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Aleisha joined the Faculty of Laws in September 2018. Her doctoral research focused on the role of international human rights law in cases concerning domestic abuse, women and children. Aleisha’s PhD research combines doctrinal and empirical methodologies, in order to consider the effect of law on society. As part of her broader work on gender, Aleisha researches and writes on the complexities of coercive control, post-separation abuse and the intersection between the rights of women and children. Her research on gender and law is supported by a UCL Faculty of Laws Research Scholarship, the UCL Joseph Hume Scholarship and the prestigious Modern Law Review Scholarship (awarded for both 2019-2020 and 2020-2021).
She holds an LLB in European Law, having studied in both France, for a Licence en Droit Européen, and the UK. She also holds an LLM in Transnational Law (Distinction) from King’s College London. Aleisha was Called to the Bar as a Lord Lowry scholar and is a member of the Honourable Society of Middle Temple.
Aleisha is a Family Law Associate Lecturer (Teaching) at UCL’s Faculty of Laws and lectured at Sciences Po in Paris, France 2021-2022, where she was convenor for her module ‘Gender and International Human Rights Law’. As part of this module, Aleisha delivered content on maternal rights, domestic violence, the role of UN human rights treaties and women in times of war. She delivers specialist teaching on the causes and consequences of rape, coercive control and economic abuse.
In September 2022, Aleisha was appointed as Senior Policy Advisor to the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales. In July 2024, Aleisha was appointed as a Justice of the Peace and sits in the Family Court as a magistrate. Aleisha acts as an academic expert of domestic abuse and delivered training at the Gender Equality Committee of the Cyprus Bar Conference in November 2024; acted as an academic expert roundtable by invitation for consultation with the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence in February 2024; and was invited by the Women and Equalities Select Committee to act as an academic expert for a roundtable on International Obligations & Violence Against Women and Girls in March 2023.
Prior to the civil service and academia, Aleisha was at Amnesty International and worked on the United Nations 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, and before this was at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in London during the peak of the Syrian conflict in 2013.
As part of pro bono efforts, Aleisha is on the Executive Committee of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights and is head of the Student Protection Project. She regularly acts as lead draft for submissions to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. Her work for Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights has been relied upon and referred to by the United Nations Human Rights Council and Human Rights Watch. Aleisha is also on the Board of Trustees for the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation.
She is regularly asked to speak at conferences, webinars and radio shows about women’s rights and international human rights law, as well as delivering guest lectures internationally. Aleisha is an advocate for social mobility and diverse representation in law. She mentors several junior lawyers.
Research Supervisors
Areas of Expertise
Children, family law, gender, human rights, refugee law and Palestine
Visiting Fellowships
- Sciences Po, Faculty of Law, Paris 2020-21
UCL Associations/Academic and Professional Memberships
- Society of Legal Scholars
- Member of the Honourable Society of Middle Temple
- Member of Socio-Legal Studies Association
Professional Experience
- 2022- Office of the Domestic Abuse Commissioner
- 2015 – 2018 United Kingdom Government.
- 2014 – 2015 Amnesty International.
- 2013 – 2014 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Academic Experience
University College London, Associate Lecturer (Teaching) 2019-present: Family Law and Public Law. Guest lectures on Gender, Law and the State (LLM), Race, Gender and Feminism (BASc) and European and International Social and Political Studies Department.
Sciences Po, Paris France, Lecturer, 2021 – 2022: convened and delivered a module ‘Gender and International Human Rights Law’; designed and developed a two-term syllabus.
Queen Mary University of London, Teaching Associate, 2019: Public Law (LLB).
Academic Expertise
- Judicial training on domestic abuse, Gender Equality Committee of the Cyprus Bar, November 2024.
- Academic expert roundtable invitation for consultation with Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, February 2024.
- Women and Equalities Select Committee, academic expert for International Obligations & Violence Against Women and Girls roundtable, March 2023.
Conference Papers and Presentations
- ‘Domestic abuse and children: how does the law engage?’ Gender Equality Committee of the Cyprus Bar, Cyprus, November 2024.
- ‘Domestic Abuse and the Hague Convention’, Hague Conference on Private International Law, South Africa, June 2024 (invitation to present by the UK’s Ministry of Justice) DOI
- ‘Gender-based violence and the Istanbul Convention’ World Conference on Women’s Studies, Sri Lanka, May 2024
- ‘Domestic Abuse in the Family Court’, Socio-Legal Studies Association conference, Ireland, April 2023
- ‘Domestic Abuse and the Istanbul Convention’, International Women’s Day 2023: Domestic Abuse, Housing and the Istanbul Convention on Violence Against Women, Garden Court Chambers, March 2023
- ‘Breastfeeding in Refugee Camps: a Child and Maternal Right?’, Columbia University, New York, March 2023
- ‘Structural economic violence: the gendered implications of the private and public sphere divide’, Sorbonne University, Paris, July 2022
- ‘The growing attack on Palestinian students: education and arbitrary detention under military occupation’, University College Union, April 2022
- ‘Breastfeeding in Refugee Camps: A Child and Maternal Right?’ Socio-Legal Studies Association conference, York, April 2022
- ‘Silencing Palestinian students: how international solidarity with Palestinians is important’ Birzeit University, Palestine, November 2021
- ‘Economic violence: structural inequality, gendered barriers to the labour force and devaluation and dependency’ Socio-Legal Studies Association conference, Wales, April 2021
- Gender and Sexuality Conference, ‘Refugee Mother and Child: the Legal Dyad’ (online) 2020. Award for best presentation received
- World Conference on Women’s Studies, ‘Analysing Infant Feeding in Refugee Camps as a Matter of International Human Rights Law' World Conference on Women's Studies,’ Sri Lanka, 2020.
- Gonzaga University, International Human Rights Conference: Women’s rights as human rights. ‘Economic violence and Gender Based Violence: the domestic arena’ Italy, 2020.
- British Institute for International and Comparative Law: Law, Culture and Human Rights in Asia and the Middle East, ‘Addressing Gender Based Violence in Tunisia with Islamic feminism’ UK, 2020.
- World Conference on Women’s Studies, ‘The role of UN Resolution 1325 in eradicating Gender Based Violence: achieving gender equality through Transitional Justice’ Thailand, 2019.
- Conference on Gender & Women’s Studies, ‘Gender Based Violence in the Middle East and North Africa,’ Malaysia 2019.
Publications
Articles
- Ebrahimi A, ‘Breastfeeding in Refugee Camps: A Child and Maternal Right?’ (2021) 21 Human Rights Law Review 533 DOI
- Ebrahimi A, ‘Reintegrating FARC’s female combatants: the challenges of addressing gender binaries in Transitional Justice’ Birkbeck Law Review Vol 6, No. 1 (2018) 79-109 DOI
Book Chapters
- Ebrahimi A, ‘Human Rights Law and Domestic Abuse in the English Family Court: A Critical Appraisal’ in E Brodealǎ, I Jelić, S Şuteu (eds), Violence Against Women under European Human Rights Law: From Supranational Standards to National Realities (Elgar, 2024) DOI
Edited Volumes
- Ebrahimi A, 'Introduction to the Special Issue: Overcoming Women’s Subordination: Socialisation, Law and Structural Inequalities. The 6th World Conference on Women’s Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 29-31 May 2020', in A Ebrahimi, D Fox and C Sanderson (eds) Journal of International Women's Studies (2021) 22(4). DOI
Book Reviews
- Ebrahimi, A. (2021), Campbell, Meghan, Women, Poverty, Equality: The Role of CEDAW, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2018, 328pp, eBook £27.00. The Modern Law Review DOI