Peace and Governance Personnel
Dr. Vesselin Popovski
Senior Academic Programme Officer, Director of Studies on International Order and Justice
Vesselin Popovski is a former diplomat (1988-1996): UN Desk Officer at the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry; and later First Secretary at the Bulgarian Embassy in London. Masters' Degrees in International Relations from Moscow Institute of International Affairs (1988) and from London School of Economics (1996). PhD from King's College, London on the methodology of analysis and classification of UN Security Council resolutions. Research Fellowship at NATO Academic Program "Democratic Institutions" (1996-98). Lecturer and Program Director at the Centre for European Studies, Exeter University, UK (1999-2002); Visiting Lecturer at King's College, London; Centre for Study of Democracy, Westminster University; Huron University (USA). Contributor to the ICISS Report Responsibility to Protect (2001) and co-author of the Princeton Principles of Universal Jurisdiction (2001). In 2002-04 worked for International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights in Moscow, implementing the European Union Project "Legal Protection of Individual Rights in Russia". Published on intervention, human rights, International Criminal Court, UN reforms. Most recent book: International Criminal Accountability and the Rights of Children (co-edited with K. Arts, Hague Academic Press, 2006).
Dr. Obijiofor Aginam
Academic Programme Officer, Director of Studies on Policy and Institutional Frameworks
Obi Aginam was educated in Nigeria and Canada. He holds law degrees from the University of Nigeria and Nigerian Law School; Master of Laws from Queen's University at Kingston, Canada, and a Ph.D. in Law from the University of British Columbia. Before joining UNU, he held a tenured academic position as Associate Professor of Law at Carleton University, Ottawa, where he taught and researched legal topics in international law, human rights, globalization, global health and environmental governance, and Third World Approaches to International Law. From 1999 to 2001, he was Global Health Leadership Fellow and Legal Officer at the World Health Organization headquarters, Geneva, where he worked on legal and regulatory approaches to global health governance. He has extensive work experience in human rights and environmental law advocacy with leading Nigerian law firms and civil society organizations.
Dr. Aginam has held numerous fellowships including the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) of New York Fellow on Global Security and Cooperation, and Fellow of the 21st Century Trust, U.K. He has been a visiting professor at the University for Peace, Costa Rica, International University of Peoples' Institutions for Peace, Rovereto, Italy, and the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He has served as international law consultant for a number of national and international agencies. He is an active member of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), and the Canadian Council on International Law (CCIL). He has been a recipient of the competitive research grant of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.
Recent Books include:
Global Health Governance: International Law and Public Health in a Divided World
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005)
(With David Fidler, Nick Drager and Carlos Correa), Legal Review of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) From a Public Health Perspective
(Geneva: World Health Organization, 2006)
(With Obiora C. Okafor), Humanizing Our Global Order: Essays in Honour of Ivan Head
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003)
In addition to numerous chapters in edited books, his publications have appeared in a number of journals including: Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Chicago Journal of International Law, American Society of International Law (ASIL) Proceedings, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, North Carolina Journal of International Law & Commercial Regulation, New England Journal of International and Comparative Law, Temple Law Review, Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce, Law, Social Justice and Global Development, Yearbook of International Environmental Law, and many others.
Dr. Madoka Futamura
Academic Programme Officer, Director of Studies on Human Rights and Ethics
Madoka Futamura was educated in Japan and the UK. She holds a Ph.D. in War Studies from King's College London, and also holds an M.Sc. in International Relations from London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA in Law from Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan). Before joining UNU in January 2008, she was a Visiting Research Fellow with the War Crimes Research Group at King's College London and taught courses related to international relations at Doshisha University. She has also received a RIPS-CGP Fellowship from the Research Institute for Peace and Security (Tokyo, Japan).
Dr Futamura's research interests include multidisciplinary subject areas such as transitional justice, war crimes trials, international peace and security. Her works include: War Crimes Tribunals and Transitional Justice: The Tokyo Trial and the Nuremberg Legacy (Routledge, 2008); (co-eds with James Gow) Dark Histories, Brighter Futures? The Balkans and Black Sea Region― European Union Frontiers, War Crimes and Confronting the Past [Special Issue for Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, Vol.7, No.3, 2007]. She has also contributed chapters for several books on human rights and international society: 'Kokusai Hōteino Mokutekito Kinō: Nyurunberukuno Isanto Ikōkino Seigi no Kyōkun' (Strategic Purposes of International War Crimes Trials: the Nuremberg Legacy and Lessons of Transitional Justice), in Toru Oga and Yoneyuki Sugita (eds.), Kokusaishakaino Igito Genkai: Riron, Shisō, Rekishi (Kokusai Shoin, forthcoming); 'Adohokku Kokusai Keijisaibanshoto Posuto Reisenjidaino Kokusai Anzen Hoshō' (International Criminal Tribunals and Post-Cold War International Peace and Security), in Ajia-Taiheiyō Jinken Jōhō Sentā, (ed.), Ajia-Taiheiyō Jinken Rebyu 2005 (Tokyo: Gendai Jinbunsha, 2005).
Dr. Morten B. Pedersen
JSPS-UNU Postdoctoral Fellow
Morten B. Pedersen is a JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) - UNU Postdoctoral Fellow for 2006-08. He holds a Ph.D. in Politics and International Relations from Australian National University, as well as M.A.s in Southeast Asian Studies from University of Hull in the UK and in Political Science from University of Aarhus, Denmark.
From 2001-06, he worked as Senior Analyst for the International Crisis Group and Consultant on Myanmar politics and development issues for the UN, the World Bank and the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum. He has also participated widely in international conferences and policy briefings for international organizations and governments, and has contributed to two reviews of European Union policy on Myanmar.
His research interests focus on international promotion of human rights, encompassing peace, democracy, good governance and socio-economic development, in Myanmar and globally. He is the author of a forthcoming book, Promoting Human Rights in Burma (Myanmar): A Critique of Western Sanctions Policy, as well as a numerous academic papers and policy reports on contemporary Myanmar politics and international relations.
Dr. Nyo Nyo Thinn
JSPS-UNU Postdoctoral Fellow
Nyo Nyo Thinn is a JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) - UNU Postdoctoral Fellow for 2007-08. After graduating from Yangon University, Myanmar, Dr. Thinn studied under the Legal Studies and Development Program (JICA/YNU) at Yokohama National University in Japan and obtained an LLM in International and Business Law. In 2006, she received a Doctor of Laws at Yokohama National University.
Since 2003 she has widely participated in international conferences on legal assistance in Asia, particularly for the empowerment of women. She is the first Myanmar legal scholar who introduced law and development study to legal education in Myanmar. Before joining UNU, Dr. Thinn taught Business Law and International Law in universities in Myanmar, including Yangon University. During the JSPS-UNU fellowship programme, she will pursue her research on global governance and international legal order.
Her recent publications include The 'Right' to Democracy and Good Governance in International Law (Yokohama Law Review, Jan 2005), The United Nations; Democratization and Its Discontents (Yokohama Social Science Journal, Jan 2006), The Quest for Gender Justice; Introduction to Legal Status of Women in Myanmar (Yokohama Law Review, Jan 2006), and Legal System in Myanmar and Foreign Legal Assistance (Keio Law Journal, May 2006).
Mr. Nicholas Turner
Research Assistant
Nicholas Turner completed his M.A. in International Relations from the University of Kent in the UK, having previously obtained his Bachelors Degree in Computer Science and Business Administration from the same university. He has worked for local government and charities in the UK, and also at the NES Study Abroad Centre in Tokyo as Chief of European Affairs. His specific research interests lie in human rights and ethics, focusing in particular on just war theory, the universalism/cultural relativism debate, the Responsibility to Protect, and assessing the legal and ethical justifications of human rights derogations.
Ms. Yoshie Sawada
Programme Administrative Assistant
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Page last modified 2008.03.25.
