BIHR Staff

BIHR has ten staff, and is also supported by interns and volunteers. We have eleven trustees, and more than twenty members on our advisory board. We have over two hundred Friends who support us in financial and other ways. See BIHR's organisational map here.

Director: Katie Ghose

Katie joined BIHR in September 2005. She is a public affairs specialist and barrister with a background in human rights law and immigration. She has worked for several not-for-profit organisations including Age Concern England as well as in Parliament as an MP's researcher. She is an experienced trainer, who has developed and delivered seminars and courses on campaigns and lobbying for not-for-profit organisations and the legal profession. She is a trustee for Stonewall and has previously been the Chair of Trustees at Asylum Aid and BID. Katie was a member of the taskforce advising the government on the Commission for Equality and Human Rights. Legal Action Group published Katie's first book, Beyond the Courtroom: a lawyer's guide to campaigning, in 2005. Katie advises organisations, writes and lectures on campaigning in the UK.

kghose@bihr.org.uk

Head of Policy and Public Affairs: Jean Candler (maternity leave)

Jean has been working at BIHR since April 2008. She is taking forward a new strategy for increasing BIHR's influence and communicating to a wider public the immense scope and value of human rights for all people in the UK.

Jean has recently returned to the UK after working on human rights for development in Ethiopia. She worked to empower and give voice to poor and marginalised communities, through raising awareness of human rights and developing Human Rights Based Approaches to Development. 

Prior to working in Ethiopia, Jean worked for six years in the advocacy team of the Refugee Council, campaigning for rights for refugees and asylum seekers.

She has a MA in Human Rights from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, based in the University of London. 

 jcandler@bihr.org.uk

Acting Training and Consultancy Manager: Lucy Matthews

Lucy joined BIHR as a member of staff in January 2005 after completing her MA in Human Rights at University College London. Lucy currently manages BIHR's Training and Consultancy services and leads on our national Human Rights in Healthcare project. She is also responsible for the production and dissemination of BIHR's information resources such as the Your Human Rights guides - a series of four plain English, non-technical guides providing practical information about human rights in the UK

lmatthews@bihr.org.uk

Acting Policy and Public Affairs Manager: Sanchita Hosali

Sanchita joined BIHR in October 2008 as Policy Officer and as of Feb 2010 is our Acting Policy and Public Affairs Manger. Together with the Director, she is responsible for developing and delivering BIHR's growing portfolio of policy activities and public affairs work.
 
Sanchita completed an LLB in Law in 2001 and a LLM in Human Rights Law in 2002, during which she interned with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in New York and the World Health Organisation in Geneva. Sanchita has a background in human rights research, policy and strategy development, with a particular emphasis on women's rights and Black and Minority Ethnic communities. Before joining BIHR Sanchita worked in academic institutions on multi-country projects, national and pan-regional organisations and as a freelance researcher. She has been involved in the research, drafting and editing of a number of publications and campaigned for legal reforms on a number of human rights issues, including asylum and immigration, domestic violence, sexual violence, forced marriage, discrimination and equality, access to justice and human rights monitoring. Sanchita is currently Chair of the Management Committee of Rights of Women, a national women’s organisation.

shosali@bihr.org.uk

Poverty and Human Rights Officer: Roisin Cavanagh

Roisin joined BIHR in February 2007. She initially led BIHR's work on building the capacity of civil society organisations to understand and use human rights in their work. She currently manages the Poverty and Human Rights project, a 2 year project which aims to help people and communities in London experiencing poverty to use human rights to challenge their situation. Prior to coming to BIHR, she managed the UK-wide Refugee Week education project Global Communities at the Refugee Council, which aimed to provide educational resources and training to teachers, educational professionals and young people around the UK on global migration issues, with the aim of reducing discrimination towards those seeking sanctuary in the UK. Before moving to London, Roisin lived and worked in Brighton where she undertook a range of roles providing practical and emotional support and advocacy to young people experiencing poverty and other forms of social exclusion. Before embarking on these roles, she studied an MA in Gender and Development at the Institute of Development Studies - gaining a wide knowledge base of social and economic development, the gender implications of poverty and participatory methodology within a community development context. The two years preceding this, Roisin lived in Japan and worked as an English teacher on the JET Programme.

rcavanagh@bihr.org.uk

Training and Consultancy Officer: Ellie Keen

Ellie joined BIHR in July 2009 as Training and Consultancy Officer. Her experience prior to this included work at international level, as project manager, trainer and consultant on human rights advocacy and education. She lived and worked in Russia for several years and was engaged in long-term projects throughout Europe for Amnesty International, Conciliation Resources and the Council of Europe.

Ellie has experience of working with a wide range of clients in both the public and voluntary sectors, particularly in the field of education. She has authored various training manuals and awareness raising publications on human rights at national and at international level. At BIHR, Ellie is responsible for the delivery of training and consultancy to public and third sector clients.

ekeen@bihr.org.uk

 

Voluntary and Community Sector Development Officer: Sonia Omar

Sonia joined BIHR in September 2008 as Voluntary and Community Sector Development Officer. She is responsible for leading the Principles to Practice work with a focus on capacity building with the voluntary and community sector across the UK.

Before joining BIHR she worked as an International Campaigner and Human Rights Education Officer, and delivered training for Amnesty International in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa on identity based discrimination and violence against women. More recently she ran a human rights advocacy training programme for UK-based refugees and asylum seekers with Education Action International.

Prior to human rights work, Sonia worked in Middle East broadcasting as a researcher and productions assistant for Abu Dhabi TV and Arab News Network. She also led educational trips around Morocco and taught English as a Foreign language. She is fluent in French and also speaks Arabic.

somar@bihr.org.uk

Training and Consultancy Assistant: Celine Rotcajg

Celine joined BIHR in September 2009 as Training and Consultancy Assistant. She is responsible for the administrative coordination of BIHR's training and consultancy work.

Prior to joining BIHR, Celine completed an MA in law at the University of Paris la Sorbonne-University Autonoma of Madrid and an LLM in Public International Law specialized in human rights law at the University of Amsterdam .

More recently, Celine was an intern for the Human Rights Education team of the International Secretariat of Amnesty International. She worked on the Human Rights Friendly Schools project, a two-year pilot project which aims to promote human rights based approaches in secondary schools. Celine also volunteered in the Human Rights Education team of Amnesty International Madrid working in secondary schools. She is fluent in French and Spanish.

 

PA/Office Co-ordinator: Geraldine Creaven

Geraldine joined BIHR in August 2009, as PA to Katie Ghose, and office co-ordinator (maternity cover). Prior to joining BIHR Geraldine was Manager of Forum for the Future's Masters in Leadership for Sustainable Development, and prior to that she managed the administrative team and training programmes at Regent's College School of Psychotherapy and Counselling. She has also worked in a variety of NHS settings in an administrative capacity, including managing the secretariat of an HIV/AIDS clinic and community mental health resource centres. She also trained and worked as a Relate couple counsellor for 5 years.