Bassina Farbenblum

Bassina joined UNSW in 2009 after a decade as a human rights litigator and clinical legal educator in New York, Mumbai, and Sydney. Bassina was founding Director the UNSW Human Rights Clinic from 2010-2020, and is currently Co-Executive Director of the Migrant Justice Institute, an independent nonprofit organisation established in 2021. Bassina has led numerous national and global research teams on the rights of migrant workers in Australia, Asia, the US and globally, working closely with civil society, trade unions, business, governments, donors, and international organisations. Her research establishes an evidence base and theoretical frameworks for preventing exploitation of migrant workers and enabling access to justice under domestic and international law.

Before coming to UNSW Bassina practiced at the New York Bar and was a litigation attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project, and at appellate law firm WilmerHale LLP, where she argued the first U.S. Court of Appeals case on the national-security exception to asylum. Bassina also directed a human rights clinical program at Seton Hall Law School. Previously, Bassina was a solicitor at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Sydney, a policy officer at the Australian Human Rights Commission, and a solicitor at Minter Ellison.