Rebecca Hamilton

Rebecca Hamilton is an Australian human rights activist, writer, and lawyer. As an Open Society Fellow, Hamilton is writing a book critically examining the impact of the Darfur advocacy movement. Her work draws on her experience as special assistant to the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, as well as her central role in founding the Darfur Action Group and the Genocide Intervention Network.

Hamilton's research weighs the costs and benefits of a mass-movement approach to human rights advocacy, and looks at how to bridge the gap between the concerns of rights activists and national governments. She will also assess the prospects for creating a permanent constituency against genocide.

A Knox fellow and graduate of Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Hamilton was managing editor of the Harvard Journal of Human Rights. In 2007, she was selected as a Global Young Leader on Genocide Prevention and has worked with internally displaced populations in Sudan.

Hamilton's writing on advocacy against mass atrocity has appeared in the International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe, and Sydney Morning Herald, as well as in the book War in Darfur and the Search for Peace (Harvard University Press).