The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice is pleased to introduce its new Human Rights Scholars for the 2019-2020 academic year. Human Rights Scholars are paid research assistants for Center faculty and staff. Learn more about the program here.

Victoria Adelmant is an LLM candidate and Hauser Global Scholar in the International Legal Studies program. As a Human Rights Scholar, she works on the Digital Welfare States project with Professor Philip Alston and Christiaan van Veen. Victoria graduated with the highest result in the year from an LLM in Human Rights and International Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and holds a First Class degree in Law with German Law from the University of Oxford. She has combined her work in international human rights NGOs with experience in grassroots organizations: she has conducted legal research for Minority Rights Group International, the United Nations and the European Commission alongside advising asylum-seekers in Coventry (United Kingdom) and campaigning with Oxfam. Prior to coming to NYU, Victoria was a fellow in the International Human Rights program of the Oak Foundation, a funder of human rights organizations.

Camilla Akbari is a first-year JD candidate at NYU working as a Human Rights Scholar with Professor Margaret Satterthwaite. Camilla graduated with General Honors from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. in Public Health Studies. During her undergraduate studies, Camilla worked on several domestic HIV programs for key populations. She also conducted research on the stigma surrounding HIV prevalence among refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa and the historical foundations of traditional healing practices along the north coastal region of Peru. Following graduation, Camilla worked on the LINKAGES project, the largest global HIV program for key populations. Camilla’s experiences in public health programming and international development inspired her to pursue a legal career to advance the right to health. At NYU, Camilla plans to study international and human rights law, focusing on the ways in which global governance structures and legal accountability mechanisms can be used to protect vulnerable populations’ rights. She has also been selected as an IILJ Joyce Lowinson Scholar and is a member of Law Women’s Professional Development Committee.

Anja Bossow holds a Bachelor in Law with French Law from the University of Oxford, and an LLM in Human Rights from the London School of Economics, where she received the Lawyers Alumni Prize for the best overall LLM result. She has previously interned at the employment department of the UN World Food Programme, the UN Secretariat, the refugee organization Asylum Access, and the British Institute for International and Comparative Law. During her time at LSE, she volunteered at the National Council for Civil Liberties and the Notre Dame Refugee Centre as well as acted as President of the LSE Pro Bono Society and an oralist in the Philip C. Jessup Moot Court. Prior to coming to NYU, she interned at the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, working closely with the Deputy Director in addressing the threat to media freedom, the shrinking space for human rights defenders, and post-conflict justice. She is passionate about using human rights as a tool for accountability and institutional reform. Anja is currently a candidate for the Legal Theory LLM at NYU School of Law, and is a recipient of the Dean’s Graduate Award and the German Academic Exchange Service LLM Scholarship.

Philip Dalgarno is a first-year JD candidate interested in international law, particularly transnational litigation and arbitration. He is assisting Professor Margaret Satterthwaite with her research into the influence of international law on the implementation of the right to water and sanitation in national constitutions and case law across Africa. He is also volunteering with the Identity Documents Project. Philip graduated from NYU, cum laude, in 2015 with a double major in French & Linguistics and European & Mediterranean Studies, as well as a minor in History. His undergraduate research focused on the development of nationalism in minority-language communities in the South of France and was recognized with the European and Mediterrean Studies Prize. After graduation, he worked at a French-American online apartment rental company and then in Business Development at Sullivan & Cromwell, covering a wide variety of practice areas including infrastructure, project finance, Latin America, litigation and arbitration. Philip is originally from Brookline, Massachusetts, and is proficient in French.

Kathleen Dalyis a third-year JD student at NYU Law. She received a BA in Classics and Art History from Georgetown University in 2017. Throughout her time at NYU, she has interned at organizations in New York City and New Delhi that focus on empowering communities to protect their rights, with an emphasis on LGBTQ and workers’ rights. Her research interests include the role of legal empowerment and community-centered practices in human rights advocacy.

Joe DelGrande is a member of NYU School of Law’s class of 2022, planning to pursue international human rights work. He received a B.S. in Business Administration from Fordham University at Rose Hill, graduating summa cum laude from the Global Business Honors Program, where he wrote his honors thesis on the impact of Islamic business organizations on the Turkish economy. After spending a year as a Business Support Analyst at Marlin Hawk, a boutique executive search firm in New York City, he began pursuing an M.A. degree with the German-Turkish Master’s Program in Social Sciences with Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey and Berlin, Germany. There he focused on minority and migration-related issues, researching, among other topics, the linguistic rights of minority communities in Estonia, the EU’s capacity to enforce rule of law and human rights in Hungary, and the history of externalization of migrant control and pushbacks between Italy and Libya, culminating in a master’s thesis on the impact of right-wing populism on the identities of German-Turks living in Germany. Additionally, he worked as a research assistant with the Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research, assisting in the development of a social psychological experiment designed to measure changes in levels of subtle prejudice and xenophobia. As a Human Rights Scholar, Joe is working with Philip Alston and his team in preparation for his upcoming visit to Spain in his capacity as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty.

Elena Hodges is a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar and an Institute for International Law and Justice Scholar. Originally from rural Montana, Elena attended the United World College of the Adriatic, a 2-year international IB school in Northern Italy, and Yale University, where she studied Political Science. At Yale, she participated in the inaugural class of a 3-year Multidisciplinary Academic Program in Human Rights through Yale Law School. For her program capstone, she created a resource mapping initiative for local refugees and asylum seekers. Elena has extensive international experience with community-based research and advocacy, working on forced evictions and environmental violations in Brazil; migrant labor violations in Jordan; and access to healthcare and LGBTQ rights back home in Montana. Before coming to NYU Law, Elena spent a year and a half in Beirut, where she focused first on comparative judicial independence and later on refugee protection with respect to Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Elena speaks Arabic, Portuguese, and Italian. After law school, Elena hopes to continue working with marginalized and forcibly displaced communities to promote access to justice and more accountable, dignifying approaches to human rights and humanitarianism.

Elisa Llop Cardenal is an LLM candidate in International Legal Studies. She is specializing in the interplay between technological development, human rights and international law. Additionally, she is part of the International Organizations Clinic and a member of Rights over Tech. As a Human Rights Scholar, she works with Christiaan Van Veen in the Digital Welfare State and Human Rights Project. Their research focuses on the increasing use of technological tools in systems of social protection and assistance, and their implications for the protection of individual’s human rights. Elisa holds a double degree in Law and Political Science by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and a Masters in International Law by ESADE and Maastricht University. She has expertise in litigation and worked as a criminal lawyer, mostly focusing on white collar crime. She was also a clerk for Judge M. Elósegui, elected in respect of Spain at the European Court of Human Rights. She has extensive volunteering and pro bono experience working with minors and young inmates, with teenagers and with immigrants.

Chew Fei Phang holds a LLB from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Her interest in human rights developed when she assisted with substantive research at the Bristol Human Rights Implementation Centre for the African Commission and Court on Human and People’s Rights. After graduating from law school, Chew Fei was selected for an internship with United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (Supreme Court Chamber). After being admitted as an advocate and solicitor in Singapore, Chew Fei worked as a commercial litigator in Singapore but made a career switch to human rights work full-time by taking up a Research and Advocacy Fellowship at Human Rights Now (HRN), a Tokyo-based international NGO with UN consultative status. At HRN she worked on business and human rights and the protection of human rights defenders, and had helped to teach human rights at the Myanmar Bar Association in Yangon. An active volunteer, she has assisted with legal clinics in Singapore as well as with various projects concerning the homeless, refugees and internally displaced people. Chew Fei is currently a candidate for the International Legal Studies LLM at the NYU School of Law

Tanishtha Vaid graduated with a BA LLB. from the Gujarat National Law University (India). She is an LLM candidate at NYU, specializing in international criminal law and transitional justice. During her undergraduate degree, she took part in the ICC Moot Court Competition, 2018, where she was awarded the Best Defense Counsel Team, Best Defense Counsel Memorial and 1st Runner-up Best Defense Counsel Award. She has also served as a Research Assistant at the International Law Commission and is currently assisting Human Rights Watch in their efforts to bring the former Gambian dictator – Yahya Jammeh, to justice. As a member of the UN Diplomacy Clinic, she is serving as an advisor to the Permanent Mission of Maldives to the United Nations. A qualified advocate with the Bar Council of India, Tanishtha has used her early experience to make strides in the field of transitional justice. In previously assisting organizations such as the International Crimes Tribunal-Bangladesh, she has used her expertise to streamline the application of transitional justice mechanisms. She is also widely published in the subject of transitional justice and has been one of the youngest presenters at the American Society of International Law’s Midyear Research Forum.