Business and Human Rights expert recognised by Atlas Women

Business and Human Rights expert Dr Tara Van Ho has been recognised with a profile on the prestigious Atlas Women website.

Founded in 2012, Atlas is “an active global community of female-identifying lawyers, activists, and jurists” which seeks to challenge male-domination of the legal profession and judiciary around the world.

Tara, from our School of Law and Human Rights Centre, is the first Business and Human Rights expert to be recognised with an Atlas profile, acknowledging the growing significance of this field.

In her profile, she recalls being inspired to choose a career in Law by the injustice she saw growing up in the American Midwest. Friends suffered discrimination and, when her mother fell ill, she understood the perilous position many families found themselves in, living without health insurance. 

Tara joins an illustrious cohort of women, who's work in public international law has been honoured in this way. Previous profiles include Cécile Aptel, Director of Policy, Strategy and Knowledge at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; Tirana Hassan, currently Director of Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Programme; and Judge Florence Mumba, previously an elected Judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where she also served as Vice-President, and now a Judge at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

Tara Van Ho said: "I'm really grateful and humbled that Sareta and the Atlas team have recognised our ongoing work on Business and Human Rights in this way. One thing I love about Essex is that our community of human rights academics work to ensure our research has significance in the wider world. This is really a recognition of the whole community and ethos here at Essex, and in particular the leadership of our Human Rights Centre Director, Lorna McGregor, and the founder of the Essex Business and Human Rights Project, Sheldon Leader."

Tara completed her LL.M International Human Rights Law at Essex in 2009, following up with a PhD here in 2014. Her main research interests are business and human rights, investment law and human rights, economic, social and cultural rights, and transitional justice.