Our Advisory council

Professor Scobbie teaches Public International Law at the University of Manchester. He was previously the Sir Joseph Hotung Research Professor in Law, Human Rights, and Peace Building in the Middle East at SOAS, University of London, to which he remains affiliated.

He studied at the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge, and at the Australian National University. His doctoral dissertation examined legal reasoning and the judicial function in the International Court. Professor Scobbie maintains a special interest in international humanitarian law; international adjudication, particularly the role of the International Court of Justice; and in the theory of international law.

He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Journal of International Law, and an editor of the EJIL: Talk! blog.

Elham Saudi is Director of Lawyers for Justice in Libya. In her role as Director, Elham has worked on fact finding in connection with investigations into alleged human rights violations in Libya.

With her team, Elham also worked on Transitional Justice, Impunity and Human Rights, Constitution Building and Legal Reform, and International Advocacy. She has also advised the National Transitional Council in Libya on a number of matters of international law. Elham studied Arabic and Modern Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford, after which she studied law at Nottingham Law School. She then completed an LLM in International Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies in 2011, obtaining a Distinction.

Her focus was on international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Elham is fluent in Arabic, English and Spanish.

Fateh Azzam Is a researcher and consultant. He has previously served as founding director of the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University of Beirut, Middle East regional representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and director of the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program at the American University in Cairo.

Azzam is a member of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights, Palestine’s national human rights institution and an Advisory Member for the Institute of Stateless and Inclusion and for the American Friends Service Committee’s Board Program Committee.

Azzam holds an LLM in international human rights law from the University of Essex, and has published studies and book chapters on human rights and humanitarian law, the responsibility to protect, the right to development and the SDGs, the Arab human rights movement and citizenship in Palestine and the Arab region.

Ivan M. Nielsen is a former Danish diplomat with a legal background and extensive experience in conflict, transitional and constitution-making contexts. This spans from South Africa’s Constitutional Assembly and Parliament, to the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the UN. His expertise includes human rights, international law, strategic analysis and planning.

With Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs he served in senior positions in Afghanistan, Libya and as Denmark’s Special Representative for the Syria Crisis.