
Tim Cooke-Hurle and Jelia Sané have completed a 17-month ...Read more
Jelia Sané practices in international law, and immigration and asylum law. A member of Chambers’ Children’s Rights Group, she is particularly interested in the nexus between these areas and child rights.
Jelia’s international law practice is based around international criminal law and international human rights law and includes victim/claimant representation before international courts and tribunals; human rights and criminal investigations; policy-oriented research; and training and capacity-building. She is instructed by individuals, NGOs, and United Nations and other inter-governmental organisations. Recent and ongoing instructions include representing victims of the Rohingya genocide before the International Criminal Court; advising an international human rights NGOs on EU sanctions for perpetrators of international crimes and other gross human rights abuses in Sri Lanka; and advising the Centre for Women’s Justice on the UK’s obligations to investigate and prosecute sexual violence against black and other ethnic minority women under international law.
Jelia has a particular interest in international crimes against/affecting children and sexual and gender-based crimes. In 2023, she worked as a legal consultant in Ukraine with Global Rights Compliance and advised Ukrainian prosecutors on the conduct of investigations into conflict-related crimes against/affecting children allegedly perpetrated by Russian officials since 2014. Between 2020 and 2022, she was the Senior Legal and Policy Adviser at the All Survivors Project, an international NGO working on accountability for conflict-related sexual violence against men and boys. In addition, Jelia has advised on cases before the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights, and the UN treaty monitoring mechanisms, and has delivered training on international human rights law to lawyers in Mauritania, Nigeria, Colombia and Argentina. In 2019, she was named International Law Barrister of the Year by Advocate, the Bar's leading pro bono charity.
Complementing her international law practice, Jelia has a broad immigration practice and acts in appeals and judicial reviews related to asylum, human rights, deportation, trafficking, as well as unlawful detention claims. She has particular experience working with vulnerable claimants, including children and victims of torture and sexual violence.
Jelia has a particular interest in children’s rights. She represents age disputed migrant children, children in need of support and accommodation under the Children Act 1989, and unaccompanied minors seeking family reunification in the UK under Dublin III. Between 2017-2019, Jelia served as Junior Counsel to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, on the Roman Catholic Church investigation (led by Riel Karmy Jones QC).
Prior to joining Doughty Street, Jelia worked for a number of international organisations and NGOs, including the International Criminal Court, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the Centre for Justice and International Law in Argentina and the Political Prisoner’s Solidarity Committee in Colombia.
Jelia is admitted to the International Criminal Court's List of Counsel. Jelia holds a first class LLM degree in Public International Law from University College London. She is a native French speaker and is fluent in Spanish and accepts instructions in both of these languages.
"Jelia is a first-class lawyer, with a great knowledge of international criminal law, and she is passionate in her protection of the victims of international crimes." - Legal 500 2024
Jelia has a broad international criminal and human rights law practice. Selected instructions include:
Litigation and advisory
Investigations and research
Training and capacity-building
Jelia’s specialist practice spans the whole spectrum of immigration law and asylum law, including the Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights, nationality law, trafficking, EEA law, unlawful detention, deportation, immigration bail and the Immigration Rules. She regularly represents vulnerable claimants, including unaccompanied minors and victims of torture and gender-based violence, before the First-Tier and Upper Tribunals (Immigration and Asylum Chamber.
Jelia’s specialised knowledge of international criminal and humanitarian law means that she is well placed to advise on exclusion cases under Article 1(A) Refugee Convention.
Selected cases include:
Jelia has advised on public law matters in the immigration law context, including fresh claims and age disputes, as well as challenges under the Children Act 1989, and cases at the interface of domestic and international law. Reported cases include:
Since 2017, Jelia has been instructed as Junior Counsel to the Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse (“IICSA”). IICSA is a statutory inquiry established in 2014 to examine the extent to which major institutions in England and Wales have discharged their duties to protect children from sexual abuse. Jelia is involved in the investigation into the Roman Catholic Church and specifically into the prevalence of child sexual abuse and child protection failures in schools run by the English Benedictine Congregation (led by Riel-Karmy Jones QC). The Inquiry’s report into Ampleforth and Downside schools was published in August 2018 with further hearings to be held in 2019.
Jelia’s selected publications and reports include: