Current Students
Class of 2024
Ángel Muñoz Carpintero (Honduras) is a human rights lawyer and an Associate Human Rights Officer (Rule of Law and Accountability Unit) at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Honduras, where he worked since 2019. He graduated in 2021 from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, having won various national and regional human rights Moot Courts in Honduras, as well as the award for Best Written Argument at the 24th Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Competition at American University in Washington DC. He also previously taught anthropology, ethics, and religion at the Instituto Tecnológico Taular to secondary-level students. He currently works in the investigation and documentation of serious human rights violations, especially torture and extrajudicial executions cases, open source investigations, persons deprived of their liberty, human rights monitoring and reporting and access to justice for victims.
Nourhan Fahmy (Egypt) is an early to mid-career Egyptian lawyer and investigative journalist, who also engages in international affairs policy research and human rights collaborative work with Egyptian civil society organizations. She graduated summa cum laude (with two degrees, one in economics, one in honors political science focusing on international relations) from the American University in Cairo, with honors/good standing in her law degree from Cairo University, and with her Master's in Global Affairs from the University of Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs. She has been Research Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute, Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Bassem Sabry Democracy Fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, and reporter, journalist, researcher, archivist, in various news organizations in Cairo, Egypt since 2014.
Nikola Donev (North Macedonia) holds an LL.B from the Faculty of Law "Iustinianus Primus" in Skopje where he was also engaged as a teaching assistant of International Public Law. Additionally, he worked as a program assistant at the Faculty's Center for Refugee and Migration Center where he implemented programs related to refugee rights and migration in cooperation with UNHCR North Macedonia and the International Institute of Humanitarian Law of Sanremo, Italy. Nikola has also worked at the National Democratic Institute (NDI) office in North Macedonia and interned at various organizations in North Macedonia.
Before coming to Notre Dame he worked at the Institute for Democracy "Societas Civilis" - Skopje (IDSCS) focusing on research regarding the work of the Assembly of North Macedonia in the framework of the Parliamentary Support Programme funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Nikola's academic interests are in the field of International Public Law, International Human Rights Law and Constitutional Law with a focus on minority rights, international dispute resolution, conflicts of identity and post-conflict reconciliation and transitional justice.
Lehlohonolo January (South Africa) is an early career South African lawyer who worked as Law Clerk to Justice Z. Tshiqi of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, which awarded him the 2023-2024 Franklin Thomas Fellowship to attend the Notre Dame Law School LLM Program in International Human Rights Law. Prior to that he worked as a Law Researcher for the Supreme Court of Appeal in South Africa. He also received his Master of Laws from the University of Cape Town in 2023, and his Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Western Cape in 2019. Throughout his undergraduate studies, Lehlohonolo received various student awards (overall winner of the UP LexisNexis moot court competition and the UWC First Year Moot, Advanced Leaders Programme, Canon Collins Educational and Legal Trust Scholarship), and worked at the UWC Law Clinic as a Student Consultant wherein he consulted with clients, took instructions and drafted legal documents on behalf indigent clients who could not afford legal services.
Zalwango Racheal Sanyu (Uganda) is a Ugandan lawyer by profession having graduated with Honors from Makerere University in 2020. In 2022, she graduated with Honors from Law Development Centre with a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice.
Racheal's passion for the criminal justice system has seen her interning with the Directorate of Public Prosecutions in Uganda (2020-2021) and later working as a Consulting Analyst with Grundstein Consult Limited - Uganda (2021-2023).
In her capacity as a consulting analyst, she worked on cross-cutting research projects in the area of human rights and criminal justice with different organizations like the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Women, Avocats San Frontiers Uganda, DefendDefenders, National Democratic Institute, the National Association of Women Judges (Uganda), Penal Reform International, International Development Law Organization, and the InterGovernmental Authority on Development.
As a consulting analyst at Grundstein Consult, she led all the field consultancies in regards to election violence, transnational security, environmental human rights defence, conflict related sexual violence, sexual and gender based violence, as well as transitional justice. Racheal's field experience with victims of gross human rights abuses and violations majorly informed her interest in pursuing international human rights studies, and as such, she won a fully funded scholarship from the University of Notre Dame for the pursuit of her LL.M in International Human Rights Law.
Valentina del Sol Salazar Rivera (Colombia) is a Colombian lawyer interested in International Human Rights Law and the Criminal Justice System Reform. She works as Legal Advisor to Justice Humberto Sierra Porto at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights since 2019, as well as Instructor and Researcher at the Criminal Law Department (and formerly also the Constitutional Law Department) of the Universidad Externado de Colombia.
Valentina graduated first in her class (1st out of 148 students) at the Universidad Externado de Colombia in 2019, receiving the Lauro Maximum, the highest recognition for a graduating student of the University. As a law student, she was a research assistant at the Center for Criminal Policy and the Center of Philosophy and Law and was part of the team who won the 5th International Criminal Court Moot Competition in the Netherlands.
After graduating from Law School, she joined a constitutional law boutique firm as an associate, advising public institutions on how to comply with international human rights obligations and presenting cases before the Constitutional Court. She was also a legal intern at both the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), Colombia's transitional justice tribunal, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Valentina was awarded the P.E.O International Peace Scholarship.
Andres Succar Cuellar (Colombia) is a senior Colombian lawyer with 14 years of legal experience, serving since 2018 as UTL Advisor to the Congreso de la Republica de Colombia, Camara de Representantes, responsible for the drafting and legal analysis of much of Colombia's legislation in all areas impacting civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. Among various leadership positions held in the Colombian public sector, he was Advisor to the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Directorate of Colombia's Ministry of Defense, and Collaborator Ad Honorem at the Office of Judge Magistrate Manuel Jose Cepeda in Colombia's Constitutional Court. He has also taught as Adjunct Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and practiced law as private counsel. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (2008), a Master of Laws (2016), and a Master in Public Policy (2015) from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia.
Vitaliy Kosovych (Ukraine) is an early career Ukrainian lawyer, having graduated in 2022 with high honors from the Master of Law Program at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (where he received the Presidential Scholarship and the Lviv City Mayor's Recognition and spent two exchange semesters at Vienna University, Austria), also graduating in 2020 from the School of German Law organized by IRZ with Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. In 2023, he graduated from the Master of Law and Business Program at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany and studied in a non-degree program at Central European University in Vienna, Austria. For 4 months he was a corporate team intern at Allen&Overy Law Firm in Hamburg. He remains a volunteer at Rotaract Club Lviv International and a current Head of the Legal Department of the Youth Council of Lviv Regional State Administration. He works on human rights protection, social entrepreneurship, foreign investment and corporate management, and international arbitration.
Felipe Lyon Errazuriz (Chile) is an early-mid career Chilean lawyer and professor, serving since 2021 as Constitutional Law and Legal Theory Professor at the Universidad San Sebastian, in Santiago. He was former Director of the Constitutional Studies Program and Director of the Public Service Area at Fundacion Jaime Guzman. He received his Bachelor's Degree in Law in 2017 from the Pontificia Universidad Católica De Chile (with two votes of distinction), and his Master's Degree in Political Studies from Universidad de los Andes in Santiago, Chile in 2020. From 2020 Felipe served as an advisor of different congressmen, specially in constitutional related issues. The last 3 years he has worked drafting a new Chilean Constitution, this year as an advisor of the expert commissioner Carlos Frontaura Rivera, in the Commission of Constitutional Principles, Civil and Political Rights.
Oluwaseun Ojo (Nigeria) is a passionate human rights lawyer pursuing an LLM in International Human Rights Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School where she is also a graduate student affiliate at the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights under the Keough School of Global Affairs. Oluwaseun is also a member of the Nigerian Bar Association and the American Society of International Law.
Oluwaseun graduated from the Nigerian Law School in 2019 with First Class Honours and was a recipient of the Director- General's prize from the Council of Legal Education, Nigerian Law School. She obtained her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from Ekiti State University, Nigeria, where she graduated as the overall best graduating student of the 2018 law class. Oluwaseun is interested in the intersection between business and human rights, civil rights, prisoner’s rights, international and development law.
From 2021 till present, Oluwaseun has been an active lawyer for the Headfort Foundation, working on pro bono cases involving indigent accused persons, prisoners’s rights, reintegration and reabsorption of ex-inmates into the society post release. She also worked for Matrix Energy Limited where she ensured compliance with environmental best practices. Prior to this, she had previously worked as an associate in the law firm of Perchstone and Graeys, one of the top law firms in Lagos Nigeria, where she worked on labour rights. Oluwaseun is committed to the advancement of human rights.
Marah Bany Nasr (Jordan), is an early career Jordanian lawyer, (focusing on family law, labor rights law, and civil rights law for the past six years), who previously worked as a Liaison Officer at the Jordanian Red Crescent, a Legal Advisor for NASEEJ Foundation for Sustainable Development, and collaborated on youth empowerment projects with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Marah is a member of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Jordanian Bar Association. Her achievements include winning at the 2019 Regional Youth and Technology Conference for her innovative app addressing blackmail cases. Active in the Jordanian Ministry of Youth, she participated in a Moroccan cultural exchange, contributed to the Phi Research and Innovation Summit, and remains part of the Jordanian Political Institute for Youth Leadership.
Marah contributes to legal awareness campaigns via Mercy Corps’ Governance Support and Youth Voice Empowerment Project, She leads collaborative efforts with Mercy Corps for Jordanian youth via the “We are all Responsible” initiative, and contributes to initiatives addressing extremism via the King Abdullah II Fund for Development. Marah also played a key role in refining Jordanian local administrative law through the “Our Decision Matters” partnership with the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Bibi Wahida Rahimi (Afghanistan) was a Judge of the Primary Court, Hearing Violence Against Women and Juvenile Delinquencies in Panjshir, Afghanistan, receiving her J.D. in Judicial and Prosecutorial from the Supreme Court of Afghanistan in Kabul in 2017, and her Bachelor of Laws Degree from Kabul University. Since the Taliban's takeover Bibi Wahida left Afghanistan, moved to Germany, and kept her affiliation with Max Planck foundation, as an Afghan scholar, Later on she moved to Canada and started working as a Research Associate at University of British Columbia Peter Allard School of Law, where she worked on the role of women judges in Afghanistan’s judicial system, undertakes research projects focused more broadly on women and the law and the experience of women judges, and delivers lectures on topics related to Afghanistan’s judicial system, the experience of women judges within this system (and in particular in the context of the recent regime change in 2021), and issues relating to women and the law in Afghanistan. Right now Bibi Wahida is undertaking an LLM program on Human rights at the University of Notre Dame.
Major Chrissy Auburg (USA) is an active duty judge advocate in the U.S. Army and a candidate for a Master of Laws in Criminal Law. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Major Auburg graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Texas A&M University and served as a company commander in the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets. She earned her Juris Doctor in 2013 from St. Mary's School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. She entered active duty in 2014, and has held the following duty positions: prosecutor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, defense counsel at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, special victims' counsel and senior military advisor at Fort Cavazos, Texas (formerly Fort Hood), and national security law and administrative law attorney at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Major Auburg moved to the South Bend area with her husband, Clay, and daughter, Diana.