Speaker details

Biography

Priya Gopalan is a Malaysian lawyer specialising in international criminal law, human rights law, gender and intersectionality. Her expertise is in international criminal prosecutions, strategic litigation (universal jurisdiction), advocacy, and human rights investigations, as well as other transitional justice processes. She is a member of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, appointed by the Human Rights Council. 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 international crimes. Her experiences cover The Balkans, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Syria, and The Gambia. Priya 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. Priya served as the first Legal Advisor for sexual and gender-based crimes at the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria (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. Priya was Senior Advisor at the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission of The Gambia. Priya 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.