LSE Human Rights blog is a student-led project based in the Department of Sociology. It is a place for open discussion of ideas, events, and critical views on the topic of human rights – whatever the term means to you.

Anyone is free to contribute ideas for articles to the blog. LSE MSc Human Rights and MSc Human Rights and Politics students and members of the LSE Human Rights Doctoral Network are welcome to join the Editorial Team. If you are a student interested in joining the editorial board, just send an email to humanrights.blog@lse.ac.uk.

The views expressed on the blog belong to the author alone.

Editor Biographies

Abdullahi Yussuf

Abdullahi is a Human Rights graduate student at LSE. He holds a BA in Social Anthropology from SOAS University of London. He has served as a producer for the Royal Albert Hall’s Young Producer Programme, where he produced an event called Licence To DV8. He also volunteers at Coram, a youth-focused charity, We Belong, as a podcaster and young migrants’ rights campaigner and has multiple caseworker roles in justice, immigration, advocacy and translator at Hackney Migrant Centre (HMC). He has experience being on a student advisory panel for IntoUniversity and was a member of the Hackney Youth Parliament and Young Speakers of Hackney. Lastly, he importantly also centres his advocacy on disability rights, as he’s a person living with the physical disability of Cerebral Palsy with left hemiplegia.

Ameera Es-Sabar

Ameera is a Human Rights and Politics postgraduate student. She holds a BA in English and Peace, Conflict and Justice Studies from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. She has worked with organisations to discuss issues of prejudice and how we can better dismantle barriers within our communities, including the Mosaic Institute, where she engaged in a two-year Fellowship, and the Canadian Council for Muslim Women, where she was an Intern. She has published work for various organisations, including the Mosaic Institute and The Globe and Mail, where she discussed issues of Islamophobia and intergenerational conflict, respectively. After the completion of her degree, Ameera hopes to do advocacy, research, and communications for NGOs specialised in women’s rights in the context of intersectionality and to eventually become a human rights journalist.

Anna Shapiro

Anna is a Human Rights postgraduate student. She holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh. She has extensive editorial experience. She has worked as a Journalist and Editor for Forum for Global Human Rights’ Journal for two years, and is currently conducting research for Cambridge University’s Centre of Governance and Human Rights. In this work, Anna focuses specifically on gender and sexuality topics, and is a passionate advocate for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. She has also worked with numerous organisations focused on anti-racism and decolonisation, acting as an Intern and Project Manager at South African and Tanzanian based NGOs, respectively. As a Human Rights Blog editorial team member, Anna hopes to encourage engagement with underrepresented human rights issues.

Arina Naaz Khan

Arina is a Human Rights and Politics postgraduate student. She holds a BSc in Politics and International Relations from the University College London (UCL). Before joining LSE, Khan was a researcher at the Bentham Brooks Institute where she conducted research related to conflicts in the Middle East and the Levant region, exploring how foreign powers In the past and present impact the instability and violence in the region. This piece of research has been used to produce a high-quality research policy paper to inform policy-makers and influential organisations. Khan has also worked for organisations to inform policy-making such as FGS Global, where she was an intern. Khan strives for advocacy in areas such as immigration, inclusivity and justice. Through the Human Rights Blog, Khan hopes that there will be a heightened focus on fostering meaningful conversations around critical global issues.

Aroni Sarkar

Aroni is a Human Rights and Politics graduate student at LSE. She holds an Honours BA in Political Science and English from the University of Toronto. Before coming to LSE, she worked for the United Nations Development Programme and Lake Chad Basin Commission’s Regional Strategy for Stablisation office as their Knowledge Management Intern. In this role, she helped develop and manage an interactive platform called Lake Chad Community Connect, for practioners, policy makers, and civil service to engage with the knowledge products shared by the Strategy. She served as the Opinion Editor for the University of Toronto Mississauga’s independent newspaper The Medium. Her additional editorial experience includes interning with the National University of Singapore Press as part of the Singapore Book Publisher’s Associations programme, where she helped marketing and editing of academic books by scholars across Southeast Asia and Australia. She also has experience working as a Research Assistant for Dr Andrea Olive, the former Chair of the Political Science department at University of Toronto Mississauga on curriculum development, and assisted in developing a departmental podcast, and for Dr Nadege Compaore on her work on home state responsibility in extractive industries in the African continent.

Bailey Dinman

Bailey is a Human Rights and Politics graduate student. Before joining LSE, she was an applied researcher at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) where she conducted research related to democratic transitions, climate change and elections, and development policy. At IFES, Bailey also led updates to ElectionGuide.org and co-led IFES’s internal Knowledge Management Initiative Working Group on Gender. Before joining IFES, Dinman worked for various organizations in the democracy, human rights, and governance space, including the United Nations Foundation, Freedom House, Amnesty International, and the U.N. Information Center in Washington, D.C. Dinman graduated magna cum laude from the University of Maryland (UMD), where she majored in government and politics. While at UMD, Dinman earned minors in international development, conflict management, and public policy.

Emily Green

Emily is a MSc Human Rights and Politics candidate at LSE. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours (B.A. Hons.) (First Class Honours/Summa Cum Laude) in Political Studies and Gender Studies from the University of Manitoba, where she completed extensive research on the relationship between environmentalism and human rights, queer studies, and the global legacies of colonialism in active conflict zones. At the University of Manitoba, she served as the LGBTQ+ Representative for the Faculty of Arts from 2020-2022, where she designed and carried out advocacy campaigns for queer students. This work included rallying the administration for better amenities for transgender students within campus leisure centres. Emily has previously edited for EnGender! Academia, where her passion for journalism and politics was sparked by her editorial contributions to a paper about abortion rights in Mexico. She has also acted as a Research Assistant for Dr Real Carriere at the University of Manitoba, where she conducted an extensive literature review of Indigenous-authored political and social justice articles, in addition to setting the reading lists for numerous Indigenous politics courses in the Political Studies Department. At the LSE Human Rights Blog, in conjunction with her editorial work for LSE Amnesty International’s Beacon Journal, Emily hopes to publish work about emerging trends in international politics which highlight how modern systems of oppression have resonance in historical human rights abuses. Upon the completion of her degree, Emily hopes to continue her passion for research, writing, editing and social change in a think tank or as a political journalist.

Fatima Sy

Fatima is a Human Rights and Politics graduate student. Before joining LSE, she worked for the U.N Migration (IOM Offices) as a sub-regional Monitoring and Evaluation Officer. With duties in the West-Africa sahel region, her focus ranged from migrants rights, victims of trafficking to international policies. With previous experience at the U.S Congress for California’s 16th district and the D.C. Mayor’s Executive Office, she has a background in politics and holds a B.A in Political Science from Howard University. As an editorial member of the Human Rights blog, she hopes to push forward conversations and engagement for issues on refugees rights, migration advocacy, and inclusion of minorities.

Felipe Morales Sierra

Felipe is a Human Rights and Politics graduate student. He has worked as a journalist and editor at news outlets in Colombia, mostly covering criminal justice, transitional justice and holds a BA in Social Communication with a minor in Journalism from the Pontifical Javierian University, in Bogotá, Colombia, where he also worked as a volunteer and was part of the editorial team of the student run magazine Directo Bogotá.

Jack Farrar

Jack is a Human Rights and Politics graduate student. He holds a MA in Philosophy and Politics from the University of Edinburgh, with an exchange year at Sciences Po, Paris. His research interests include gender, conflict, postcolonial studies, arts, and social justice. As both a writer and photographer, he is also interested in exploring creative methods in the struggle for human rights; his photographs of youth and counterculture have been exhibited in multiple galleries across the UK. Jack is also involved in activism and community organising with several grassroots organisations, including Amnesty International.

Niharika Talwar

Niharika is a MSc Human Rights student who holds a BA in International Relations from King’s College London. During her time at King’s she headed KCL’s Amnesty International branch that organised a multitude of human rights centred events for the student body. Previously she has worked as a research volunteer for Action on Armed violence and currently serves as an events volunteer for Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP).

Sebastian Coba

Sebastian is a Human Rights graduate student. Before joining LSE, he was a Regional Accelerator and Academy Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean at the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), where he led the implementation of ambitious programs on Business and Human Rights, Gender Equality in the Private Sector, Corporate Sustainability, and Climate Action in 11 countries of the LAC region. Sebastian has more than five years of working experience, before working at the UNGC regional office, he worked as a Regional Business and Human Rights consultant at Valora Consultores, he worked as an Economic Inclusion Advisor at HIAS (a humanitarian assistance NGO for refugee inclusion), and worked at the UNGC in Ecuador. Sebastian has a Master’s Degree in Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Leadership from the Universidad de Barcelona-Spain, a certificate on Sustainable Businesses from ESPOL University in Ecuador, and graduated with Magna Cum Laude Honors from his BA in International Relations with a Political Sciences Minor from Universidad San Francisco de Quito-Ecuador.