Two new SIM fellows
The Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) at Utrecht University welcomes two new fellows: Jessica Dorsey and Elmin Omičević.
Jessica Dorsey is an Assistant Professor of Education in International and European Law, an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism—The Hague, the Managing Editor of the international law weblog Opinio Juris and an executive board member of Airwars.
Her research and teaching focus on issues at the intersection of international human rights law, international humanitarian law and counterterrorism. She works with colleagues across the Utrecht School of Law in establishing a Legal Skills Academy focusing on integrating and improving skills-based initiatives for law students and teachers, including community-engaged learning plans and programs that promote a human rights approach (such as the TIC-to-TIC program).
She has previously held research-based positions for non-governmental organizations and academic research institutes and has advised the European Parliament, European Commission, the United Nations and various other governmental and non-governmental organizations on the use of drones. Her most recent publication was for Chatham House on ensuring transparency and accountability for military drone use.
Elmin Omičević is the new Managing Editor of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights and a PhD candidate in transnational law enforcement and fundamental rights at the Utrecht Centre for Regulation and Enforcement in Europe (RENFORCE) and the Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology at Utrecht University.
Elmin’s doctoral research focuses on the external dimension of European agencies and bodies operating in the EU’s Area of Freedom, Security and Justice and, more specifically, questions the extent to which these actors can be held accountable for human rights violations committed in cooperation with countries outside the EU.
This research – supervised by Cedric Ryngaert and Michiel Luchtman – suits Elmin’s interest in the precarious relationship between the effective fight against crime and the respect for fundamental rights. Further academic interests include international justice and the Western Balkans region, the position of minorities in society – whether they be ethnic, sexual or gender minorities – and the power of both human rights and criminal law to enhance that position. These themes merge well in Elmin’s scholarly article on hate crimes against LGBT people in the Netherlands, published by the Netherlands Journal for Human Rights (NTM) in 2020.