Kingsley Abbott joined the ICJ in January 2014. He works under the Legal and Policy Office and is based in the Asia & Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok, Thailand. He worked for the United Nations as a Senior Legal Officer at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia and a Trial Counsel in the Office of the Prosecutor at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Hague. He also practiced as a criminal barrister in New Zealand where he worked alongside a leading Queens Counsel, appearing in the District Court, High Court and Court of Appeal on numerous matters for both the defence and prosecution including several trials where the charge was murder. He was admitted to the New Zealand Bar in 2002 and holds a conjoint degree in law and philosophy from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Reema Omer – Senior Legal Adviser, South Asia
Reema is a lawyer from Pakistan. She did an LLM specializing in public international law at the University of Cambridge in 2009. She was awarded the Commonwealth Pegasus scholarship in 2010 where she worked in barristers’ chambers in London on human rights cases. Reema joined the ICJ in 2011 as a South Asia consultant and since 2013 has served as ICJ’s International Legal Adviser for Pakistan, based in Lahore. Reema is a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and writes regularly for national and international publications on issues of human rights, the rule of law and social justice.
Maitreyi Gupta – Legal Adviser, India
Maitreyi has been serving as the International Legal Advisor-India at the ICJ since December 2017. Prior to joining the ICJ, among others, she worked at the International Secretariat of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women in Bangkok, the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York, and the Lawyers Collective in New Delhi. She completed her LLM from the University of Pennsylvania Law School as the University of Pennsylvania Human Rights Scholar, Inlaks Scholar, as well as the PEO International Peace Scholar. She holds a B.A.LLB degree from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, graduating in 2009. She is admitted to the Indian Bar.
Mishika Singh – National Legal Consultant, India
Ruth Panjaitan – Legal Adviser, Indonesia
Ruth Panjaitan joined International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in October 2018 as the Legal Adviser, where she managed the legal component of the Access to Justice for Women project in Indonesia. Ruth has worked in the area of human rights law, gender justice, and program management for over 7 years. Prior to ICJ, she was the Program Officer in the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) and in 2014, she was the Access to Justice Officer in the Changes for Justice (C4J)– USAID Project, where she led the advocacy for the revision of the Legal Aid Regulation that was successfully approved by the Supreme Court. She was awarded a scholarship by law school of La Trobe University Australia in 2009 and graduated with cum laude predicate from law school of Universitas Pelita Harapan Indonesia in 2011. Ruth loves to sing and play a classical piano.
Kashiram Dhungana – Legal Adviser, Nepal
Kashiram is working on ICJ Nepal’s Right to a Remedy and Reparation (R2R) Project. Prior to joining ICJ, he worked at Advocacy Forum Nepal as a Human Rights Lawyer / District & Regional Focal Person on Transitional Justice, Criminal Justice & Torture Prevention for nine years. He is a lawyer and has practiced law in the courts of Nepal. He has a Bachelor degree in Law and a Master degree in Political Science from Tribhuwan University, Nepal.
Sanhawan Srisod – Legal Adviser, Thailand
Sanhawan is a lawyer with background in international humanitarian law and experience working on humanitarian issues in the violence-plagued deep south of Thailand with the ICRC. She also worked on an Australia- Asia Program to Combat Trafficking in Persons to strengthen national and regional (ASEAN) capacity of criminal justice responses to human trafficking. She has also worked with a number of organizations dedicated to helping refugees and asylum seekers in Thailand, i.e. UNHCR and Asylum Access. She also worked in a law firm and was heavily involved in several high profile international cases. She got her LL.M. in Public International Law from Leiden University, the Netherlands, and her LL.B. in Laws from Ramkhamhaeng University, Thailand.
Daron Tan – Associate Legal Adviser, Southeast Asia
Daron joined the ICJ in January 2021, implementing the ICJ’s work on digital rights and internet freedom in Southeast Asia. He previously led a team of lawyers at Asylum Access Thailand as a frontline legal aid provider to refugees and asylum seekers. He has also previously worked with and consulted for ILGA World, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Center for Asylum Protection. He holds a BA (Jurisprudence) from the University of Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours as an Ann Kennedy Scholar, and an LL.M from Columbia Law School, graduating as a Global Public Service Fellow and Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
Cholticha Romruen – International Finance Officer, Asia & Pacific
Cholticha (Nong) initially joined ICJ as a Senior Finance Officer and was subsequently promoted to International Finance office for Asia and Pacific Region. Before joining ICJ, she was worked as Senior Accountant at International Union Conservation of Natures (IUCN) and private sector in Thailand. She hold Master degree in Management from Ramkhamhaeng University, Thailand and Bachelor degree in Accounting from Bangkok University, Thailand.
Nawawan Petchwattana – Human Resources and Grants Officer, Asia & Pacific
Nawawan joined the ICJ as an Administration Officer in June 2012. Her prior work experience includes working as an Administrative Associate at the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and as a Secretary in the Consular Section of the Turkish Embassy in Thailand. Nawawan holds a Master of Arts in Labor Economics and Human Resources Management from Chulalongkorn University and Bachelor of Arts degree from Ayutthaya Rajabhat University.
Pooja Shah – Administration Assistant & Logistics Officer, South Asia
Pooja joined the ICJ in Kathmandu in May 2010. She has a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Tribhuwan University and a Masters degree in Business Administration from Pokhara University. Prior to joining ICJ, she worked as an intern at Nabil Bank Limited and Himalayan Bank Limited.