The Daily Bruin reports…
A UCLA School of Law professor will continue researching contemporary forms of racial discrimination at a broader scale at the United Nations while continuing to teach at UCLA.
The U.N. Human Rights Council appointed E. Tendayi Achiume, an assistant professor of law at UCLA, as the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in September. Achiume will begin serving in the role on Nov. 1.
The Special Rapporteur investigates cases of racial discrimination and xenophobia worldwide, conducts country visits and presents annual reports to the Human Rights Council and General Assembly.
“I don’t feel a very big break between the work that I’ve been doing before and the work I’ll be doing now,” she said. “What changes is the platform – it’s exciting to have a platform to engage in advocacy with respect to a broader audience.”
Achiume, who was born in Zambia, is the first person from southern Africa and first woman to assume this position. She said her time studying at Atlantic College in Wales sparked her interest in international law.
“There were people from all over the world and I began to get a sense of how interconnected the challenges that different people in different parts of the world face are,” she said.
She said her interest in social issues on a global scale led her to specialize in international migration and refugee rights as a lawyer.
“In a world with so much mobility … it’s really important to be having this kind of holistic approach to thinking about problems of racial discrimination … thinking about ways in which you can have meaningful honest dialogue across different perspectives,” she said.
Achiume’s legal research primarily focuses on refugees and international migration, and she also teaches courses on international law and human rights..
