Association, and a human rights expert. In 2019, he joined Legal Action’s team where he provided legal counselling and representation especially for stateless, migrant domestic workers, survivors of gender-based violence and vulnerable people. 
He is currently working under “Equality Through Legal Action” project. 

Taro Tanaka is a Japanese lawyer with experience in international human rights work, particularly focusing on gender issues. After he passed the Japanese national bar examination in 2011, he joined Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where he handled various global investigation and dispute resolution cases. From 2020 to 2022, he worked for the OHCHR in Geneva as an Associate Human Rights Officer supporting the work of CEDAW and the Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity. Later, he joined the UN Team of Experts on Rule of Law and Sexual Violence in Conflict in New York as a Judicial Affairs Officer. Taro holds a JD from Keio University Law School and an LL.M. from NYU Law School, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. 

Stefano Trevisan, LL.M, joined LAW as Legal Advisor in February 2023, bringing over ten years of experience as a practicing lawyer. He worked as junior lawyer at Dragone & Partners Law Firm in Venice (Italy), where he litigated civil disputes including environmental law, contracts, real estate, and torts. He served as Associate Legal Counsel and Leading Investigator at Lighthouse Reports, where he gained expertise in open-source investigation in the context of armed conflicts. He was trained at the ECCHR, the UNOCHR, and at the European Commission. Stefano lectures and coordinates Law Clinic programs at various universities, including in New York, Amsterdam, Padua, and Trento, and authored several publications in academic journals on related subjects.

Daniil is a lawyer and investigator with expertise in documenting atrocity crimes in conflict affected areas and working with survivors of serious human rights violations. Daniil is based in Kyiv, Ukraine, and has worked on violations committed in the course of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since March 2022. His other areas of interest include corporate accountability and environmental rights. Daniil holds a BA and BCL from the University of Oxford.

Etienne graduated with a dual bachelor’s degree in Law and Political Sciences and a master’s degree in Geopolitics and International Relations. His career started with the migration Department of the French Ministry of the Interior in 2016 as a Policy Officer for three years following-up bilateral and European legislative negotiations related to asylum, migration and border management as well as the negotiation of the UN Global Compact for Migration. Before joining LAW, Etienne moved back to his home region and worked for two years as Executive Support and Policy Officer in Annecy Regional Court, providing overall administrative support to the Court President and Prosecutor and participated in the implementation of the Court’s policies.
Etienne joins LAW to work in a multicultural environment dedicated to defend values and causes he shares. Outside of work, he never misses a chance to do sports with friends or colleagues.

Farha Waheed is LAW’s Head of Human Resources and Compliance, joining LAW in January 2020. Prior to LAW, Farha worked as HR & Operations Business Partner with ActionAid International, Refugee Action and at the British Transport Police delivering a responsive and customer focused HR service, employee cycle, staff development and embedding values and best practices. As a Chartered MCIPD professional she has considerable HR operational and strategic experience of over 16 years to support the smooth functioning and growth of LAW.

Briene Zijlmans is a LAW Board Director, based in The Netherlands. He obtained his master degrees in Law and Business Administration in the Leiden and Rotterdam universities respectively. Fulfilled a career in Finance, mostly within the energy sector, with postings in Europe and Africa, and spanning business operations in all other continents as well. Briene is keen to support the activities of LAW and thereby help the vulnerable and exploited, having witnessed from close-up or further afield situations of lawlessness and impunity, especially during ethnic and religious strife or even war.