Rachel is Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Bristol and the Director of its Human Rights Implementation Centre, as well as an independent consultant. She undertakes regular work on the African human rights system, implementation of human rights decisions, monitoring places of detention and torture prevention, among other areas, and has written extensively in this areas.
She has experience submitting cases in particular to the UN special procedures, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, amicus briefs before the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights and engaging regularly with the UN and regional human rights bodies, and providing training for members of the judiciary in central and eastern Europe.
She advises national, regional and international organisations as well as governments and individuals on international human rights law and undertakes consultancies for the OSCE, UN, and human rights organisations such as the Danish Institute for Human Rights, CEELI Institute, Amnesty International, Open Society Foundations, among others.
Her recent work includes:
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Drafting Reparations Guidelines for the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
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Developing a framework for monitoring prisons in UK Overseas Territories and a human rights-based approach to one of its prisons
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Developing guidance for the UK National Preventive Mechanism on preventive approaches to monitoring
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Collaborating with the Pretoria Centre for Human Rights and Pan-African Parliament to develop a Model Law on the implementation of African human rights bodies decisions
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Developing a MOOC for African judiciaries, on the African human rights system, in collaboration with the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the University of Pretoria Human Rights Centre
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Consultancies on national human rights institutions, including: Interactions between National Human Rights Institutions and National Mechanisms for Implementation, Reporting and Follow-up, with the Danish Institute for Human Rights, an analysis of African national human rights institutions and a rights-based approach to the implementation of the SDGs; and baseline studies on NHRIs and litigation in Africa.
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With other members of Chambers and the University of Nottingham, delivering online training on the UN human rights system
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Influencing, through amicus briefs before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, its judgment on reparations in the Ogiek case (African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) v. Republic of Kenya (App.006/2012)), relating to the eviction by Kenya of the Ogiek minority ethnic group from the Mau Forest, their ancestral home.
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Developing training manuals on strategic human rights litigation in Cameroon
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Evaluating the revised Standing Orders of the National Assembly of the Gambia, with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK
Her torture prevention work includes collaborating with independent bodies who visit places of detention, including national preventive mechanisms. She has been involved in developing a governance model and strategy for the South African Human Rights Commission, in collaboration with African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum (APCOF); analysing the implementation of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture’s recommendations with respect to Scotland; designing options for Ireland in ratifying OPCAT; and providing advice to the UK NPM, and international bodies. Rachel was a consultant to the UN Independent Expert on the rights of older persons on her report on older persons in situations of deprivation of liberty and she has also developed training on torture prevention for, most recently, lawyers in Cameroon, and prosecutors in Uzbekistan.
Rachel is also Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford and an Academic Affiliate of its Bonavero Institute, a Distinguished Fellow and Visiting Professor at the University of Notre Dame and Fellow of the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex. She was formerly the Vice Chair of the Board of the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa. She is a magistrate sitting in Bristol.
