User:AliceJillEdwards/sandbox

Alice Jill Edwards (Born 1972, Tasmania, British-Australian) is an international lawyer, academic and author.

Since January 2016, she has been the Head of the Secretariat at the Convention against Torture Initiative (CTI), a globally unique inter-governmental diplomatic endeavour of six governments to encourage and inspire the universal ratification and application of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT). The Initiative is being led by the Governments of Chile, Denmark, Fiji, Ghana, Indonesia and Morocco, and is based in Geneva, Switzerland.

From 2010-2015, she was Chief of Policy and Legal Advice at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in Geneva, Switzerland, being the youngest woman appointed to this key global position. She has held academic appointments in law at the universities of Oxford and Nottingham, teaches at universities around the world, and is widely published with over 30 publications. She has worked in diverse countries with the United Nations and non-governmental organisations, including in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Morocco, Mozambique, Rwanda, and at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London.

She is recognised as a leading international legal scholar and campaigner and has won awards for her work in advancing women's rights against violence. In 2017 she was widely publicised for her international work and outstanding contributions to humanity

Her research into alternatives to immigration detention commissioned by the UNHCR has been widely cited and influenced public policy changes in a wide number of countries

In 2020, she took a public stand against sexual harassment of women in the workplace and publicly shared her experience amid similar allegations against retired Justice Dyson Heydon of the High Court of Australia

She is the sister of former international model Skye-Jilly Edwards