Biography

Claire Mahon is an international human rights lawyer based in Geneva, Switzerland. She is a dual national of Australia and New Zealand. She has practiced as a lawyer both at the national and international level. 

She is the joint Coordinator of the Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, a Research Associate and occassional Senior Lecturer at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Research Unit on the Right to Food), and an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. She also regularly teaches as a guest lecturer in various university courses on the topics of international human rights law, international organisations and public international law.

She has previously worked for Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, the International Service for Human Rights, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her work has focused on monitoring economic, social and cultural rights, including in the field. She has experience in designing and providing training on international human rights law and practice to diplomats, advocates, field officers, UN staff, and students in over 20 countries.

Claire has published on a variety of international human rights law topics, for academic publications and non-governmental organisations.  She is the principle author of Fair Play for Housing Rights: Mega-Events, Olympic Games and Housing Rights (Geneva: COHRE, 2007), and prepared the MultiStakeholder Guidelines for Mega-Events and Housing Rights (Geneva: COHRE, 2007), published in French, Spanish and Chinese.  She is the co-author of the forthcoming book The Right to Food: Challenges and Prospects (with Jean Ziegler, Christophe Golay and Sally-Anne Way), and the co-editor of Realizing the Right to Health (with Andrew Clapham, Mary Robsinson, and Scott Jerbi), to be published by Rüffer and Rub in May 2009.  She has co-authored several UN reports, including the 2007 and 2008 annual reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, and the report on his mission to Cuba.  She writes a monthly column as ‘Foreign Correspondent’ on human rights issues at the UN in the Australian Human Rights Law Resource Centre Bulletin.

In 2007 Claire was invited to participate in the Programme des personnalités d’avenir (future world leaders programme) by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, only the second to be selected for work in global affairs.  In 2003 she was awarded the Paul Baker Memorial Prize by the Law Institute of Victoria for her contribution to human rights law in Australia. Prior to moving to Geneva, Claire worked as a corporate lawyer in mergers and acquisitions, at a top Australian law firm, Corrs Chambers Westgarth.

Claire holds a Diplôme d’études approfondies (LLM/M.Phil equivalent) in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International Studies; a Bachelor of Laws (with Honours) from the Australian National University (ANU); a Bachelor of Arts (International Relations and Development Studies) from ANU; and is completing a PhD on the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.  She holds a diploma in French, and works in English and (embarrassingly badly) in French.

Curriculum Vitae

A copy of Claire's CV can be obtained on request.