Dr Sabina Garahan

Biography

Dr Sabina Garahan is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in human rights and criminal law at Essex Law School and Director of the Essex Human Rights Centre Clinic. She researches, teaches, and consults in the fields of international human rights law and criminal justice. She is an expert in arbitrary detention, access to justice, and the rights of detainees under international law. Her forthcoming book on "Detention and the Right to Liberty: Addressing Gaps in Protection at the European Court of Human Rights" (Routledge 2025) has been described as "indispensable to all those who work in the field of European human rights law" and "essential reading not only for scholars of the European Convention system and of the right to liberty, but also for judges, practitioners, and all users of the system" (critics' reviews). She has won several grants including open access funding for "Detention and the Right to Liberty" from UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) and an AHRC-CHASE Doctoral Training Partnership. Sabina has also researched and consulted in the field of international humanitarian law, including providing legal analysis of detention and sexual and gender-based violence during armed conflict. As an expert consultant, Sabina has provided specialist advice and opinion on a range of human rights and access to justice issues to organisations including the OSCE/ODIHR, Penal Reform International, and the Equal Rights Trust. Within this role, Sabina has prepared and delivered legal and policy reform recommendations to representatives of several governments and judiciaries as well as civil society. Her criminal justice expertise covers prison conditions, the death penalty, pre-trial rights, and judicial and prosecutorial independence. She has been involved in two OSCE/ODIHR, UNODC and OHCHR Expert Forums on Criminal Justice for Central Asia, contributing to criminal justice policy development and reform in areas including fair trial rights and promoting gender equality within the justice sector. She has submitted evidence on immigration detention to the UK Joint Committee on Human Rights and prepared a submission evaluating rights developments for an EU Rule of Law consultation, which informed the European Commission's Member State-specific assessments in its annual Rule of Law Report. Sabina works actively to promote equality and non-discrimination in justice systems. She was commissioned by the OSCE/ODIHR to develop a Toolkit on Establishing Associations of Women Judges across the OSCE region, aimed at enhancing women’s participation in the justice sector, which she has presented and discussed in a series of expert workshops with women judges from across the world. She has delivered research and recommendations on promoting the inclusion of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in the justice sector to representatives of judicial and prosecutorial self-governing bodies, ombudsman institutions, and civil society organisations across South Eastern Europe. Before coming to academia, Sabina worked as a Judicial Assistant to former President Robert Spano at the European Court of Human Rights and as a Research Assistant at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. She is a former Editorial Board member at the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. Sabina holds an LLB in Law with French Law from University College London, graduating with a faculty prize, and a Certificat Supérieur de Droit Français et Européen from Panthéon-Assas University, Paris. She completed her LLM in International Human Rights Law at the Essex Human Rights Centre with Distinction, funded by a County of Essex Scholarship. She is a previous recipient of the iCourts/PluriCourts High-Level PhD Summer School Scholarship.

Qualifications

• PhD Law University of Essex, (2023)

• LLM International Human Rights Law University of Essex, (2016)

• LLB Law with French Law University College London, (2014)

• Certificat Supérieur de Droit Français et Européen Panthéon-Assas University, (2013)

Appointments

University of Essex

• Co-Director, Arbitrary Detention Redress Unit (1/8/2023 - 1/8/2024)

• Year 1 Student Support and Progress Lead, Essex Law School (1/8/2023 - 1/8/2024)

• Director, Essex Human Rights Centre Clinic (1/8/2024 - present)

Other academic

• Lecturer, University of Essex (23/1/2023 - present)

• Assistant Lecturer, University of Essex (8/10/2018 - present)

• Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy (4/9/2019 - present)

• Fellow, Higher Education Academy (31/1/2025 - present)