Ewelina Ochab, Program Lawyer, International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute

Ewelina U. Ochab is a lawyer, human rights advocate, and author. She is a programme lawyer with the IBA’s Human Rights Institute and a cofounder of the Coalition for Genocide Response. Her work centers on genocide, focusing on the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities around the world, including the Daesh genocide in Syria and Iraq, Boko Haram atrocities in West Africa, and the treatment of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, Uyghurs in China, Tigrayans in Ethiopia, and Hazara in Afghanistan. Ochab has also been raising awareness of abductions and illegal adoptions of Ukrainian children in Russia. She has written over 30 reports for the UN (including Universal Periodic Review reports) and has made oral and written submissions at the Human Rights Council, the UN Forum on Minority Issues, PACE, and other international and regional forums. Ochab authored the initiative and proposal to establish the UN International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief on August 22.