Professor Helen Duffy

Senior Fellow (Melbourne Law Masters)

Human Rights in Practice and Leiden University, The Netherlands

Overview

Helen Duffy runs an international legal practice – Human Rights in Practice – and is Gieskes Chair of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the Grotius Centre of the University of Leiden. Specialisations include strategic human rights litigation, international terrorism and the rule of law. Her practice has addressed a broad range of human rights issues across regional and international fora, such as CIA rendition and torture (eg Abu Zubaydah v Poland/Lithuania), terrorism prosecutions (eg Sabbeh v Egypt), judicial independence (e.g. Garzon v Spain), slavery and trafficking (eg Mani v Niger) and genocide (eg Plan de Sanchez v Guatemala). Before setting up her own practice in 2011 she was Legal Director of INTERIGHTS. Prior positions included Legal Director of the Centro para Accion Legal en Derechos Humanos Guatemala, Counsel to Human Rights Watch, and Legal Officer of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). She is Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow. Her books and publications include The ‘War on Terror’ and the Framework of International Law (2nd ed Cambridge 2015).

Teaching (2024)

Melbourne Law Masters