Gayathree Devi Kalliyat Thazhathuveetil

Biography

Gayathree is a Master of Philosophy candidate in Public International Law at the University of Oxford. She is undertaking research under the supervision of Dr Efthymios Papastavridis on the approaches that the European Court of Human Rights adopts to determine State responsibility for human rights violations in contested territories. She is the HSA Advocates Law Scholar at the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development, Somerville College.

In 2019, Gayathree obtained the Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) degree with distinction from Oxford. She completed the course on the Ratanshaw Bomanji Zaiwalla Law Scholarship at Somerville College, and was awarded the Law Faculty Prize in International Law & Armed Conflict, the Winter Williams Prize in International Economic Law and the Archibald Jackson Prize for Academic Excellence (Somerville College) for her performance on the BCL. Before coming to Oxford, she completed BA,LLB (Hons) at Gujarat National Law University, India and is qualified to practice law in India.

Gayathree has been the External Relations Officer of the Oxford Transitional Justice Research Group since 2018. She currently serves as the Co-Chairperson of Oxford Pro Bono Publico and as the President of the Oxford South Asian Society. She is also a Graduate Research Resident at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, and an Associate Editor of the Indian Law Review.

In 2017, Gayathree interned at the International Law Commission, and researched on issues of immunity of State officials, State Succession in respect of State Responsibility and jus cogens norms. In 2018, she worked as a Teaching Assistant at Ashoka University, India, and taught modules on public international law. She is currently working as an Events Assistant at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights.

Gayathree is passionate about human rights advocacy, and has won moots like the Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court and Blackstone Human Rights Moot, in addition to making it to the Advanced Rounds at the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, 2018. She regularly conducts mooting sessions for students at Oxford and coaches teams.