Clara Sandoval joined the Global Survivors Fund (GSF) as Director of Programmes in 2021. A qualified lawyer and leading expert on reparations, human rights, and transitional justice, Clara is an honourary professor at the University of Essex, a founding member of the Essex Transitional Justice Network, and the former Director of the Essex Human Rights Centre. She has worked on cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and has served as an expert on reparations in cases involving sexual violence before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Clara’s work with survivors of conflict-related sexual violence has focused on domestic reparation programmes in countries like Ukraine, Colombia, Peru, Iraq, Guatemala, and Chile. Clara’s extensive list of publications on reparation, including for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, are regularly cited and consulted in the sector.
In 2017, she was appointed by the ICC as one of four experts to advise on reparations in the Jean Pierre Bemba case. She has also served as an expert on reparations before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in landmark cases like Jineth Bedoya Lima and Other v. Colombia, The Patriotic Union v. Colombia, Collen Leite and Others v. Brasil and in the case of Ramos Durand and Others v. Peru. Clara has also worked as a consultant for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and she provided advice on transitional justice to the Ministry of Justice in Colombia during the peace negotiations with the FARC.
Clara has an MA and PhD from the University of Essex and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.