Bio
Professor Dr Jeremy Julian Sarkin is Distinguished Research Professor of Law at NOVA University of Lisbon in Lisbon, Portugal. He teaches courses on human rights and transitional justice as well as a doctoral course on methodology of legal research. He taught at the Fletcher School from 2006 to 2008. He has a BA LLB from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School and a Doctor of Laws degree on comparative and international law from the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Cape Town, South Africa.
He is admitted to practice as an attorney in New York and South Africa. He has served as an acting judge in the High Court in South Africa. He served as Chairperson-Rapporteur of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances for three years and was a member of the group for six years. He is member of 16 journal editorial boards. He has published 20 books and more than 350 journal articles and book chapters.
He is presently working on migration issues, gender, environmental justice, drones, genocide, enforced disappearances, music and human rights, and a few other issues. His proposal for a mechanism to deal with missing and disappeared persons in Syria was accepted by the UN General Assembly in June 2023 and is being currently set up.
Recent publications
Books
The Global Impact and Legacy of Truth Commissions (2019)
Africa’s Role In, and Contribution To, International Criminal Justice (2020)
The Conflict in Syria and the Failure of International Law to Protect People Globally: Mass Atrocities, Enforced Disappearances and Arbitrary Detentions. (2022)
Articles
(2024 with Tatiana Morais) “Agency and Vulnerability of Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Women in the Face of States’ Failure to Protect against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence” (Refereed) 46 Human Rights Quarterly (August 2024) 523–548
(2024) “Foreword: The Interrelationship of Climate Change, Climate Justice but also Environmental Justice” in Subhram Rajkhowa and Sriparna Rajkhowa (eds) Climate Change and Climate Justice (2024) Satyam Law International Publishers v – xiii.
(2024 with Saba Sotoudehfar) “Artificial Intelligence and Arms Races in the Middle East: The Evolution of Technology and its Implications for Regional and International Security” Defence & Security Analysis (March 2024) 40(1) 1–23.
(2023 with Saba Sotoudehfar) “Drones on the Frontline: Charting the Use of Drones in the Russo-Ukrainian Conflict and How Their Use May Be Violating International Humanitarian Law.” International and Comparative Law Review (2/2023/ November/December 2023). 129-169
(2023 with Ines Pereira Lopes) “Making Criminal Trials Work in Transitional Settings: Combining Retributive and Restorative Justice to Overcome the Justice Versus Peace Dilemma” Internet Journal of Restorative Justice 1-25
(2023 with Ines Pereira Lopes) “Reaching for Both Justice and Peace in Colombia: Understanding the Special Jurisdiction For Peace’s Mixed Approach to Dealing With International Crimes” Contemporary Justice Review 26(2) 123-144.
2023 with Tatiana Morais) “A Cost–Benefit Assessment of Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Women Reporting Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Uganda: Assessing Women’s Resilience as a Means to Protect their Ethnoreligious Group” 38 (1) Southern African Public Law 1-29.
(2023) “Will the International Criminal Court (ICC) Be Able to Secure the Arrest of Vladimir Putin When He Travels: Understanding State Cooperation Through Other ICC Non-Arrest Cases Against Malawi, Chad, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Djibouti, Uganda, and Jordan.” 12(1) International Human Rights Law Review 26-68.
(2022 with Tatiana Morais) “Why States Need to View Their Responsibility to Protect Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Women Through the Lens of Intersectionality, Vulnerability, and Matrix of Domination to Address Sexual and Gender-Based Violence 33(6) European Human Rights Law Review 554-570.
(2022 with Ross Capazorio) “The Syrian Conflict as a Test Case for the Limits of the International Community and International Law: Global Politics and State Sovereignty versus Human Rights Protection.” Human Rights Quarterly 44(3) (August 2022) 476–513.
(2022) “Introduction: Understanding How the Historical, Democratic and Human Rights Contexts of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia Affect the Search, Exhumation, and Identification of Conflict-Related Missing Persons in the South Caucasus” Caucasus Survey 10(2) July 2022 155-177.
(2022) ” Law and State Practice in Armenia: Dealing with the Issues Concerning the Search, Exhumation and Identification of Missing Persons in Conflict Zones” Caucasus Survey 10(2) July 2022 178- 200.
(2022) ” Law and State Practice in Azerbaijan: Dealing with the Issues Concerning the Search, Exhumation and Identification of Missing Persons in Conflict Zones” Caucasus Survey 10(2) 201-222 July 2022.
(2022) ” Law and State Practice in Georgia: Dealing with the Issues Concerning the Search, Exhumation and Identification of Missing Persons in Conflict Zones” Caucasus Survey 10(2) July 2022 223-243.
(2022 with Eryn Sarkin) “Reforming the International Court of Justice to Deal with State Responsibility for Conflict and Human Rights Violations” International Human Rights Law Review 11(1) (2022) 1-35.
(2022 with Tatiana Morais) “The Importance of Adopting an Intersectionality Approach to Refugee Status Determination Procedures: Lessons from Greece, Israel, and Uganda” International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care 18(3) 193-206.
(2022 with Elisenda Calvet Martinez) “Why the Systematic State Practice of Enforced Disappearance of Children Are Often Instances of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity: Strategies for Preventing Future Occurrences And Solving Past Cases” Catholic University Law Review 71(1) 33-103, Washington DC, United States of America
(2022) “Amnesty and Truth Commissions” in Oxford Handbook on Atrocity Crimes Edited by Barbora Hola, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, and Maartje Weerdesteijn Oxford University Press (675-702).