On Human Rights

Hanifa Girowal, Research Fellow to the RWI Afghanistan Programme reflects on working with human rights at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission as well as serving as Deputy Governor on socioeconomic affairs in Kabul. Her research, which focuses on human rights violations in her country, along with her upcoming publications, provide context and nuance to our understanding of the fight for women ́s rights in Afghanistan.

Ms. Evelyn Adzovi Addor is a Climate Youth Negotiators Programme-trained Loss and Damage Negotiator for Ghana and the African Group of Negotiators. She is a development communications professional and the communications lead at EcoCare Ghana, a right-based natural resources and environmental advocacy non-governmental organisation in Ghana. Evelyn is passionate about designing campaigns to increase climate change awareness and influencing climate policy at the local, national and international levels. She is also a trained Climate Reality leader, and a member of the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Forest Watch Ghana and the Youth in Natural Resources and Environmental Governance Platform. Through her work, Evelyn develops and implements stakeholder engagement strategies to safeguard the rights of people living in forest-fringed and vulnerable local communities in Ghana. As part of EcoCare Ghana’s Cocoa Governance and Advocacy Project, she works on protecting the lands rights of Migrant Cocoa Farmers in the Wassa Amenfi East District of Ghana, securing Tree Tenure Rights for farmers and Living Income for Cocoa Farmers in Ghana. As a member of FEMNET, Evelyn works in solidarity with other women across the continent to promote the voices of African Women in Climate Change at the local, national and international levels. She has been active in the youth climate space in Ghana, enhancing youth voices and has been instrumental in youth-led campaigns in Ghana such as the Anti-Coal Campaign, Renewable Energy for Communities, Climate Strikes, and Save Atewa Forest Campaign among others

Hamid A. Formuli is a human rights practitioner, former career diplomat and a Research Fellow with RWI's Afghanistan program in 2024. His tenure at the Afghan foreign service spans over 8 years, boasting an impactful career across various roles, starting from a consular associate, law and treaties officer to special aide to the deputy foreign minister for economic cooperation. Hamid previously served as the Head of the Human Rights Section of the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the UN in Geneva, and alternative permanent representative to the Human Rights Council during Afghanistan’s first ever membership of the body and as an expert at its Bureau during Afghanistan’s vice–presidency in 2020. Since 2022 Hamid Formuli has been a founding member and Senior Fellow at the Center for Dialogue and Progress – Geneva, where he leads activities on human rights monitoring and advocacy through research, legal analysis, and events organization. Academically, he holds a Bachelors in Law and Political Science from Kabul University and earned a Master (Summa Cum Laude) of International Studies from Seoul National University, South Korea, focusing on International Development Cooperation Policy and Global Governance. His research interests include nexus between conflict and development, International and UN-mandated accountability mechanisms, politics of international human rights action, and management of diversity in pluricultural societies.

Ehsan Qaane was a Research Fellow for the Afghanistan Programme in 2023. Prior to this, he worked with Afghanistan Analysts Network, a policy researcher organisation, as a political and legal affairs researcher (2012-2022) and as the country director (2017-2020). He is a member of and adviser to several human rights networks in Afghanistan, including the Afghanistan Forensics Science Organisation (AFSO) and Transitional Justice Coordination Group (TJCG). He has published a vast amount of research on the conflict in Afghanistan, the International Criminal Court’s engagement in Afghanistan, human rights and international humanitarian law. He worked as a visiting professional at the International Criminal Court.

Dr. Claudia Ituarte-Lima is Leader of the Human Rights and the Environment thematic area and senior researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. Her work unites legal analysis and sustainability science for examining environmental and human rights governance challenges and innovative levers to address them. She has bridged the human rights and biodiversity “communities of practice” through leading research such in the Biodiversa project on safeguarding ecosystems and human rights through law and regulation. Read more here: https://rwi.lu.se/human-rights-and-the-environment-2/