Meet the Team
Mariana Goetz
Director
Mariana is a human rights practitioner with over 25 years experience in post conflict justice, including at the Rwanda Tribunal and Special Court for Sierra Leone, where she was a Legal Adviser. More recently she was Head of Programmes at Aegis Trust, and before that Deputy Director of REDRESS, where she had also been its Post Conflict Justice Adviser working on transitional justice cases and projects with affected communities in DRC, Northern Uganda, Kenya, Central African Republic. Mariana taught Public Int'l Law and International Criminal Law at the London School of Economics while undertaking doctoral research. She is co-editor of 'Reparations for Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity' 2009, 2019 (2nd ed.), Brill / Nijdorf. She holds an LLM from London School of Economics and an LLB from Kin's College London.
Najlaa El Khalifa
Sudan Legal Advisor
Najlaa is a British/Sudanese human rights lawyer, formerly Acting Executive Director for Sudanese Rights Group as well as Human Rights Officer and Consultant for the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies where she specifically investigated torture in Sudan. Najlaa has further experience working at Human Rights Watch researching Sudanese women human rights defenders and at REDRESS as their Sudan Project Officer, coordinating their Criminal Laws Reform project and Prohibition of Torture in Sudan.
Victoria Taban
South Sudan Legal Officer
A South Sudanese human rights lawyer and an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, Victoria worked at the International Center for Transitional Justice Programmes department and on counter-terrorism, human rights education and victim participation in criminal cases amongst others. She has an LLM from Columbia Law School where she was a Human Rights Fellow. Currently the Legal Associate and Policy Officer at Rights for Peace, focusing on Sudan and South Sudan projects on CRSV and countering identity based violence in various contexts.
Ciara Laverty
International Legal Advocacy Officer
Ciara is a legal practitioner and researcher specialised in international criminal law, human rights and transitional justice. She has published research and worked on advocacy issues related to accountability and reparation for sexual and gender-based violence, and has previously worked as a researcher and lecturer in international law at Leiden University and on protection issues at the ICRC. She holds a PhD and an Advanced LLM from Leiden University and an MSc in international relations from the University of Edinburgh.
Clara Giaminardi
Communications Officer
Clara has almost a decade of experience as a photographer in the creative industries, as well as working as a specialist university lecturer. She contributes to the management of the website and of our social media platforms, and assists with the publication of our blogs and newsletters.
Meet the Board
Najlaa El Khalifa
Advisory Board Member
Najlaa is a Legal Consultant working with Rights for Peace on research into hate speech in Sudan. Previously, she was Acting Executive Director for Sudanese Rights Group as well as Human Rights Officer and Consultant for the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies where she specifically investigated torture in Sudan. Najlaa has further experience working at Human Rights Watch researching Sudanese women human rights defenders and at REDRESS as their Sudan Project Officer and coordinating their Criminal Laws Reform project and Prohibition of Torture in Sudan.
Dr Sejal Parmar
Advisory Board Member
Sejal Parmar is a Lecturer at the School of Law and a fellow at the Centre for Freedom of the Media at the University of Sheffield, as well as a Visiting Professor at the Central European University in Vienna. Sejal has previously worked as Senior Adviser to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media and as Senior Legal Officer at ARTICLE 19. See her full profile here.
Rob Mills
Trustee
Rob is Director of International Development Practice at Social Finance. Earlier in his career Rob worked at the World Bank for eight years based in Mozambique and Washington, where he originated and managed a large portfolio of investments in southern Africa, as well as advising governments on policy and regulatory reforms. See his full profile.
Prof. Clara Sandoval-Vilalba
Advisory Board Member
Clara is a qualified lawyer and Professor of International Law at Essex University, originally from Colombia. She was Acting Director of the Human Rights Centre (January to December 2017). She is the Director of the Essex Transitional Justice Network and former Director of the LLM in International Human Rights Law. You can view her Essex University profile here.
Dr. Lutz Oette
Advisory Board Member
Lutz is Director of the Centre of Human Rights Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He convenes the Master's in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice and has published widely. He was formerly Legal Counsel at REDRESS Trust. View his SOAS profile here.