Kim Thuy Seelinger is an expert on sexual violence related to armed conflict and forced displacement. She focuses on systems of legal accountability in conflict-affected settings, as well as sexual violence survivors' access to support and protection in humanitarian crises.
Seelinger is currently working with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to improve understanding of the disclosure of sexual violence in rapid migration and the treatment of intimate partner violence in asylum procedures in the Americas. She is also working with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege, PhD to support reparations for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. Her research has been incorporated into global guidance of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and practice tools used by UNHCR and war crimes investigators. Seelinger also serves on the UN High Commissioner for Refugee's Advisory Group on Gender, Forced Displacement.
Previously, Seelinger served as founding director of the Sexual Violence Program at the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley. She received numerous awards including the Women Advancing the Law Award from Women of Berkeley Law and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency.
Seelinger holds a joint appointment with the School of Law, where she is a visiting professor. She will also serve as the founding director of the Center for Human Rights, Gender and Migration within the Institute of Public Health.
