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September 2025 - August 2026
Study Mode Full-time
Application start 4 November 2024
Application end 15 January 2025

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Clara Sandoval

Clara Sandoval

Professor at the University of Essex School of Law and Director of the Essex Transitional Justice Network

Areas of expertise

International Human Rights Law  /  Economic, Social and Cultural Rights  /  Reparations  /  Transitional Justice  /  Regional Human Rights Mechanisms  /  Inter-American Human Rights System  /  Guarantees of Non-Repetition  /  Non-State Actors and Transitional Justice

Clara Sandoval is a Professor at the School of Law and Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex (currently on leave), a founding member of the Essex Transitional Justice Network at Essex, and the Director of Programmes at the Global Survivors Fund, a multistakeholder Fund established by Dr Mukwege and Nadia Murat, Nobel Peace Prize laureates (2018) to enable reparation for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.

She is an expert in transitional justice, the Inter-American System of Human Rights, reparations, and implementation of human rights orders. She enjoys both the theory and practice of human rights law and transitional justice.

Professor Sandoval has published widely on transitional justice and reparations. She is the co-author of the book Reparations for Victims of Armed Conflicts, (Third volume of the Max Planck Trialogues on the Law of Peace and War,  edited by Anne Peters and Christian Marxsen, CUP, 2020) and of the book Doctrine, Practice, and Advocacy in the Inter-American Human Rights System (OUP, 2019).

Professor Sandoval has been the acting Director of the Essex Human Rights Centre and a former Director of the LLM in International Human Rights Law at the University of Essex. 

Clara was a co-investigator of the AHRC GCRF Urgency Grant ‘Legitimacy, Accountability, Victims' Participation and Reparation in Transitional Justice Settings - Lessons from and for Colombia’. She was also a co-investigator on the ESRC research-funded project on Human Rights Law Implementation where she led work on the Americas region, focusing on Colombia, Guatemala and Canada as case studies. She has also been a co-investigator on the AHRC-funded research project on Reparations, Responsibility and Victimhood in Transitional Societies looking at reparation in six countries including Nepal, Colombia, Uganda, Northern Ireland, Peru and Guatemala.

Clara was appointed in 2017 as one of four experts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to advice the ICC on various questions surrounding the award of reparations in the Jean Pierre Bemba case (Situation in the Central African Republic) and acted as an expert on reparations before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Jineth Bedoya Lima and other v. Colombia. She also engaged in human rights litigation, training and capacity building with organisations like REDRESS. Her latest litigation before the Inter-American System was the case of Azul Rojas Marin and Other v. Peru, decided by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in March 2020.

Clara has also been a consultant for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for which she wrote the Special Issue on Transitional Justice and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the draft of the UN Guidance Note of the Secretary-General on Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. More recently, in 2018–2019 Clara supported the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition in the preparation (consultation and writing) of the report on best practices and lessons learned on domestic reparation programmes. Clara also worked as a consultant for the Ministry of Justice in Colombia providing advice on transitional justice issues during the peace negotiations with the FARC.

Professor Sandoval is a qualified lawyer, has an MA and PhD from the University of Essex and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Taught Courses

Kosovo, Mejë/Meja. A ‘Field of Tears’ cemetery and memorial site represents the event during which, the biggest number of persons disappeared in Kosovo. Master in transitional justice - Course

Victims and Human Rights Law

This course aims to provide students with the foundations of international human rights law (IHRL) as well as with an understanding of transitional justice from a human rights law perspective.

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Colombia, Medellín, Bellavista prison. The ICRC frequently visits the prisons of the country. Prison overcrowding is one of the main issues. LLM - Course

International Human Rights Law

This course provides a comprehensive overview of the main topics of international human rights law and its relationship with international humanitarian law.

 

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Publications

Cover page of the book

Doctrine, Practice, and Advocacy in the Inter-American Human Rights System

July 2019

Clara Sandoval, Bernard Duhaime , James L. Cavallaro, Claret Vargas,

Oxford University Press

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Cover of Guidance Note of the Secretary-General – Reparations for Conflict Related Sexual Violence

Guidance Note of the Secretary-General – Reparations for Conflict Related Sexual Violence

June 2014

Clara Sandoval

OHCHR

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Cover of the book Linking Transitional Justice and Corporate Accountability

Linking Transitional Justice and Corporate Accountability

January 2014

Clara Sandoval, Leonardo Filippini, Roberto Vidal

Routledge

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Cover of the book Transitional Justice and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Transitional Justice and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

January 2014

Clara Sandoval

OHCHR

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