Melanie O'Brien

Last updated
Melanie O'Brien
Education Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws, doctorate, master's degree   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Alma mater
Employer
Position heldPresident of IAGS (since 2021) [1] [2] [3]

Melanie O'Brien is a legal scholar specialising in relations between sexual and gender-based violence against women, atrocities such as genocide and international human rights law and international humanitarian law. [4] [3] Since 2022 or earlier she has been an associate professor at the University of Western Australia. [2] [5] O'Brien has been the president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars from 2021–2025. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Education

O'Brien obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and French and a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Newcastle in Australia, and a Masters degree in international human rights law at Lund University in Sweden. [2] In 2010, she obtained her PhD in international law from the University of Nottingham in the UK, for research studying whether national or international jurisdiction for criminal accountability" for sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers against women would be more effective. O'Brien's conclusion is that national level criminal procedures would be "far more likely and far more effective". [6]

O'Brien's fields of research include the relations between sexual and gender-based violence against women, atrocities such as genocide and human rights. [4]

O'Brien has been an amicus curiae for the International Criminal Court, which has cited her forced marriage research. [5] [3]

Career

Since 2022 or earlier, [2] and as of 2025, [5] O'Brien holds an associate professor position in international law at the University of Western Australia. [2] [5] O'Brien was a research fellow at the Sydney Jewish Museum in 2022. [2] In 2023, she was a visiting fellow at the University of Loughborough. [2] During 2023–2025, she held visitor positions at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Law School Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota. [3]

O'Brien has been the president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars during the 2021–2023 and 2023–2025 electoral terms. [1] [2] [3]

Points of view

In June 2022, together with Noelle Quinevet, O'Brien argued that toxic masculinity has been characteristic of the Soviet Union/Russian army for 70 years, citing Joseph Stalin's description of Soviet soldiers' rapes of 50,000 to 100,000 German women in 1945 as "having fun" and arguing that the pattern of rape by Russian soldiers during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was part of an ongoing pattern. O'Brien and Quinevet recommended that the International Criminal Court investigation in Ukraine cover these crimes in its investigations and prosecutions, emphasizing the role of gender. They argued that past impunity for sexual violence by Russians, "in conflict and peacetime, [created] a culture of acceptance for violence against women." [4]

In June 2025, O'Brien stated that the Gaza genocide satisfied the genocide definitions of the international Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute. She stated that genocidal intent was established by "clear expressions of intent" by Israeli leaders' statements "about destroying Gaza and starving its population" as well as "patterns of conduct, including indiscriminate bombings, mass casualties, the destruction of healthcare and essential infrastructure, and the denial of humanitarian aid [including] deliberate denial of water, food, medicine, shelter, and healthcare". O'Brien stated that "even if self-defence is invoked [by Israel against the October 7 attacks], that does not justify genocide. There is no legal defence for genocide under international law." [7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Nominees for 2021-2023 IAGS Executive Board and Advisory Board, International Association of Genocide Scholars, 10 June 2021, Wikidata   Q136257503, archived from the original on 13 September 2025
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Melanie O'Brien, University of Minnesota, 2025, Wikidata   Q136231977, archived from the original on 7 September 2025
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Meet the Scholar: Dr Melanie O'Brien, American Bar Association, 21 August 2024, Wikidata   Q136233687, archived from the original on 7 September 2025
  4. 1 2 3 Melanie O'Brien; Noelle Quenivet (8 June 2022), Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Women in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict, EJIL: Talk!, Wikidata   Q136232076, archived from the original on 7 September 2025
  5. 1 2 3 4 Dr Melanie O'Brien, Loughborough University, c. 2023, Wikidata   Q136233254, archived from the original on 7 September 2025
  6. ↑ Melanie O'Brien (21 September 2010), National and international criminal jurisdiction over United Nations peacekeeping personnel for gender-based crimes against women (PDF), Wikidata   Q136254278, archived (PDF) from the original on 5 July 2024
  7. ↑ Sondos Asem (5 June 2025). "Israel committing genocide in Gaza, says top legal scholar Melanie O'Brien". Middle East Eye . Wikidata   Q136232084. Archived from the original on 6 June 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.