Rosa Celorio, Associate Dean for International and Comparative Legal Studies and Burnett Family Professorial Lecturer in International and Comparative Law and Policy, has been appointed by American Society of International Law (ASIL) President Catherine Amirfar to serve as Chair of ASIL’s Membership Committee and Next Generation Initiative.
“The American Society of International Law is a cornerstone institution and major convener in the area of international law. It has a paramount role in disseminating knowledge and promoting discussion of contemporary issues in this field, “said Associate Dean Celorio. “It will be an honor to serve ASIL in this capacity. I very much look forward to opening new avenues to promote membership engagement, and the development of a new, vibrant, and diverse generation of international law experts and practitioners who will continue the work of ASIL.”
GW Law has a rich and diverse curriculum in international and comparative law and a world-renowned faculty with strong ties to many public and private actors who apply international law daily, including government entities, law firms, non-profits, and international and regional organizations. Associate Dean Celorio’s appointment further illustrates the law school’s strength in this area and will benefit GW Law students as they continue to learn from her about the latest developments in international and comparative law.
“This is a very important role as the Society seeks to cultivate new members, including students, and to develop programs of interest to them,” said GW Law Professor and former ASIL President Sean D. Murphy. “It also demonstrates how Associate Dean Celorio is highly valued in her field in terms of substantive knowledge, leadership, interpersonal skills, and creative thinking.”
At GW Law, Associate Dean Celorio teaches Regional Protection of Human Rights, International Human Rights of Women, and Fundamental Issues in U.S. Law. She joined the law school in 2018 after having worked for more than a decade as a Senior Attorney at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS) in several leadership roles.
She has worked in the fields of international human rights law, intersectional discrimination, and gender issues for the United Nations Development Fund for Women in New York and Ecuador; and as a lawyer in the law firms of Murphy, Hesse, Toomey and Lehane in Boston and O’Neill & Borges in Puerto Rico. She has also acted as an advisor for several global initiatives implemented by various United Nations Special Rapporteurs, Working Groups, and Human Rights Treaty Bodies.
Among her recent activities, Associate Dean Celorio is currently serving as the International Human Rights Dispute Resolution Authority between the Maya Indigenous Peoples and the government of Belize. She is also serving as a Senior Advisor to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in the drafting of its new General Recommendation on Indigenous Women and Girls. In addition, she joined the OAS electoral mission to Costa Rica to observe the 2020 elections as a senior gender expert and was an invited professor at the Masters of Human Rights Law of the University of Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile, in 2020.
She is the author of numerous law review articles and a textbook on international human rights law and has received many awards for her work in this area. She is also the author of the upcoming book Women and International Human Rights in Modern Times: A Contemporary Casebook, to be published by Edward Elgar Publishing. Associate Dean Celorio is from Puerto Rico.