International Lawyer & Human Rights Specialist bridging the gap between global legal standards andactual practice in AI Governance.
I am a PhD-trainedinternational lawyer with seven years at the UNHCR managing high-stakes legalprotection across Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt, Malaysia, and South Sudan. Whetheradvising state delegations, drafting operational frameworks, or leadingemergency teams on the frontline, my career has been about applyingaccountability frameworks to decisions with irreversible consequences for real people.
That experience taught meexactly what happens when the gap between legal standards and actual practicegoes unaddressed. Today, I see that exact same structure emerging in artificial intelligence.
Drawing on publicinternational law, the law of armed conflict, and international treaties, I ampivoting my background into the tech policy space to ensure this powerfultechnology remains safe, ethical, and bound by meaningful accountability.
To prevent systemicfailures, we must build frameworks that act simultaneously across four distinctdimensions:
Community Empowerment & Literacy: Translating complex AI risks into accessible knowledge so local communities are empowered to understand and challenge technology impacting their rights.
Private Sector Accountability: Bridging the gap between legal ideals and corporate execution, ensuring AI deployers proactively prevent fundamental human rights violations.
National Policy & Regulation: Shaping Aotearoa New Zealand’s regulatory landscape to learn from global models while uniquely integrating Māori values, principles, and data sovereignty into national governance.
Global Architecture & Diplomacy: Positioning New Zealand to lead on treaty-based state cooperation—addressing the international security dimensions of advanced AI with binding, state-to-state agreements that support the Global South.
Operational Leadership: Proven track record of managing multinational, multidisciplinary teams, including the direct supervision of 6 to 15 staff members and serving on executive hiring committees.
Rigorous Research & Scholarship: Experienced international researcher and former Assistant Editor for Oxford University Press (Refugee Survey Quarterly), specialized in analyzing dense legal frameworks under tight institutional constraints.
Comparative Regulatory Analysis: Deeply analytical approach to mapping international policy, recently applied to intersecting the operational impacts of the EU AI Act with US, Chinese, and the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence framework.
Policy-to-Practice Translation: Demonstrated capability in turning high-level legal standards into practical tools, including drafting standard operating procedures (SOPs) and processing strategies deployed across five global UNHCR operations.
High-Level Strategic Advisory: Experienced in direct, state-level diplomacy, having advised sovereign government delegations from Chile and Argentina on international legal compliance.
An Emerging Footprint in NZ Tech: Actively establishing roots in the New Zealand policy landscape through advanced study in AI law (LSE), local engagement with AISANZ, aligning with collaborative domestic advocacy like Regulate AI NZ, and a recent policy submission on the Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill.
