I'm a human rights campaigner with more than 15 years experience working with NGOs and social movements and running national and international campaigns. I was previously the Campaigns and Policy Director at War on Want for 7 years, and am currently the Deputy Regional Director - Campaigns, Europe at Amnesty International. 

I have worked in the refugee sector for 20 years and long admired Asylum Aid’s success in challenging the elements of the asylum system that leave people stranded. Having referred people for assistance over the years and seen the care and quality of the team’s work, I was proud to join the board in 2022.

I am Director of the Asylum Support Appeals Project, a small charity defending the legal rights to food and shelter of people within the asylum system. Previously I worked at Save the Children UK, influencing policies on safe routes and family reunion for children travelling from Europe to the UK. I spent 13 years at Refugee Action, managing policy strategy and developing services for people within the asylum system, and for those granted refugee status. I led a team at Refugee Council supporting a consortia of organisations offering advice on asylum support.

My grandfather came to the UK as a refugee, and I am astonished by how much harder it is these days to flee persecution and build a safe life in the UK. Asylum Aid’s work is so vital in supporting people to navigate this complex system.

Since May 2023, I've worked at Freedom from Torture as Website and Email Manager, where I look after many of the charity's digital products, content and analytics.

Previously, I worked at the Centre for Ageing Better, a charity that influences policy and practice on ageing, as Digital and Content Manager. In this role I oversaw the charity's digital channels, such as the website and social media, as well as leading on brand and visual content, including photography and video. My main passion lies in filmmaking and sharing the stories of people with lived experience.

Having read Philosophy at King's College London for my undergraduate degree, I'm currently studying a Masters in Human Rights Law at SOAS University of London. I have a special interest in international migration law, refugee rights and society's attitudes towards refugees. 

I'm also a Trustee at Britwell Youth and Community Project, a charity serving young people living on the Britwell Estate in Slough.

I joined the Board of Asylum Aid in December 2022.

I am a barrister practising from Garden Court North Chambers in Manchester. My practice covers asylum and human rights as well as housing and homelessness. I appear in the Immigration Asylum Tribunal representing asylum seekers, victims of trafficking and those seeking humanitarian protection. I am part of a great team of fellow barristers who generously share their expertise and experience. Prior to being called to the Bar I worked for the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in research, policy, and management roles with a focus on armed conflict in the Middle East and Africa. This work took me to Yemen, Iraq, and the Philippines where I interviewed people about their experiences of human rights abuse, persecution, and conflict. I was involved in strategic planning for the organisation – identifying priorities for research and campaigning.

I am delighted to be Asylum Aid’s Chair. I believe it is a role where I can use both my organisational experience at Amnesty International and knowledge of claiming asylum and protection gained from my day-to-day work. Many of Asylum Aid’s clients have experienced horrific abuse and persecution. They need time, support, and expertise to ensure their cases are properly heard. The reality is that Legal Aid does not cover this. Asylum Aid has a superb team of staff and volunteers who seek to fill this gap.  

I am the former President of the European Court of Human Rights, where I was the Judge of the Court elected in respect of the UK for 14 years. I am the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the British Institute of Human Rights and sat on the Helen Bamber Foundation’s Human Rights Advisory Group before joining their Board of Trustees in 2015. Now that Asylum Aid has joined the Helen Bamber Foundation Group, I am delighted to sit on the board of this exceptional charity as well. 

My experience is a source of advice and guidance and my motivation for joining was that it is a deeply regrettable fact that the use of torture, and other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment, and of slavery, including the pernicious trade of trafficking in human beings, continue to flourish in very many parts of the world, despite their absolute prohibition in international law. 

It was an immense honour to have been invited to join the Board of an organisation which, as one for long concerned with the protection of human rights, I hold in the very highest regard.

(Photograph is a derivative of "File:Ministru prezidents tiekas ar ECT priekšsēdētāju (7183548173).jpg" by State Chancellery of Latvia is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

I joined Asylum Aid in 2020 as Treasurer. I am a Chartered Accountant and have spent most of my career working in the NHS. I have been a trustee on various organisations from a drug rehabilitation charity to an Opera house, and with two friends set up a charity supporting a school in Uganda for children with special needs.

Over the last couple of years, I have taken on the role of grandad. It is when I think about my granddaughters, loved, happy and secure, that I feel most passionately about the work that  Asylum Aid does.

I am a Trustee of Asylum Aid, having joined the board in 2020. I am a lawyer by profession.  My area of practice is international law and arbitration.  After 20 years at Freshfields, I together with others founded Three Crowns, a global arbitration firm in 2014, with offices in London, Paris, Washington DC and now Bahrain.  I have been named as one of the “Top 20” individuals in the world of commercial arbitration by Who’s Who Legal every year since 2011.  I am a co-author of the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions of the leading textbook on international arbitration, Redfern and Hunter on International Arbitration.  I am a solicitor-advocate (Higher Courts Civil) and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2014.

I have appeared as counsel on some of the largest commercial arbitrations of the last decade-plus, many of which relate to the energy sector.  Most recently, I have been lead counsel for commercial clients in claims arising against sovereigns and State entities in Venezuela, Algeria, Nigeria, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Kazakhstan.  I have also represented a variety of investors and States in relation to disputes under relevant bilateral and multilateral investment treaties, and was counsel of record in high-profile ICSID successes for the Republic of Kenya in World Duty Free v. Republic of Kenya and the Republic of Lithuania in Parkerings v. Republic of Lithuania.  

With a strong interest in the plight of refugees, I was drawn to Asylum Aid by the high quality team delivering practical, policy and life changing services on a daily basis.  I hope now to contribute to that effort at a time when it is more needed than ever.