Arvind Kurian Abraham

Arvind Kurian Abraham is an Oxford Policy Engagement Network Fellow at Oxford University. His focus is on human rights, constitutional law and legislative advocacy. He worked as the Legislative Advisor to Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament of India, and drafted several Bills dealing with civil liberties, which were introduced in the Parliament. He assisted in the drafting of a Bill to deal with hate crimes and mob lynching in the country, which was introduced in the Parliament and was later adopted as state law in three states of India. These are the first state level statutes in India to recognize sexual orientation as a protected characteristic.

He is a gold medalist from NUJS, Kolkata, where he obtained his B.A LLB (Hons) degree. He also holds an LLM from Harvard Law School, where he specialized in in constitutional law and human rights. In his capacity as a member of the HLS Advocates for Human Rights, he assisted the UN Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in preparing for an important state visit. He worked as a researcher at Harvard Law School, where he worked on a comparative constitutional law project concerning US and India’s approach to state neutrality in relation to religion.

While in residence at the Bonavero Institute, he will collaborate with scholars at the Faculty of Law to identify policy and legal measures to address the grave inequalities in India, that have been particularly exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, with a view to informing comprehensive equality legislation in India.