Speaker details

Biography

Shiva Amiri is the Founder and Principal Lawyer of Amiri Law Firm P.C. in Toronto, Canada. Her practice spans international human rights, immigration and refugee protection, and family law, with particular experience in complex and cross-border litigation involving human rights, child protection and access to justice. She regularly appears before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Federal Court of Canada. Shiva serves as Diversity & Inclusion Officer of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Law Committee (IBA HRLC) and is a member of the IBA War Crimes Committee and the Crimes Against Humanity Convention Working Group. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Branch of the International Law Association (ILA Canada). Her work in public international law and human rights centres on state responsibility, atrocity accountability, gender-based persecution and the protection of fundamental rights. She has contributed research and advocacy engaging United Nations human rights mechanisms, including the Human Rights Council and Universal Periodic Review, with work addressing state responsibility under the Convention against Torture. Her work also extends to international environmental law and climate justice. Through the IBA HRLC, Shiva contributed to its submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and, as an ILA Canada commentator, has addressed the implementation of international environmental obligations. Her earlier work included engagement with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and service as a Climate Change News Writer and Editor with the United Nations Volunteers programme. Shiva has written and contributed commentary for the IBA on gender apartheid, Iran and international human rights. Her work has also addressed nuclear disarmament and the Marshall Islands, democratic transition and judicial independence. She has worked with the World Federalist Movement on international legal initiatives concerning constraints on the UN Security Council veto in the context of atrocity crimes. Shiva completed the Public International Law course at The Hague Academy of International Law. She holds an LL.B. from Bond University, with a focus on international law, and completed her Canadian legal accreditation studies at Osgoode Hall Law School. She previously pursued Sociology and Evolutionary Anthropology as an Honours student at the University of Toronto and is a member of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) and the Canadian Council on International Law (CCIL).