2019 International Postgraduate Fellowships
Meher Dev ’19 LL.M. Awarded Global Public Service Fellowship at Madre (New York)
Undergraduate Degree: B.A. and LL.B. in arts and law from Jindal Global Law School
Experience: Trilegal, associate; chambers of Indira Jaising, senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India, advocate; Lawyers Collective, on deputation; Centre for Constitutional Law, Policy and Governance, National Law University Delhi, research and teaching fellow; Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic, teaching assistant; Human Rights Institute Student Advisory Committee; Human Rights Clinic Working Group on Diversity, Equality, and Full Participation; Columbia Law School If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice, board member; research assistant to Columbia Law School Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw
Motivation: “I came to Columbia to develop skills of international and transnational human rights advocacy. By working with Madre, which shares my goal of infusing domestic advocacy with the power of international advocacy, I will build on these skills by supporting Iraqi women’s groups’ advocacy at United Nations forums and the International Criminal Court. Struggles that women’s groups are facing to provide humanitarian assistance and healing for survivors of violence, to secure justice, and to hold ISIS accountable for gender-based persecutions resonate with struggles of my Sikh community members who faced conflict-related abuse during India’s partition and the Sikh genocide—many of them still awaiting justice and healing, and also resonate with my modern day struggles of supporting women’s groups advocacy for gender justice in India.”
Goals: “With the support of this fellowship, I will be able to develop key skills and experience to realize my vision of setting up a clinic in India that engages in international and transnational advocacy to support women and community-led human advocacy in Asian countries facing conflict and gender-based violence.”
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The office of Social Justice Initiatives (SJI) guides Columbia Law School students who want to pursue public interest work throughout their academic careers and after graduation. SJI also assists in the process of applying to prestigious postgraduate fellowships. Read about other 2019 international public interest postgraduate fellows.
Published April 26, 2019