Evelyn Aswad is a Professor of Law and the Herman G. Kaiser Chair in International Law.  She is also the Director of the Center for International Business and Human Rights.  Professor Aswad serves on the Advisory Committee on International Law to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Legal Adviser. Professor Aswad was named outstanding faculty member by College of Law students in 2014 and received the university-wide David L. Boren Award for Outstanding Global Engagement in 2016.

Prior to joining the College of Law, Professor Aswad served for about 14 years as an attorney in the Legal Bureau at the U.S. Department of State, most recently as the head of the Office of Human Rights and Refugees.  She advised senior officials on a wide range of international human rights law matters, including issues involving freedom of expression online, the assessment of foreign laws and practices with respect to human rights obligations, issues at the intersection of international business and human rights, U.S. ratification of human rights treaties, human rights litigation in U.S. courts, issues involving mass atrocities and accountability, and matters arising in multilateral fora, such as U.S. participation at the United Nation’s (UN) Human Rights Council and its Universal Periodic Review process.

She served as legal adviser for U.S. delegations in a variety of multilateral fora, including the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, the UN Human Rights Council, the Organization of American States, the OSCE Annual Human Dimension Implementation meeting, and the delegation presenting the U.S. Periodic Report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination as well as the delegation presenting the first US Universal Periodic Review report to the UN.  She received superior honor awards for advancing international human rights through bilateral and multilateral diplomacy.

In a previous legal position at the State Department, she worked on nuclear non-proliferation matters providing legal advice on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), various regional nuclear weapon free zone treaties, and nuclear safeguards agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including serving as legal adviser for U.S. delegations at IAEA and NPT conferences.

She taught international human rights law and multilateral negotiations to U.S. diplomats at the Department’s Foreign Service Institute.  In addition, she taught international courses as an adjunct professor at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service as well as its Law Center.  Prior to joining the State Department, she worked at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter and clerked for the Honorable Arthur J. Gajarsa at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C.