OPBP Committee
The OPBP student Executive Committee for the year 2023/24
Rosario Grima Algora
Chair
Rosario Grimà Algora is a DPhil Candidate at the Faculty of Law under the supervision of Prof Shazia Choudhry and Dr Barbara Havelková. Her DPhil research focuses on constitutional and human rights remedies in cases of gender-based violence. Rosario is the Graduate Teaching Assistant for the course of Feminist Perspectives on the Law (2023/2024), and a convenor of the Feminist Jurisprudence Discussion Group. Before coming to Oxford, Rosario worked at UN Women, and at the Center for Reproductive Rights. She holds an LLM from Columbia University (2021/2022) and LSE (2016/2017), and graduated in Political Science and Law from the Autnomous University of Madrid.
Catherine Savard
Deputy Chair
Catherine Savard is a lawyer and an MPhil in Law candidate at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the emerging prohibition of ecocide in international law. She holds a master's degree (LL.M.) with honours from Laval University, where she wrote a thesis on genocidal intent in international law. Before joining Oxford, Catherine clerked both at the Supreme Court of Canada and the Québec Court of Appeal. She also served as a legal adviser for Canada's National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and co-wrote the Inquiry's 'Legal Analysis on Genocide'. She also worked as a legal advisor in support of the truth and reconciliation processes in French Guiana and Guinea. From 2017 to 2021, she co-coordinated a multi-million Canada-wide research project, the 'Canadian Partnership for International Justice', which brought together prominent international scholars, practitioners and NGOs, to co-create knowledge and fight against impunity for international crimes.
Aimee Clesi
Treasurer and Research Officer
Aimee Clesi is currently reading for the MPhil in Criminology and Criminal Justice and serves as a graduate research assistant for the Death Penalty Research Unit at the University of Oxford. She has worked at every level of the judiciary in Florida, including the state supreme court and federal trial court, and aims to challenge wrongful convictions and the death penalty as a lawyer in the American South. She is from the cave diving capital of the world, Branford, Florida, and enjoys distance running and swimming the Ichetucknee River just five minutes from her home.
Emily Foale
Internships Officer and Research Officer
Emily is an MSc student in the International Human Rights Law course. Alongside studying, she works as a Programme Lawyer at the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute, working on freedom of expression, and providing Secretariat to the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom.
Isabella Ruiz dos Santos Miguel
Communications Officer and Research Officer
Isabella is reading for the MSc in International Human Rights Law. She is a lawyer from Brazil who specialises in human rights, migration, and refugee law. Before joining Oxford, she worked for Caritas Arquidiocesana, an NGO that assists refugees and asylum seekers in the city of São Paulo.
Ashita Alag
Research Officer
Ashita is a DPhil in law candidate at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on sexual violence laws and the feminist movement in India. She is an Oxford-Farthing scholar at Pembroke College. Ashita is passionate about issues related to human rights and gender justice, and has experience working on women’s rights in India, Afghanistan and the US.
Emilie Weidl
Research Officer
Émilie Weidl is an MPhil student at the Faculty of Law researching regional gender stereotypes and gender discrimination in Russia under international human rights instruments. She holds an Honours Degree in Political Science: Law and Politics specialisation with a minor in German from the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. In 2023, she completed her dual Bachelor of Civil Law and JD degrees at the University of McGill. During her second year there, she worked for the Court Challenges Program housed at the University of Ottawa, which is an independent governmental body funding test cases in human rights and language rights. She also aided in the preparation of a human rights challenge concerning migrant workers through Pro Bono Students Canada.
In addition to her interest in human rights, Émilie possesses a strong passion for language rights. Her co-authored chapter D’un océan à l’autre : rétrospective sur le bilinguisme officiel à la Trudeau was published in an edited volume, as well as in the special edition of the Supreme Court Law Review. She has also co-authored another chapter which is set to release later this year focusing on Quebec’s unilateral amendments to the Canadian Constitution as part of Bill 96. At the end of her bachelor’s degree in political science, she wrote a thesis on language assimilation in Ontario and New Brunswick.