Melanie O'Brien

Dr Melanie O’Brien is Professor of International Law & Deputy Head of School (Research) at the University of Western Australia Law School. She is immediate past President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) (2022-25). Professor O'Brien was a 2023-24 Visiting Professor at the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, University of Minnesota, USA; and is a Visiting Scholar at the Human Rights Center, Law School, University of Minnesota. The International Criminal Court has cited Professor O'Brien's work on forced marriage, and she has been an amica curia before the ICC. She has been an expert consultant for multiple UN bodies, including the UN Special Advisor on Genocide Prevention and the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran. She is the recipient of the Aurora Mardiganian Commemorative Medal from the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute for her work on the Armenian Genocide and Nagorno-Karabakh. Professor O'Brien is widely consulted by global media for her expertise on international criminal law. She has conducted fieldwork and research across six continents; and is part of the Ukraine Peace Settlement Project. Professor O'Brien is a member of the WA International Humanitarian Law Committee of the Australian Red Cross. She was a 2022 Research Fellow at the Sydney Jewish Museum & a 2023 Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Loughborough, UK. Professor O'Brien is the author of Criminalising Peacekeepers: Modernising National Approaches to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (Palgrave, 2017) and From Discrimination to Death: Genocide Process through a Human Rights Lens (Routledge, 2023, Australian Legal Research Awards finalist). She is currently writing a book titled The Genocide Convention in the International Court of Justice, to be published with OUP. For media requests, please contact [email protected] International criminal law, genocide studies, international human rights law, international humanitarian law (IHL), feminist legal theory, public international law, comparative criminal law, peacekeeping, and military law. Research expertise keywords: International criminal law, Human rights law, Human Rights, International humanitarian law, Feminism and feminist theory, United Nations, Comparative Criminal Law, International Law/ Human Rights, International Law, International Law/ Criminal Law, Criminal Law, Criminology, Genocide Studies, war crimes.