Shelley Inglis is the Executive Director of the Human Rights Center and Research Professor of Human Rights and Law. She comes from the United Nations Development Programme where she held various management positions working on peacebuilding, democratic governance, rule of law and human rights and the Sustainable Development Agenda at headquarters in New York and regionally based in Istanbul, Turkey.
Prior to joining UNDP, she was in the Rule of Law Unit in the Office of the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General working on system-wide policy coordination and coherence in the field of rule of law. She has worked previously for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Her experience includes providing policy guidance and programme support to UN field presences particularly in conflict-affected and post conflict environments, lead drafting of numerous reports of the Secretary-General and policy and guidance materials of the Organization, including in relation to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and conducting a wide range of workshops and training in her area of expertise.
Prior to joining the United Nations, Shelley worked extensively on the Balkans and Turkey, in particular with Save the Children US (1994-1995) in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Amnesty International Secretariat and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) (1999-2002) in Kosovo (UNSC 1244). She has also practiced public interest family and criminal law in the United States and served as an adjunct professor at Barnard College. She is a graduate of Columbia School of Law (JD) as a Kent Scholar, and Cornell University (BA).