Ghuna Bdiwi has been recruited as part of the collaborative research project “Changing Orders: Shaping the Future and Securing Rights in a World in Transformation”, funded by the Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue and awarded to the Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC), the Refugee Hub, the Institute for Science, Society and Policy (ISSP) and the Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS).
She will work under the supervision of HRREC Director, Professor John Packer, and Refugee Hub’s Managing Director, Professor Jennifer Bond, to study how to secure fundamental human rights in the face of challenges to the rules-based international order.
Ghuna Bdiwi is a lawyer and a human rights activist, with legal practice experiences in both Syria and Canada. In Syria, her practice focused on cases that involved arbitrary detention and torture of political detainees, while in Canada her legal work focuses on refugee and immigration law. Her legal work and activism are internationally recognised; the United Nations Special Envoy to Syria nominated her to be a member of the Syrian Constitutional Committee that is mandated to draft a new Constitution for Syria. Ghuna has a Ph.D., LL.M. (research), LL.M. (common law) from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, and a Master’s in International Banking and Finance from Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV, France.