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Melanie O'Brien

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Associate Professor in International Law, The University of Western Australia

Dr Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law at the UWA Law School. Dr O'Brien is President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and a member of the WA International Humanitarian Law Committee of the Australian Red Cross. Dr O'Brien is a 2022-23 Visiting Professor at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota, USA.

Dr O'Brien's research focuses on genocide and human rights; and sexual and gender-based violence against women. Her work on forced marriage has been cited by the International Criminal Court (ICC), she has been amica curiae before the ICC, and she has been an expert consultant for various UN agencies. She is the author of Criminalising Peackeepers: Modernising National Approaches to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (Palgrave 2017), and From Discrimination to Death: The Genocide Process through a Human Rights Lens (Routledge 2023).

Dr O'Brien is an admitted legal practitioner of the Supreme Court of NSW. She has previously worked at various Australian universities, the National Human Rights Institution of Samoa, and the International Criminal Court.

Experience

  • 2021–present
    Associate professor, University of Western Australia
  • 2023–2024
    Visiting professor, University of Minnesota
  • 2018–2021
    Senior lecturer, University of Western Australia
  • 2015–2017
    Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Queensland
  • 2014–2014
    International law researcher, Anti-Slavery Australia, University of Technology Sydney
  • 2010–2014
    Research fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security, Griffith University
  • 2013–2014
    Human rights legal officer, National Human Rights Institution of Samoa
  • 2006–2007
    Legal research assistant, Human Rights Law Centre, University of Nottingham
  • 2004–2005
    Law clerk, Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court

Education

  • 2019 
    University of Western Austalia, Graduate Certifice in Tertiary Teaching
  • 2010 
    University of Nottingham, PhD in International Law
  • 2004 
    Raoul Wallenberg Institute, University of Lund, LLM in International Human Rights Law
  • 2003 
    University of Technology Sydney, Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice
  • 2002 
    University of Newcastle, Bachelor of Laws
  • 2000 
    University of Newcastle, Bachelor of Arts

Research Areas

  • International Law (Excl. International Trade Law) (180116)