Dr Sabina Garahan

Biography

Dr Sabina Garahan is a Lecturer in Criminal Law at Essex Law School and Co-Director of the Arbitrary Detention Redress Unit. Her research primarily concerns the rights of detained persons under international law. She completed her AHRC-funded doctoral research at the Essex Human Rights Centre, focusing on protections against arbitrary detention under European human rights law. Sabina consults regularly on international human rights law and policy in an expert capacity and is a member of the Fair Trials Legal Experts Advisory Panel. Sabina provides expert advice and opinion to the OSCE/ODIHR on a range of rule of law and human rights issues. Her criminal justice expertise includes the death penalty, fair trial rights, and racial discrimination in justice systems. Her work on human rights, gender and security has addressed the risks faced by women peacebuilders, violence against women and girls during emergencies, and institutional police cultures and accountability. She has advised on the international humanitarian law implications of a range of situations in past and ongoing armed conflicts. As an expert consultant, Sabina has delivered legal and policy reform recommendations on criminal justice and equality standards to key stakeholders, including government representatives, judicial bodies and civil society organisations. Sabina has also consulted for NGOs including Penal Reform International and the Equal Rights Trust on matters relating to prisoners’ rights and equality and non-discrimination frameworks. She has conducted research on various aspects of the right to health for the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health and Just Fair, including mental health provision and inequality of access to services. Sabina is a former Employment Caseworker at the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain and Community Legal Adviser at Community Links. She has volunteered for organisations including Reprieve and the Free Representation Unit, and is a former member of the Death Penalty Sentencing Mitigation Unit. Sabina previously worked as a Judicial Assistant to former President Robert Spano at the European Court of Human Rights and as a Research Assistant at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. She is a former Editorial Board member at the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. Sabina holds an LLB in Law with French Law from University College London, graduating with a faculty prize, and a Certificat Supérieur de Droit Français et Européen from Panthéon-Assas University, Paris. She completed her LLM in International Human Rights Law at the Essex Human Rights Centre with Distinction, funded by a County of Essex Scholarship. She is a previous recipient of the iCourts/PluriCourts High-Level PhD Summer School Scholarship.

Qualifications

• PhD Law University of Essex, (2023)

• LLM International Human Rights Law University of Essex, (2016)

• LLB Law with French Law University College London, (2014)

• Certificat Supérieur de Droit Français et Européen Panthéon-Assas University, (2013)

Appointments

University of Essex

• Co-Director, Arbitrary Detention Redress Unit (4/9/2023 - present)

• Year 1 Student Support and Progress Lead, Essex Law School (4/9/2023 - present)

Other academic

• Lecturer, University of Essex (23/1/2023 - present)

• Assistant Lecturer, University of Essex (8/10/2018 - present)

• Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy (4/9/2019 - present)