Stephanie Farrior

Professor Farrior is a prominent academic and activist in the field of international human rights. She is former Legal Director and general counsel of Amnesty International, the worldwide human rights organization. Based at its International Secretariat in London, she oversaw Amnesty International's legal work during the Pinochet extradition hearings, met with then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on a range of issues, and worked closely with numerous United Nations human rights bodies.

Professor Farrior's scholarly research focuses on the role and functioning of international organizations in protecting human rights, issues relating to identity-based discrimination, and state accountability for human rights abuses by non-state actors. Her work has been published in Harvard, Columbia, and Berkeley law journals and has been cited by several UN special experts in their studies and reports to the United Nations. She is also actively engaged in writing and teaching about the use of international human rights standards in advocacy for racial and economic justice in the United States, a subject on which the NAACP invited her to speak at its 2004 Annual Convention.

A member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), she has been a Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University Law Center and has taught international law courses at Oxford, George Washington, American, and Pennsylvania State universities. She also delivered the Fourth Annual Owen M. Kupferschmid Lecture at Boston College Law School, titled “International Human Rights Mechanisms to Combat Racial Discrimination: An Assessment.”

Professor Farrior has conducted human rights visits to India, Malawi, Pakistan and Yemen, and has participated in policy-making conferences on international human rights in Cape Town, Ljubljana, London, Oslo, Paris and Yokohama. She co-founded the Amnesty International Lawyers Network and was a member of the founding Board of Directors of the Center for Justice and Accountability, which helps survivors of torture and other severe human rights abuses hold their persecutors accountable.

Born in Bangkok, Professor Farrior grew up there and in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and Washington DC; she has also lived in Athens, Avignon and London. She speaks French, Greek, Japanese and some Spanish.