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She wrote to airlines and aviation regulators together with [[Gehad Madi]] and [[Siobhán Mullally]] in April 2024 to caution them against [[Rwanda asylum plan|moving people seeking asylum to Rwanda]] on behalf of the British Government as they could be "compliant" in creating human rights violations. Madi, Edwards and Mullally wrote to the airlines as the UN's special rapporteurs on migrants’ human rights, torture and trafficking to identify the need for companies to comply with international human rights laws.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-04-22 |title=UN experts warn airlines over ‘complicity’ in Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda scheme |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/rishi-sunak-rwanda-flights-un-asylum-b2532731.html |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref>
She wrote to airlines and aviation regulators together with [[Gehad Madi]] and [[Siobhán Mullally]] in April 2024 to caution them against [[Rwanda asylum plan|moving people seeking asylum to Rwanda]] on behalf of the British Government as they could be "compliant" in creating human rights violations. Madi, Edwards and Mullally wrote to the airlines as the UN's special rapporteurs on migrants’ human rights, torture and trafficking to identify the need for companies to comply with international human rights laws.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-04-22 |title=UN experts warn airlines over ‘complicity’ in Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda scheme |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/rishi-sunak-rwanda-flights-un-asylum-b2532731.html |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref>

In 2024 she was nominated for Australian of the Year.<ref> https://australianoftheyear.org.au/recipients/dr-alice-edwards </ref>


==Selected works==
==Selected works==

Revision as of 13:46, 6 July 2024

Alice Jill Edwards
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Incumbent
Assumed office
August 2022 (2022-08)
Secretary-GeneralAntónio Guterres
Preceded byNils Melzer
Personal details
BornAustralia
Alma materUniversity of Tasmania
University of Nottingham
International Institute of Human Rights
Australian National University
OccupationLawyer, scholar

Alice Jill Edwards is an Australian lawyer and scholar. She is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Early life

Edwards was born in Australia and took a bachelor's degree at the University of Tasmania. She holds a Master of Laws from the University of Nottingham and a Diploma in International and Comparative Law from the International Institute of Human Rights in France. She returned to Australia to take a PhD in Public International Law at Australian National University.[1] She previously worked for Amnesty International and a Mozambique-based NGO.[2]

Career

Edwards began working at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1998 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by field assignments in Rwanda (twice) and Morocco, rising to become Chief of Section – Protection Policy and Legal Advice, the key institutional legal position, from 2010 until 2015. Then from 2016 until 2021, she led the secretariat of the inter-governmental diplomatic Convention against Torture Initiative (CTI).[3] She also sits on the editorial board of the journals Torture and Migration Studies.[3]

She has held academic appointments in law at the universities of Oxford[4] and Nottingham, teaches at universities around the world, and is widely published with over 50 publications.

She was appointed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in July 2022, taking up the position in August 2022.[2] In a report presented to the United Nations in March 2023, Edwards stated "the national duty to investigate torture is alarmingly, universally, under-implemented".[5] She encouraged countries to do more to investigate allegations of torture.[6]

She investigated torture in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian War.[7]

Prior to Julian Assange's final appeal against extradition to the United States, Edwards urged the UK to stop his extradition because of concerns he would be subject to torture if extradited.[8]

She wrote to airlines and aviation regulators together with Gehad Madi and Siobhán Mullally in April 2024 to caution them against moving people seeking asylum to Rwanda on behalf of the British Government as they could be "compliant" in creating human rights violations. Madi, Edwards and Mullally wrote to the airlines as the UN's special rapporteurs on migrants’ human rights, torture and trafficking to identify the need for companies to comply with international human rights laws.[9]

In 2024 she was nominated for Australian of the Year.[10]

Selected works

  • (2017) In Flight from Conflict and Violence: UNHCR Consultations on Refugee Status and Other Forms of International Protection
  • (2014) Nationality and Statelessness under International Law
  • (2011) Violence against Women under International Human Rights Law

References

  1. ^ Edwards, Alice Jill (2008). Violence against women, feminist theory, and the United Nations human rights treaty bodies (Thesis). doi:10.25911/5d7783fc8b4b4 – via via Trove.
  2. ^ a b "Dr. Alice Jill Edwards". OHCHR. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Dr. Alice Edwards". Refugee Law Initiative. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  4. ^ https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/about/mst-international-human-rights-law-faculty
  5. ^ "National prosecutions key to breaking cycle of impunity for torture: UN expert". Relief Web. 14 March 2023. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  6. ^ "Too many nations failing to investigate torture cases, UN expert says". UN GENEVA. 14 March 2023. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
  7. ^ Gall, Carlotta (10 September 2023). "Ukrainian Accounts of Torture Point to Systematic Russian Policy, Expert Says". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  8. ^ Newman, Ed (6 February 2024). "UN special rapporteur urges UK to halt Julian Assange's extradition, citing torture risk". www.radiohc.cu. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  9. ^ "UN experts warn airlines over 'complicity' in Rishi Sunak's Rwanda scheme". The Independent. 22 April 2024. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  10. ^ https://australianoftheyear.org.au/recipients/dr-alice-edwards
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