Anna Macdonald joins HRI as Practitioner-in-Residence with the goal of documenting her experience in campaigning for a global arms trade treaty, leading to the creation of the treaty and its adoption by 100+ countries.

International Arms Control Expert Anna Macdonald Joins Human Rights Institute as Practitioner-in-Residence

New York, December 2, 2019 – Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute (HRI) is pleased to welcome Anna Macdonald, Former Director of the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Control Arms Campaign, as Practitioner-in-Residence.

Macdonald’s recent work concerns the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which regulates the international trade of weapons with unprecedented scope after it went into effect in 2014. Having been a leader in the campaign for the ATT and subsequently worked for its universalization and effective implementation, she is interested in investigating the efficacy of such international legal frameworks to reduce human rights abuses, based on her own experience and research engaging leaders in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe.

“Anna Macdonald is a leader in the international disarmament field, and played a key role in the global campaign to establish the Arms Trade Treaty,” commented Sarah Knuckey, HRI’s Faculty Co-Director and Director of the Human Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School. “Her original research will draw upon her significant experience to document the history of the treaty, and assess how activists and states made it a reality, providing invaluable lessons learned for effective advocacy."

Macdonald’s work will build on research and analysis begun through a fellowship awarded by the Open Society Foundation in 2018. Her campaign achievements also feature in a permanent exhibit in the Imperial War Museum on war and peace. As the head of arms control at Oxfam, and as Co-Chair of the Control Arms Coalition, she led over 100 organizations to develop the international advocacy and campaign strategy, which ultimately secured the ATT, in addition to advising the United Kingdom government and building a coalition with progressive governments around the world.

“Legal frameworks have a critical role, and the achievement of negotiating an international treaty is a significant one, but without investing similar effort to ensure its effective implementation, a treaty alone does not have impact in reducing human rights abuses,” Macdonald said.

As a Practitioner-in-Residence at HRI, Macdonald will have the opportunity to develop her research while engaging with Columbia Law School’s intellectual community. “I see the community offered by the Practitioner-in-Residence position as a rich environment from which to gain more insight and frame my own exploration, and I believe my work will both benefit from the Human Rights Institute as well as augment its work to advance human rights,” Macdonald remarked.

The Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute Practitioner-in-Residence Program is designed for human rights practitioners from non-governmental organizations, government, the United Nations, and other intergovernmental and international bodies who seek an environment in which they can engage in research, writing, and scholarly discussion connected to their human rights practice. The program is intended to promote human rights scholarship grounded in practice, as well as practice informed by scholarship and critique.

While in residence at the Human Rights Institute, Practitioners-in-Residence have the opportunity to work on their own scholarly or policy-oriented papers or books for publication, develop workshops and new research agendas, or prepare for conferences or new human rights projects. Mentoring about academic scholarship is available, as are opportunities for presenting and obtaining feedback on draft work. Practitioners also have the opportunity to participate in the broader intellectual life of the law school, and may deliver guest lectures in the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic and other human rights course offerings, participate in the mentoring of Columbia Law School students, advise on ongoing projects of the Human Rights Institute and Clinic, and design workshops or other events with experts from the field.

Macdonald brings to the program over 25 years of experience in international policy, advocacy, and coalition leadership promoting human rights and disarmament, as well as a demonstrated commitment to diplomacy. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Politics and Geography from Sheffield University and a Masters in Development Studies from Leeds University.

# # #

The Human Rights Institute advances international human rights through education, advocacy, fact-finding, research, scholarship, and critical reflection. It works in partnership with advocates, communities, and organizations pushing for social change to develop and strengthen the human rights legal framework and mechanisms, promote justice and accountability for human rights violations, and build and amplify collective power.

Founded in 1998 by the late Professor Louis Henkin as the anchor for human rights within Columbia Law School, the Human Rights Institute promotes engagement and knowledge of human rights within the law school, throughout the University, and around the world. Across the many substantive areas of its work, the Institute builds bridges between scholarship and activism, develops capacity within the legal community, engages governments, and models new strategies for progress.

Join us on Facebook: Columbia Law School and Human Rights Institute