Welcome to the Bonavero Institute's Research Visitors for Trinity Term 2026

Claude Cahn is Human Rights Officer at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner (OHCHR).  He has previously held UN human rights field posts in the OHCHR Brussels regional office (2017-2019), Serbia (2015-2017) and the Republic of Moldova (2009-2015).  In the course of his career, he has been extensively involved in the development of equality law, in particular in Central and Southeastern Europe, as well as of international law in the area of economic, social and cultural rights. During his time at the Bonavero Institute, his research will focus on solidarity in the right to equality and non-discrimination and the implications for UN programming.  

Marcelle Ragazoni Carvalho Ferreira is a federal judge in Brazil, serving on the Federal Small Claims Appellate Court, which handles cases concerning the granting of social security and welfare benefits to vulnerable populations in Brazil. Her research at the Bonavero Institute aims to explore more deeply why gender inequality persists within the Judiciary and the impact it has on judicial decision-making. It also seeks to demonstrate how greater diversity within the Judiciary can positively affect the resolution of social conflicts and enhance the legitimacy of judicial decisions. 

Birgit Hollaus is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Law and Governance and the Research Institute for Urban Management and Governance at Vienna University of Economics and Business. Her work lies at the intersection of international, European, and domestic law, with a particular focus on environmental law, environmental human rights, and the role of courts in shaping rights across legal orders. While at the Bonavero Institute, she will pursue these interests through a project on climate litigation before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, further developing her work on the role of courts as actors in the evolution of international human rights law. 

Gill Phillips is a freelance editorial legal consultant and qualified solicitor. She was the Guardian’s director of editorial legal services between 2009 and 2023, during which time she advised on a number of major investigations such as superinjunctions, Wikileaks, Edward Snowden, phone hacking, the Panama, Paradise and Pandora Papers and the Uber Files. During her time at the Bonavero Institute, she will explore the different ways in which the “public interest” defence, which is available to a variety of media law causes of action in the UK, operates. She will examine how the concept of public interest has developed in the freedom of expression sphere and how it is defined and deployed as a media defence.  

Evelyne Schmid is Professor of Public International Law at Lausanne University in Switzerland. Her focus is on positive obligations in international (human rights) law and state omissions in fulfilling them. While in residence at the Bonavero Institute, she will explore why some of the problems identified in earlier projects concerning the implementation of states’ duties to protect have proven so difficult to overcome, while also drawing on previous findings that highlight various actors’ agency in shaping what we make of international law. 

Neil Hicks has been a human rights practitioner with leading international and regional human rights organizations for over 40 years, beginning with Amnesty International in London in 1985 and then in New York with the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights/Human Rights First. His research at the Bonavero Institute focuses on the current crisis in human rights implementation, reflecting particularly on the experiences of local, regional and international practitioners working on promoting and protecting human rights in the Middle East and North Africa. 

Elizabeth Brumby is a barrister at the Victorian Bar in Melbourne, Australia. During her time as a Research Visitor at the Bonavero Institute, Elizabeth is exploring the evolving judicial treatment of executive or legislative ‘punishment’ in constitutional jurisprudence across common law jurisdictions, including as a means of protecting human rights in jurisdictions such as Australia, which lacks specifically enshrined constitutional rights or a legislated national bill of rights.