News & Events

Lunchtime seminar 'In conversation with Priya Gopalan, Chair-Rapporteur of UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention' 

Date & Time: Tuesday 5th March at 1pm 

Location: Irish Centre for Human Rights Seminar Room or join online via Zoom, email humanrights@universityofgalway.ie for the Zoom link

Speaker Biography

Ms. Priya Gopalan is the Chair- Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which is part of the UN Special Procedures.  She is a Malaysian lawyer specialising in international criminal law, human rights law, and gender. Her expertise is in international criminal prosecutions, strategic litigation, advocacy and human rights investigations in conflict and post-conflict settings, as well as other transitional justice processes. Her work has included operationalising reparations for survivors of sexual violence, developing technical guidance and policy on issues such as access to justice and, best practices for working with survivors of grave crimes. Her experiences cover Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Syria, and The Gambia. She provides expert advice to international and national bodies, UN agencies, states, and civil society organisations.

Ms Gopalan has held a variety of positions in the field of transitional justice and accountability. She was a prosecutor and appeals counsel at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where she played a leading role in cases that developed progressive legal precedents on conflict-related sexual violence. Ms Gopalan served as the first Legal Advisor for sexual and gender-based crimes at the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic (the IIIM Syria). She has held several roles in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including Gender Advisor for the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka. Ms Gopalan also served as Senior Advisor to the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission of The Gambia.

Ms Gopalan qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2002. She holds a LL.M in Public International Law (Distinction) from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a B.A. Jurisprudence (Hons) from the University of Oxford, where she was a UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Chevening Scholar from Malaysia.