Minerva LAW Career Talks — Professor Alicia Ely Yamin

Minerva LAW Career Talks host accomplished women in legal research and beyond. The events provide a safe space for the speakers to share their journeys and insights and to inspire and guide fellow women researchers in the Max Planck Law network. In this session, Professor Alicia Ely Yamin will be happy to answer any questions in relation to her career as a woman in legal academia.

Professor Alicia Ely Yamin, JD, MPH, PhD is a globally recognised leader in health and human rights law, with a career spanning academia, advocacy, and policy reform. Her work is renowned for its emphasis on linking economic and social rights, reproductive justice, the right to health, and the intersections between development paradigms and human rights.
She is the Director of the Global Health and Rights Project at the Petrie-Flom Centre for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Professor Yamin also serves as an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and as a Senior Adviser on Human Rights and Health Policy at the global health justice organisation, Partners In Health.

A Visiting Professor of Law in Buenos Aires, she has lived and worked extensively in Latin America and East Africa, collaborating with local advocacy organisations. In 1999, she co-founded a health and human rights programme within the Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos in Lima, Peru.

Professor Yamin has advised the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, and other global institutions and was appointed by the UN Secretary-General to the Independent Accountability Panel for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health under the Sustainable Development Goals (2016–2021). She has authored and edited numerous books, UN reports, and academic articles on reproductive justice, health rights, and social equity.

Her legal expertise in health and sexual and reproductive rights is regularly sought by international and domestic courts, including the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. She has also played a pivotal role in health system reforms, most notably in Colombia.

Professor Yamin holds a Juris Doctor and a Master’s in Public Health from Harvard University, as well as a Doctorate in Law from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. This brief biography reflects only selected highlights from her exceptional and wide-ranging career.

This event is mainly organized by Irene Carlet, researcher at Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy and member of the organising committee of the Minerva LAW Network.