Katharine Fortin is an Associate Professor at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights. She teaches human rights law, international humanitarian law and public international law. She has published extensively on the legal framework that applies to non-international armed conflicts. Her book The Accountability of Armed Groups under Human Rights Law was published by Oxford University Press in August 2017 with a foreword by Professor Andrew Clapham. 

Katharine has worked for a broad range of national and international human rights organisations on a pro bono basis including the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone, The AIRE Centre, The Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture, UNHCR and the International Criminal Court. Katharine spent the year immediately prior to joining SIM working as the Associate Legal Officer in the Immediate Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Before moving to the Netherlands in 2006, Katharine worked as a dispute resolution lawyer in London, specialising in high court litigation, arbitration and mediation. 

Katharine graduated with a BA (Hons) from Oxford University in English Literature and English. She converted to law at City University in London in 2001 and qualified as a litigation solicitor in 2005. In 2006/7, she completed an LLM in International and European human Rights law at Utrecht University. She graduated with a Summa cum laude and was awarded the Thesis off the Shelf prize for her thesis on  sexual violence. She completed her PhD (cum laude) at the University of Utrecht with supervisors Professor Kees Flinterman (UU), Professor Terry Gill (UvA) and Professor Harmen van der Wilt (Uva).