Research and career
Following her positions as a legal clerk,she was awarded a Bernstein International Human Rights fellowship to join the migrant rights project at Johannesburg's Lawyers for Human Rights. [5]
In 2014 Achiume joined the faculty at University of California,Los Angeles. [7] At UCLA,Achiume leads the International Human Rights Clinic,a programme which teaches students international human rights through clinical projects. The projects led by Achiume include providing legal support for Indigenous peoples of the Americas,legal policies in Los Angeles and incarcerated women. [8] As part of the programme,Achiume worked with Dignity and Power Now,an organisation in Los Angeles that looks to support incarcerated people and their families. She and her students looked at violations against incarcerated women of colour who suffered from mental illness. She demonstrated that these women were regularly denied physical or mental health support. [9] She chaired the 2016 American Society of International Law annual meeting. [10] In 2017 Achiume was appointed to the United Nations Human Rights Council as the UN special rapporteur on Racism,Racial Discrimination,Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. [11] She was the first woman to hold such a position. [11]
In 2018 Achiume visited the United Kingdom to study the prevalence of race crimes and how they were being exacerbated by Brexit. [12] [13] Her verdict was that the Home Office hostile environment policy had "entrenched racism" across the United Kingdom. [14] She encouraged the Government of the United Kingdom to evaluate its policies on discrimination and to investigate the criminalisation of young Black men. [15] Achiume identified that the anti-foreigner rhetoric that developed during the Leave.EU campaign was permeating society,and that austerity measures were disproportionately impacting communities of colour. [15] In particular,she pointed out that "hateful and stigmatising discourse had become 'normalised' –even involving some high-ranking officials". [16] This visit was documented in her first report to the United Nations General Assembly,in which she concluded that "ethnonationalist populism" posed a considerable threat to racial equality. [17] In 2019,she benefited of the support of UCLA which received to this end a grant from the Ford Foundation,especially for research about raising issues from the Global South. [18]
During the COVID-19 pandemic,Achiume studied the rise in racism and xenophobia that spread alongside SARS-CoV-2. [19] [20] In particular,she said that people perceived to be of Chinese or East Asian descent were subject to xenophobic attacks. [20] Achiume emphasised the need for education in combating racism,and that racial and xenophobic discrimination should become a more substantial part of education. [20]
On October 4,2023,it was announced that Achiume had been awarded the MacArthur Fellowship for her work "reframing foundational concepts of international law at the intersection of racial justice and global migration." [21]
In October 2023,Achiume signed a letter to Joe Biden condemning Israel’s bombardment and intensifying blockade of Gaza and calling for an immediate cease-fire. The letter was signed by legal scholars from some of the United States' most prestigious law faculties. [22] [23]
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