Emilia Kowalewska (MA Cantab) LLM is an independent expert/consultant on human rights and a PhD researcher at the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Graduate School of Social Research.

She is an accredited project manager (PRINCE2) with over 15 years of professional experience, most recently with the University of Warsaw and University of Amsterdam. At the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, she conducted independent research within the Department of Global Security and Strategic Studies and the Department of Studies on Elites and Political Institutions (2019–2022). 

She holds a Law Degree from the University of Cambridge, an LL.M. degree in International Human Rights Law (magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame), and an M.A. in Society & Politics (with merit from the University of Lancaster). 

Following previous posts in London, Brussels and New York, she worked for several years as a human rights and anti-trafficking expert at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. She has conducted research at the European University Institute in Florence (2021-22) and is a Board Member of the IPSA Research Committee on Political Finance and Political Corruption. Her research on constitutionalism, transitional justice and collective memory has been published by Cambridge University Press and leading socio-legal journals. Recent research assignments have covered: the protection of freedom of association in the jurisprudence of national courts; the role of civil society actors in combating sexual and gender-based violence in the OSCE region; the potential impact of EU conditionality on Ukraine’s future constitutional reforms.